first_published_at,last_published_at,title,slug,latest_revision_created_at,charges,legal_orders,updates,categories,links,equipment_seized,equipment_broken,targeted_journalists,authors,date,exact_date_unknown,city,state,latitude,longitude,body,introduction,teaser,teaser_image,primary_video,image_caption,arrest_status,arresting_authority,release_date,detention_date,unnecessary_use_of_force,case_number,case_statuses,case_type,status_of_seized_equipment,is_search_warrant_obtained,actor,border_point,target_us_citizenship_status,denial_of_entry,stopped_previously,did_authorities_ask_for_device_access,did_authorities_ask_about_work,assailant,was_journalist_targeted,charged_under_espionage_act,subpoena_type,subpoena_statuses,name_of_business,third_party_business,legal_order_target,legal_order_type,legal_order_venue,status_of_prior_restraint,mistakenly_released_materials,type_of_denial,targeted_institutions,tags,target_nationality,workers_whose_communications_were_obtained,politicians_or_public_figures_involved 2024-03-13 15:50:29.887146+00:00,2024-03-28 19:15:22.472950+00:00,"Freelancer forcibly removed, press badge taken at Israeli conference in NYC",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelancer-forcibly-removed-press-badge-taken-at-israeli-conference-in-nyc/,2024-03-28 19:15:22.356382+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,press identification: count of 1,Caroline Haskins (Freelance),,2024-03-04,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"
Freelance reporter Caroline Haskins was asked by a security guard to leave shortly after recording pro-Palestinian protests at an Israeli tech conference in New York City on March 4, 2024, and was then shoved out, her press badge yanked from her neck, she told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
Haskins, who described the encounter at a midtown Manhattan conference center to the Tracker and in an article for the independent New York outlet Hell Gate, said that the guard came up to her while she was tweeting about the protests. He asked who she was and when Haskins identified herself as a freelance reporter, he told her to leave.
After Haskins asked the security guard why she was being removed, she said the guard responded, “I don’t know, management just told me to remove you,” and advised her to reach out to the event organizers for an explanation.
She then started filming the encounter, but said that the security guard grabbed her phone out of her hands. Haskins immediately took it back, and he then clutched both of her arms, brought them behind her back, and pushed her out of the conference hall from behind. As he did, she said he reached for her conference pass lanyard, which was caught in the cords of her headphone cord, and yanked it off before shoving her out the door.
Haskins later contacted conference organizers to ask about her ejection. She tweeted March 12 that she received a response from a spokesman, who said: “I understand there was turmoil during the TED Talk of Google’s CEO, and security took those people out. I guess that they took out everyone who filmed it and thought they might be a part of this.” She wrote that the spokesman apologized for the delay in response and for her experience, and added that he had “asked for details about what really happened.”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaking March 4, 2024, at a New York City conference on the Israeli high-tech industry. Reporter Caroline Haskins was forcibly removed from the event after tweeting about interruptions by protesters.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private security,None,None,False,False,None,None,private security,yes,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"Israel-Gaza war, protest",,, 2024-02-14 19:15:58.370624+00:00,2024-03-14 16:11:57.370802+00:00,"Podcaster arrested, assaulted at NYC protest",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/podcaster-arrested-assaulted-at-nyc-protest/,2024-03-14 16:11:57.248975+00:00,obstruction: resisting arrest (charges dropped as of 2024-03-04),,(2024-03-04 16:42:00+00:00) Charge dropped against podcaster following arrest at NYC protest,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Damage",,,recording equipment: count of 2,Reed Dunlea (Scene Report),,2024-02-10,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"Journalist Reed Dunlea was tackled and arrested while reporting on a pro-Palestinian protest in New York City on Feb. 10, 2024. Police officers threw Dunlea to the ground, damaging his equipment, and charged him with resisting arrest.
“It was a 1 p.m. protest. I arrived by 1:30 p.m. and I was in a police van by 2:15 p.m.,” he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
Dunlea said that he was at the protest outside the Brooklyn Museum, which had been planned by the Palestinian-led community organization Within Our Lifetime, to record audio for his podcast, Scene Report. Shortly after arriving, Dunlea saw a small group of protesters in a shouting match with a white-shirted supervisory police officer.
When he approached to record the interaction, Dunlea said the officer screamed at him to get on the sidewalk. “I showed him my press pass in that moment and he was still bugging out, so I stepped away from that pretty quickly,” Dunlea told the Tracker.
As New York Police Department officers conducted multiple rounds of arrests — going into the crowd, extracting individuals and handcuffing them — Dunlea said he tried to stay on the edge of the police line.
“And then I was somehow in the middle of it,” Dunlea said. “I don’t know exactly what happened, but all of a sudden I had a group of officers throwing me to the ground.”
In footage captured by bystanders and posted to social media, at least three officers can be seen dragging Dunlea into the middle of the street before pinning him on his stomach. Dunlea told the Tracker he repeatedly identified himself as a journalist and told the officers he was wearing a city-issued press credential.
Both Dunlea’s Zoom H6 recorder and Apple headphones were damaged in the course of the arrest, and he said he hadn’t checked whether his microphone was broken as well. He also noted that the audio he was recording during the arrest is missing, but he is unsure whether it was deleted or if it failed to save when the recorder was damaged.
Dunlea was transferred to One Police Plaza alongside the other individuals detained at the protest and was held until shortly after midnight, when he was released on a charge of resisting arrest.
“In the last month, NYPD has started to crack down in serious ways on any Palestine protests, because the NYPD was humiliated by the protests on January 8,” Dunlea said, referring to the successful blockading of the Holland Tunnel and multiple bridges into Manhattan by pro-Palestinian protesters. “I’m seeing the mayor of New York City and the NYPD making a decision that they no longer accept protests happening, so they are choosing to violently suppress them.”
The New York Civil Liberties Union criticized the police response to the protest in a statement posted to social media. “Flooding peaceful protests with police,” it noted, “seems designed to create tension and provoke arrests.”
The New York Police Department did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
Dunlea was ordered to appear for a preliminary hearing on March 1.
Journalist Reed Dunlea was arrested while recording for his podcast, Scene Report, at a pro-Palestinian protest in New York City on Feb. 10, 2024. Officers threw him to the ground, breaking his recording equipment, and charged him with resisting arrest.
",arrested and released,New York Police Department,2024-02-11,2024-02-10,True,None,[],None,None,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"Israel-Gaza war, protest",,, 2024-02-14 20:29:52.987531+00:00,2024-02-14 20:29:52.987531+00:00,Alabama radio station ceases transmission after broadcast tower stolen,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/alabama-radio-station-ceases-transmission-after-broadcast-tower-stolen/,2024-02-14 20:29:52.705116+00:00,,,,Equipment Damage,,,"broadcast tower: count of 1, radio transmitter: count of 1",,,2024-02-02,False,Jasper,Alabama (AL),33.83122,-87.27751,"A 200-foot AM radio tower for Jasper, Alabama, broadcaster WJLX was stolen “without a trace” on Feb. 2, 2024, according to the station.
“I’ve been around the business my whole life, I’ve been in it professionally for 26 years and I’ve never heard of an entire tower being stolen,” WJLX General Manager Brett Elmore told Birmingham television station WABM.
WJLX, which is now unable to broadcast on its AM frequency, said it has since had to shut down its broadcast operations entirely, including its FM station. The Federal Communications Commission told WJLX on Feb. 8 that it could not operate its FM transmitter while the AM station is off the air. It will continue to stream its programming only via the internet and its apps, it said.
Elmore has also filed a request with the FCC for WJLX to remain silent for now without losing its license, The Washington Post reported. The paper said if stations remain silent for more than one year, the FCC considers them expired.
The station’s absence was a cause for worry for Sharon Tinely, president of the Alabama Broadcasters Association, who told WABM, “What if there were a crisis going on right now that the community needs to hear information from local sources on a local radio station and they can’t.”
“This is a huge loss,” Elmore told the Guardian. “People have reached out and asked how they can help, but I don’t know how you can help unless you have a 200ft tower and an AM transmitter.”
The tower was uninsured, according to Elmore, and replacing it could cost $60,000-plus. WJLX has set up a GoFundMe account and so far raised over $8,000.
That station said it was alerted to the theft when a landscaping cleanup crew arrived at the tower site to clean up the property, only to find it completely cleared out by the thieves. “I couldn’t believe it,” Elmore recalled.” I asked him [the landscaper] if he was sure he was at the right place. He responded, ‘the tower is gone. Wires are scattered everywhere.’”
The radio tower was located in a wooded area, behind a local poultry plant, The Guardian reported. Elmore told the paper that thieves had cut the tower’s wires and somehow removed it, while also taking the station’s AM transmitter from a nearby building.
Elmore said he believes the thieves may have targeted the tower to sell the metal and also told The Guardian that about six months ago, a nearby radio station had its air conditioning unit, copper pipes and other materials stolen.
The station has filed charges with the Jasper Police Department and the case is currently under investigation.
“This is a federal crime and whoever did this it’s not worth your time, effort or energy,” Elmore told WABM. “Because when we find you, you are going to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
WJLX’s AM radio tower disappeared on Feb. 2, leaving behind a concrete slab and cut wires.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,unknown,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],WJLX,robbery,,, 2024-02-20 21:21:49.266022+00:00,2024-02-20 21:21:49.266022+00:00,"Two arrested after Oklahoma radio tower toppled, section stolen",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/two-arrested-after-oklahoma-radio-tower-toppled-section-stolen/,2024-02-20 21:21:49.193620+00:00,,,,Equipment Damage,,,broadcast tower: count of 1,,,2024-01-15,False,Hugo,Oklahoma (OK),34.01066,-95.50968,"Two individuals allegedly knocked over KITX’s FM radio tower and stole a section of the structure on Jan. 15, 2024, forcing the Hugo, Oklahoma, station off the air for 10 days, according to the broadcaster.
Will Payne, president of Payne Media Group, which owns the station and the tower, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the top half of the nearly 500-foot tower fell after the two suspects cut the guy-wires supporting it. Payne said he believes the suspects cut the bottom half into pieces and carried them into a vehicle. The theft caused more than $500,000 in damage, he added.
“We’re hunting down somebody that brought down a tower in order to get a little hundred-dollar fix of copper,” Payne was reported to have said at the time of the theft. “Seriously, that’s about all it’s going to be worth to them.”
The Choctaw County Sheriff’s Office arrested two suspects on Jan. 18, according to the station’s Facebook page, after they sold copper from the tower to a nearby junkyard the day after the theft. One suspect is currently being held on a $500,000 bond, while the other has since been released, Payne told the Tracker.
Payne said that when he first saw the red and white tower on the ground, he assumed it was brought down by ice or inclement weather. But once he saw the open door to the transmitter building, he knew something was seriously wrong.
“I had never heard of this as a criminal act. It’s always weather related,” Payne told the Tracker. “To be honest, … that’s why we have insurance.”
The country music station was able to get back on the air at half power just 10 days after the theft, thanks to community and industry support, Payne said.
“(Tower builders) were able to build four 20-foot sections of tower in four days, which is unheard of,” he said. “That’s a very, very aggressive timeline to get back on the air. We’re half the tower, half the power.”
Payne said some listeners may have more difficulty accessing the radio station because of the weaker signal. He added that he hopes that the station will be able to operate at full power again in the next 90 days.
KITX is not the only radio station that has recently seen its tower stolen and damaged. In early February, an AM radio tower in Alabama mysteriously vanished. That station is still unable to broadcast and is unsure whether it will be able to rebuild its radio tower because it was uninsured.
Since going public, Payne said he had heard similar stories from a number of internet service providers of their towers being destroyed or vandalized.
“It’s a horrible trend,” Payne said.
The upper half of KITX’s radio tower is seen after being knocked over on Jan. 15, 2024, in Hugo, Oklahoma. The bottom half was stolen and its parts sold for copper.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],KITX,robbery,,, 2023-12-21 22:07:35.696923+00:00,2024-01-30 15:45:58.924928+00:00,"Vandal throws brick, shattering glass door at Oregon daily",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/vandal-throws-brick-shattering-glass-door-at-oregon-daily/,2024-01-30 15:45:58.828091+00:00,,,,Equipment Damage,,,building: count of 1,Unidentified journalist 10 (Grants Pass Daily Courier),,2023-12-08,False,Grants Pass,Oregon (OR),42.43933,-123.33067,"The Grants Pass Daily Courier newsroom in Oregon was vandalized on Dec. 8, 2023, when an unknown person threw a brick — marked with a vulgar message naming a member of the newsroom — through the glass entrance doors to the building.
The Courier reported that an employee was working in the building when at around 10:45 p.m. they heard a loud bang and shattering glass. The employee called 911 and police found that a brick had smashed through one of the front doors, as well as a separate glass pane in the vestibule.
Courier Editor Scott Stoddard told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the attack caused approximately $1,500 in damage to the building, which the newspaper has occupied for nearly 75 years. Police are still investigating the vandalism.
The newspaper is not releasing the details of the message or the name of the journalist in order to avoid further targeting, Stoddard said. He added that staff had met to review safe locations and exits, in case of a future attack.
“We are not a sleepy newspaper, we cover local topics aggressively,” he told the Tracker. “There are multiple factions in town that are not happy with the paper because of the level of reporting we do.”
The Courier also quoted Stoddard as saying, “I want to assure our readers that we are not going to be silenced by anyone who tries to intimidate us or infringe on the press freedoms that are guaranteed by the First Amendment.”
A brick was thrown through the front doors of the Grants Pass Daily Courier in Oregon on Dec. 8, 2023. A vulgar message directed at a specific Courier journalist was scrawled on the brick, which caused approximately $1,500 in damage.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,,,, 2023-11-20 21:30:28.746156+00:00,2023-11-20 21:30:28.746156+00:00,"Czech TV reporter, cameraman robbed at gunpoint in San Francisco",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/czech-tv-reporter-cameraman-robbed-at-gunpoint-in-san-francisco/,2023-11-20 21:30:24.861796+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,"miscellaneous equipment: count of 1, recording equipment: count of 4",Bohumil Vostal (Česká Televize),,2023-11-12,False,San Francisco,California (CA),37.77493,-122.41942,"A Česká Televize (Czech Television) reporter and photojournalist were robbed at gunpoint while filming a report in San Francisco, California, on Nov. 12, 2023.
Correspondent Bohumil Vostal told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker via email that he and photographer Milan Nosek were recording across the street from City Lights Bookstore in the city’s North Beach neighborhood. Shortly before 5 p.m., three masked men got out of a car with weapons drawn and ordered them to hand over their equipment.
“One of them told me ‘not to make any problems’ or something like that,” Vostal said. “It was all so shocking we could not even react.”
Vostal said more than $19,000 of equipment was lost, including the crew’s video camera, a GoPro, multiple camera lenses, external batteries, SD cards, microphones and tripods.
“The worst is we lost material we filmed about San Francisco,” Vostal said. Footage from a tour around the city and interviews with a representative of the Transgender District and a gallery owner were lost.
The journalists quickly called the police and filed a report, but were forced to purchase replacement equipment in order to refilm and to cover the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit taking place in San Francisco at that time. Vostal told the Tracker the experience did impact how they approached their reporting.
“We were concerned about our safety afterwards and so we made our [live shots] for the Czech TV News Channel only with the police behind us or nearby our hotel,” he said.
The San Francisco Police Department told the San Francisco Standard that its robbery unit was investigating. SFPD did not respond to a request for additional information.
Česká Televize (Czech Television) reporter Bohumil Vostal and his cameraman were robbed at gunpoint in San Francisco, California, on Nov. 12, 2023, losing $19,000 in equipment and their footage, including of the Painted Ladies landmark pictured above.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,yes,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,robbery,,, 2023-11-20 21:30:09.600764+00:00,2023-11-20 21:30:09.600764+00:00,"Czech TV cameraman, reporter robbed at gunpoint in San Francisco",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/czech-tv-cameraman-reporter-robbed-at-gunpoint-in-san-francisco/,2023-11-20 21:30:04.684146+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,"camera: count of 2, camera equipment: count of 11, camera lens: count of 2, equipment bag: count of 1, external battery: count of 3, miscellaneous equipment: count of 1, storage device: count of 2",Milan Nosek (Česká Televize),,2023-11-12,False,San Francisco,California (CA),37.77493,-122.41942,"A Česká Televize (Czech Television) photojournalist and reporter were robbed at gunpoint while filming a report in San Francisco, California, on Nov. 12, 2023.
Photographer Milan Nosek and correspondent Bohumil Vostal were recording shortly before 5 p.m. across the street from City Lights Bookstore in the city’s North Beach neighborhood when three masked men approached them. With weapons drawn, the men ordered the journalists to hand over their equipment, Vostal told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker via email.
Vostal said more than $19,000 of equipment was lost, including the crew’s video camera, a GoPro, multiple camera lenses, external batteries, SD cards, microphones and tripods. Footage from a tour around the city and interviews with a representative of the Transgender District and a gallery owner were lost as well.
The journalists quickly called the police and filed a report, but were forced to purchase replacement equipment in order to refilm and to cover the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit taking place in San Francisco at that time.
The San Francisco Police Department told the San Francisco Standard that its robbery unit was investigating. SFPD did not respond to a request for additional information.
Česká Televize (Czech Television) photographer Milan Nosek and reporter Bohumil Vostal were robbed at gunpoint in San Francisco, California, on Nov. 12, 2023, losing $19,000 in equipment, including the camera he is seen carrying earlier that day.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,yes,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,robbery,,, 2023-11-08 21:22:11.263920+00:00,2023-11-08 21:22:11.263920+00:00,Photojournalist says phone snatched at drag performance protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-says-phone-snatched-at-drag-performance-protest/,2023-11-08 21:13:23.039249+00:00,,,,Equipment Damage,,,cellphone: count of 1,Kelly Stuart (Independent),,2023-10-25,False,San Fernando,California (CA),34.28195,-118.43897,"Independent photojournalist Kelly Stuart’s phone was allegedly stolen by a protest organizer while she was using it to record a demonstration at a library in San Fernando, California, on Oct. 25, 2023.
Approximately 50 people had gathered outside the San Fernando Library to protest a “Drag Queen Story Hour” with performer Pickle, The San Fernando Valley Sun reported. The protesters blocked the entrances to the library and the event was ultimately canceled.
Stuart, who publishes her photos on her website and social media, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she has been reporting on the protest group Leave Our Kids Alone for the past year. She saw the group post a social media call to protest at the library and came to document the gathering.
As police attempted to escort Pickle into the library, Stuart said the protesters crowded together shoulder to shoulder to prevent the performer’s entry. Stuart continued to document the scene, holding her cellphone aloft, when a man she identified as one of the organizers behind the protest group suddenly turned and grabbed the phone from her hands.
“I tried to get it. I kind of jumped across his body and put one arm over his shoulder and I reached but he took the phone and put it down on his right side,” Stuart said.” I don’t know whether he threw it or passed it off to someone, but it was gone.”
Stuart told the Tracker that police witnessed the altercation and briefly detained both of them, took down their information and released them. She attempted to file a police report about the theft of her phone that day and ultimately was able to do so the following day.
The San Fernando Police Department acknowledged via email the Tracker’s request for a copy of the report, but did not provide one as of press time.
Stuart told the Tracker that the day her phone was taken, she “bricked” it, or rendered it unusable, because it contained reporting notes and source communications.
“I’m lucky that I was given a phone [after the theft], because if I was not I wouldn’t be able to report right now,” Stuart said. “Even if I’m not uploading those videos, for my safety I usually mount my phone to my camera. I wouldn’t go out and shoot without a phone.”
Protesters surround drag performer Pickle at the San Fernando Library in California on Oct. 25, 2023. Photojournalist Kelly Stuart, who captured this image, had her phone snatched from her hand shortly after, while filming the protest.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"LGBTQ+ rights, protest, robbery",,, 2023-10-16 18:51:15.422638+00:00,2024-03-14 16:09:06.343488+00:00,"Freelance journalist harassed, press badge briefly stolen at pro-Israel rally",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-journalist-harassed-press-badge-briefly-stolen-at-pro-israel-rally/,2024-03-14 16:09:06.236708+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,"miscellaneous equipment: count of 1, press identification: count of 1",Talia (Jane) Ben-Ora (Freelance),,2023-10-08,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"Freelance journalist Talia Ben-Ora, who also publishes under the name Talia Jane, was assaulted, harassed and her press credentials briefly stolen while reporting on a pro-Israel rally in New York, New York, on Oct. 8, 2023.
Ben-Ora told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she was documenting two rallies in Manhattan. After filming and publishing excerpts from a pro-Palestinian rally, she said she headed to a rally in support of Israel rally that was scheduled for later in the day.
Within minutes of arriving at the demonstration, Ben-Ora said she was recognized by two men who began harassing her, calling her “bitch,” “cunt” and “terrorist.” One of the men also deliberately tripped her, she said.
While some individuals tried to stop the harassment, the men drew supporters by claiming that Ben-Ora supports Hamas, the extremist organization that had launched an attack on Israel on Oct. 7, citing her coverage of the pro-Palestine rally earlier that day. Ben-Ora called the assertions “heinous slander,” and a deliberate attempt to provoke the crowd to violence.
Ben-Ora said that New York Police Department officers intervened and ushered her toward the rally crowd, where she attempted to conduct interviews. The individuals harassing her followed, however, and officers told her that she needed to leave the area and escorted her up the block.
In footage Ben-Ora captured while walking away from the demonstrations, multiple individuals can be seen shouting at her to leave as officers attempted to keep them away from her.
“I didn’t feel like the NYPD that had responded was successfully keeping anybody away from me,” Ben-Ora said. “So I was walking backward to make sure that no one ran up and tried to do anything.”
Amid the chaos, a woman grabbed Ben-Ora’s press credentials out of her hand and walked away with them, but an officer was quickly able to retrieve them, she said. Ben-Ora continued to walk away from the demonstration, but shortly after she got on a nearby sidewalk, she was once again surrounded.
In her footage, the group can be seen shouting at and filming Ben-Ora and a woman appears to repeatedly smack her cellphone, attempting to rip a cord from it or knock it from Ben-Ora’s hands.
A portable charger and its attached cord fell out of her pocket, Ben-Ora said, and when she attempted to retrieve them the individuals stomped and stood on them. She told the Tracker she was able to eventually pick up the items and leave the area after police officers intervened. The items still work, she said, but sections of the protective coating of the cord were scrapped off.
“I was there to actually try and report on both sides of the story and I was prevented from doing that,” she said.
Freelance journalist Talia Ben-Ora films New York Police Department officers interceding after she was harassed and assaulted while she reported on a pro-Israel demonstration in Manhattan on Oct. 8, 2023. Her press credentials were also briefly stolen.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,yes,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"Israel-Gaza war, protest, robbery",,, 2023-08-31 19:39:21.677053+00:00,2023-10-27 21:03:14.202440+00:00,"Univision photographer, reporter robbed at gunpoint in Chicago",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/univision-photographer-reporter-robbed-at-gunpoint-in-chicago/,2023-10-27 21:03:14.045674+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,camera: count of 1,Unidentified photojournalist 31 (WGBO-DT),,2023-08-28,False,Chicago,Illinois (IL),41.85003,-87.65005,"A Univision news crew was robbed at gunpoint in Chicago, Illinois, on Aug. 28, 2023, while reporting on a spike in armed robbery in the city’s North Side. A broadcast camera and the journalists’ personal belongings were taken but the station said they were uninjured, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The photographer and reporter were preparing to do a live shot in the neighborhood of Wicker Park shortly before 5 a.m. when two vehicles approached them, the Tribune reported. The Chicago Police Department told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that three individuals donning ski masks and displaying firearms robbed them. The police said that the incident is under investigation and no arrests have been made.
Univision Chicago Vice President of News Luis Felipe Godinez told the Tribune that the journalists were uninjured, though equipment was taken.
“Mainly it was personal items, and they took a camera,” Godinez said, adding that the station is not identifying the journalists in order to protect their privacy.
When contacted by Block Club Chicago, the reporter — who asked to remain anonymous — confirmed that the camera was the only item of value stolen and called the robbery “total irony.”
“As a journalist, you never want to be the story, right? You’re reporting on the story but you never think that you can become the story,” he said. “So I guess it’s another reminder of how important it is to keep doing these stories and to keep pressure on our local authorities to try to prevent more events like that.”
The incident was the second robbery of journalists in Chicago in less than a month — a WLS-TV photographer was assaulted and robbed while preparing to cover a news conference on Aug. 8, the station reported.
Raza Siddiqui, president of the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians Local 41, which represents TV photographers in Chicago, told the Chicago Sun-Times that the union is arranging a safety meeting for members to voice concerns about the dangers they are increasingly facing.
“We want to make sure that we provide a longer-lasting solution, that we work not only with management but our members, and make sure that we read some protocols that everyone is happy with and feels can be a workable solution,” Siddiqui said.
Some Chicago news stations have begun to implement additional security measures in the meantime, Siddiqui added, including hiring security for some TV crews.
Motorists and pedestrians navigate the Wicker Park neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois, in this 2020 file photo. A Univision news crew was robbed at gunpoint on Aug. 28, 2023, while preparing for a live shoot in the area.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,yes,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,robbery,,, 2023-09-29 13:02:22.586486+00:00,2024-02-15 18:21:23.606509+00:00,"Cameraman hit by village vehicle, municipal employee arrested",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cameraman-hit-by-village-vehicle-municipal-employee-arrested/,2024-02-15 18:21:23.393991+00:00,,,(2024-02-07 00:00:00+00:00) Charge dropped for Missouri municipal worker who hit cameraman with vehicle,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,camera: count of 1,Wade Smith (KTVI),,2023-08-11,False,Hillsdale,Missouri (MO),38.68338,-90.284,"KTVI-TV cameraman Wade Smith was struck and seriously injured by a Hillsdale, Missouri, municipal vehicle on Aug. 11, 2023, with the village’s top official in the passenger seat. The station reported that Smith required emergency surgery and was recovering at home. The vehicle’s driver — an employee of the suburban St. Louis village — was arrested in connection with the incident in early September, it added.
Smith and reporter Mitch McCoy were investigating reports that municipal governments were towing individuals’ vehicles from their driveways due to expired tags or the absence of a village sticker, according to KTVI.
When the pair went to Village Hall to interview Dorothy Moore, the chair of the Board of Trustees who functionally serves as mayor, the chief of police informed the journalists that she wasn’t there. An hour later, Smith saw Moore leaving the hall through the back door.
Smith and McCoy followed as Moore climbed into a public works truck and slid into the passenger seat as the municipal employee got behind the wheel, KTVI reported. As he drove away at the urging of Moore, Smith was run over by the trailer attached to the truck and fell to the ground.
An accident report filed about the incident stated that the Hillsdale worker saw Smith on the ground as they drove away, but told police he didn’t know Smith had been hit, according to KTVI.
Smith also dropped the camera when he was struck, but the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker was not immediately able to confirm the extent of the damage to the equipment.
Smith’s attorney Chet Pleban confirmed to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Smith’s tibia had been broken and that he was rushed to a hospital for emergency surgery.
“It’s a pretty sad day when a reporter or a cameraman is run over by a vehicle simply because an elected official doesn’t want to talk to them,” Pleban said.
The Associated Press reported on Sept. 8 that the municipal worker had been released pending a prosecutor’s review to decide whether to pursue charges.
Neither Smith’s attorney nor KTVI responded to requests for comment.
In its broadcast about the incident, KTVI-TV reported that photographer Wade Smith (not pictured) was seriously injured in Hillsdale, Missouri, when a public works truck pulling a trailer struck him on Aug. 11, 2023.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,public figure,None,None,False,False,None,None,public figure,unknown,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,,,, 2023-08-31 19:40:00.280489+00:00,2023-10-27 21:04:08.301555+00:00,"WLS-TV photographer assaulted, phones stolen, vehicle damaged",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/wls-tv-photographer-assaulted-phones-stolen-vehicle-damaged/,2023-10-27 21:04:08.180114+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,"cellphone: count of 2, vehicle: count of 1",Unidentified photojournalist 30 (WLS-TV),,2023-08-08,False,Chicago,Illinois (IL),41.85003,-87.65005,"A photographer for WLS-TV was assaulted and robbed while preparing to cover a press conference in the East Garfield Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, on Aug. 8, 2023.
CWBChicago reported that the photographer was approached at approximately 2 p.m. by two men asking for money. When the journalist replied that he didn’t have any, one of the men tried to grab his phone. The photographer pushed the man away and put his phone into a vehicle from the news station’s fleet, but the man then shoved him to the ground.
The Chicago Police Department told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the victim, who they did not identify, was able to run away. The second man broke the vehicle’s window and took two phones from inside before both men fled the scene.
WLS confirmed that one of its photographers was assaulted and robbed, reporting that he was “fine and suffered only minor scrapes.” The station’s general manager did not respond to an emailed request for additional information.
The Chicago police said that the incident is classified as an attempted strong-arm robbery with theft, simple battery and criminal damage to a vehicle, and is still under investigation.
Less than three weeks later, a Univision Chicago news crew was also robbed, this time at gunpoint, and one of the station’s cameras was taken.
Raza Siddiqui, president of the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians Local 41, which represents TV photographers in Chicago, told the Chicago Sun-Times that the union is arranging a safety meeting for members to voice concerns about the dangers they are increasingly facing.
“We want to make sure that we provide a longer-lasting solution, that we work not only with management but our members, and make sure that we read some protocols that everyone is happy with and feels can be a workable solution,” Siddiqui said.
Some Chicago news stations have begun to implement additional security measures in the meantime, Siddiqui added, including hiring security for some TV crews.
The Moundville Times reported that an unknown individual fired a bullet through a window of the newspaper’s office in Moundville, Alabama, in early May 2023. The office was empty at the time and no one was injured.
The Times reported that the shooting happened sometime between May 3 and May 7. On May 7, Editor Travis Vaughn noticed a piece of molding had fallen off the wall. Then, three days later, when moving a plant on the windowsill, he discovered damage to the blinds and a hole in the window.
Police later recovered the bullet from an interior wall and are investigating the incident, which would be a felony, the paper reported.
Vaughn told WBRC-TV that he is worried about whether it was a random accident or if someone targeted the newsroom.
“It's very scary. It's very disturbing to think about what could have been,” Vaughn said. “You try to do a good job and you try to be fair, but you have to cover the news. So you wonder: Could it be somebody retaliatory, or a message of, ‘Hey, back off.’”
Vaughn did not respond to requests for additional comment.
Moundville Police Chief Toby Banks told the weekly newspaper that shootings in downtown Moundville are rare.
“Since I’ve been chief here, you can count on one hand the number of incidents even remotely like this in downtown Moundville,” Banks said. “We’re hoping no one was targeting the Moundville Times and that it was just someone goofing off or someone made it accidentally happen.”
Publisher Tommy McGraw wrote in an op-ed for the newspaper on May 17 that both the Times and its sister paper, the Sumter County Record Journal, have received numerous threats over the more than 30 years they’ve been publishing.
“That is the sad and frightening thing about being in the newspaper business, sometimes fearing for your life for doing the right thing, exposing corruption, and printing the truth,” McGraw wrote.
A man fired a shot from an AR-style rifle into the FOX13 Memphis newsroom on May 2, 2023, according to reports from the outlet, but no injuries were reported. Employees were evacuated to a back parking lot for approximately 30 minutes before being allowed back into the building.
FOX13 reported that at around 11:30 a.m. a man approached an employee wanting to talk, and showed the employee that he was carrying a gun. The employee ended the conversation and left, after which the man walked to the front of the building and fired a single shot. The gunman then fled and barricaded himself in a nearby restaurant.
FOX 13 reporter Shelia O’Connor posted on Twitter at 1 p.m. that no employees or staff members were hit or injured during the incident.
UPDATE: we have been let back inside the station, but we’re still on lockdown. Here’s more photos of the bullet hole. Memphis police have the guy in custody. @FOX13Memphis pic.twitter.com/PbF4uWFOUq
— Shelia O'Connor FOX13 (@SheliaOConnor) May 2, 2023
Another FOX13 reporter, Dakarai Turner, tweeted that negotiators were able to disarm the gunman and Memphis Police Department officers took him into custody. The department, which did not immediately respond to a request for additional information, confirmed on Twitter that the suspect had been arrested.
When reached for comment, FOX13 directed the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker to the voicemail of general manager, Kyle Krebs.
WVUE Fox8 News photojournalist Steven A. Wolfram told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was repeatedly attacked by a man while reporting on shooting deaths in Slidell, Louisiana, on March 29, 2023.
Wolfram said he and WVUE reporter Olivia Vidal were filming outside a home where police had discovered what appeared to be a murder-suicide following a standoff with SWAT officers. Vidal told the Tracker two other news crews were at the scene, and that family members had made it clear they did not want to speak to the press and didn’t want anyone approaching the house. By approximately 8 a.m. the other news crews had left the scene.
Vidal told the Tracker that when preparing for the 9 a.m. live broadcast, she asked Wolfram to keep an eye out, as something felt off. When they completed the report, Wolfram left the station’s camera and live unit set up on a tripod and he and Vidal returned to their vehicle.
“This young man starts marching toward the camera,” Wolfram said. “I’ve been doing this for 25 years and I’ve been doing it in some of the toughest neighborhoods in New Orleans. I wasn’t expecting it, and I think that was my first mistake.”
Wolfram said he got out of the car and tried to deescalate the situation and explain why they were there, but the man grabbed the tripod, camera and live unit and threw it on the ground. Though Wolfram was able to soften the blow, a piece of the wireless microphone broke.
While he was turned away, the man struck Wolfram in the side of the head.
“My first thought was, ‘I can’t believe that didn’t knock me out,’” Wolfram said. “I was stunned but was able to retreat back to the car. He starts banging on the window. We told him, ‘We’re calling the cops! We’re calling the cops!’”
Vidal said the man came around to the passenger side where she was sitting, attempted to open the door and continued pounding on the glass.
Three individuals pulled the attacker away, providing an opportunity for Wolfram to retrieve the equipment and load it into the vehicle. When Wolfram attempted to photograph the man to show police, the man once again charged the photojournalist.
Wolfram said the man missed making contact and fell, then got up to charge him again. That’s when he grabbed the man by the collar and tried to restrain him on the ground. The other individuals intervened again and separated the man from the photojournalist.
Wolfram said he drove the vehicle around the corner to distance the pair of journalists from the situation while waiting for the police. The man broke away from the group restraining him and ran to a nearby car, Wolfram said, where he reached into the glove box.
“At that point we got the hell out of there,” Wolfram said. “This guy wanted to hurt me if not kill me, and I saw him go run for a weapon.”
Vidal told the Tracker three officers and an ambulance met the journalists in the parking lot of a nearby restaurant. Wolfram sought medical care after speaking with sheriff’s deputies about the incident, and reported minor injuries.
The St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office confirmed that a summons was issued in connection with the incident for simple assault and criminal damage.
Michael G. Seamans, staff photojournalist for the Morning Sentinel in Maine, was assaulted and his camera damaged while photographing a high school drama competition in Skowhegan on March 11, 2023.
Seamans told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he arrived at Skowhegan High School at about 6:30 p.m. and identified himself as a journalist to a woman in a hallway near the stage. She told him that photography wasn’t allowed. Seamans responded that he was confused why that would be the case, when high school sports are routinely photographed. He said she threw up her hands, told him to do whatever he wanted and then walked away.
Seamans then connected with the director of the Madison High School drama program, his primary focus. Seamans said the director and the Skowhegan vice principal both authorized him to photograph the Madison students in the pre-show area in the cafeteria where they were getting ready to perform.
“At this point I’m no longer photographing anything and only getting identifications of kids in my pictures,” Seamans said. “And now I hear the first person that I encountered, this woman, yelling at the Madison director about me.”
Seamans said he tried to intervene in order to diffuse the situation, saying that he was done and could leave the premises, but she kept yelling over him. He took a step back and made the gesture for a timeout.
“A man, who I later came to learn was her husband, was standing behind be and he points at me and yells, ‘You’re not going to tell her to shut up!’” Seamans said. “That’s when his finger turned into his fist. And his fist opened up, grabbed me by the throat and threw me into a wall. At this point, I’m on my tip-toes, he has me almost elevated off my feet.”
Seamans said that the man continued to hold him there for nearly a minute as he held his hands up and asked for the man to let him go and for someone to call the police. He said the man only released him when a principal from the Skowhegan school system arrived, by which point Seamans’ vision had started to darken from the periphery and he had become disoriented.
Seamans said that one of his cameras struck the wall during the altercation and was damaged.
The school officials then led Seamans to an office where they questioned him for nearly 30 minutes before consenting to his repeated requests for someone to call police. Seamans filed a police report and went to the emergency room where he was diagnosed with a concussion and significant bruising of the neck and throat. Seamans said his primary care physician instructed him during a follow-up visit to remain on leave from work until March 27.
“In nearly two decades of working in this industry, from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the locked-downed districts of Sierra Leone during the Ebola epidemic to the front lines of Ukraine, I’ve never been attacked so suddenly and abruptly before,” Seamans told the Tracker. “It’s a difficult scenario to articulate.”
When reached by phone, a Skowhegan Police Department officer said he could not discuss details from the investigation, but confirmed that the department had referred the case to the Somerset County District Attorney’s Office. DA Maeghan Maloney, in an emailed response to the Tracker, said that her office is reviewing additional footage from the incident and has not concluded its assessment.
Photojournalist Michael G. Seamans, pictured here in Ukraine in 2022, was injured while on assignment at a high school drama competition in March 2023 in Maine. A man grabbed him by the throat and slammed him against a wall, also damaging his camera.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,,,, 2022-11-21 14:44:19.023475+00:00,2023-11-01 14:10:18.278902+00:00,"Memphis news photographer, reporter robbed at gunpoint blocks from studio",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/memphis-news-photographer-reporter-robbed-at-gunpoint-blocks-from-studio/,2023-11-01 14:10:18.167917+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,"camera: count of 1, camera equipment: count of 1, live unit: count of 1",Unidentified photojournalist 27 (WHBQ-TV),,2022-11-10,False,Memphis,Tennessee (TN),35.14953,-90.04898,"FOX13 reporter Jeremy Pierre and an unidentified news photographer were robbed at gunpoint half a mile from the station’s studio on Nov. 10, 2022.
Pierre posted on Facebook shortly after 7 a.m. that the crew was robbed at the intersection of Poplar Avenue and Highland Street.
“You know I’ve had my fair share of stories but DAMN!” Pierre wrote. “One of the dudes even showed me the gun in his waistband.”
According to the post, the thieves took the crew’s camera, tripod and LiveU equipment used to broadcast footage.
Pierre did not respond to a request for comment or to confirm the identity of the photojournalist with him. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented Pierre’s assault here.
FOX13 declined to comment when reached for comment. The Memphis Police Department did not respond to a request for additional information.
WCHS Eyewitness News Reporter Bob Aaron was assaulted on Aug. 4, 2022, in Putnam County, West Virginia, while reporting on the sheriff's plan to remove abandoned cars on roads and yards.
According to Aaron, who reported the incident in a newscast, he was nearly run over while filming the abandoned cars stationed along a main county road by a man who did not want him filming.
The reporter said the individual got out of his car and ripped the camera from his hands. Aaron, who did not respond to a request for comment from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, reported that the man broke the camera light off and refused to return the camera until Putnam County Sheriff's deputies were called to the scene.
WCHS reported that Putnam County Sheriff Bobby Eggleton announced his intention to enforce a clean-up plan to remove the vehicles from public and private locations, adding that some had not moved for more than 20 years. Eggleton told WCHS the announcement provoked an “emotional response from residents in the county” who feared authorities would take their property. Eggleton said in a video posted to Facebook that it was not a county ordinance but in accordance with state law.
The sheriff’s office could not be reached for comment.
In an article about the altercation, WCHS said Aaron, 75, was doing fine and that there were pending charges against the man who attacked him.
FOX8 photojournalist Derrick Deon Reid was assaulted by two men on July 28, 2022, while reporting on animal mistreatment claims at a dog boarding facility in Davidson County, North Carolina, according to news reports.
Reid, who was not identified by FOX8 in a report about the assault, was later identified by the Winston-Salem Journal. According to FOX8, Reid was gathering footage on an animal boarding facility previously fined for violating the state’s Animal Protection Act when Marshall Everhart and Zachary Everhart, one of the facility's owners, attacked him.
According to an arrest warrant obtained by the Winston-Salem Journal, Reid sustained broken or loosened teeth and possibly a broken jaw. The warrant also accuses Marshall Everhart of holding Reid against his will and damaging his camera equipment after trying to take the camera from him. Official documents state that he also damaged Reid’s vehicle, causing more than $200 in damage.
The Davidson County Sheriff’s Department, which did not respond to a request for comment from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, arrested Marshall Everhart after the incident, while Zachary Everhart turned himself in to the sheriff’s office. Officials charged both men with felony larceny, assault inflicting serious bodily injury, kidnapping and injury to personal property.
FOX8 did not respond to requests for comment from the Tracker. In a statement to the Winston-Salem Journal, FOX8 Vice President and General Manager Jim Himes declined to comment on Reid’s condition, citing federal privacy laws.
Documentary photographer Joey Scott was shoved to the ground by police officers while documenting reproductive rights protests in Los Angeles, California, on June 24, 2022.
Protests broke out across the country following the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial ruling overturning Roe v. Wade that morning, which established that the right to abortion is guaranteed under the right to privacy.
The first protests in LA began outside a federal courthouse around noon, the Los Angeles Times reported, and continued into the night. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented the assaults of at least six journalists in the city that night.
L.A. Taco reporter Lexis-Olivier Ray told the Tracker that he and Scott had followed protesters as they attempted to get onto the highway. After demonstrators exited the highway, Los Angeles Police Department officers advanced toward them to clear the area.
In a tweet posted at around 7:45 p.m., Scott wrote that he had just been shoved to the ground by an LAPD officer.
Got shoved before this. LAPD Metro not honoring press passes. pic.twitter.com/BBlbkY1KuN
— Joey Scott (@joeyneverjoe) June 25, 2022
In a video posted in a subsequent tweet, multiple officers can be heard shouting, “Leave the area! Leave the area!” Both Scott and a second journalist — L.A. Taco reporter Lexis-Olivier Ray — can be heard identifying themselves as press in response. Scott was not immediately available to provide comment.
At approximately 0:06 in the clip, an officer steps forward and says, “It doesn’t matter, you guys gotta get going.”
“I’m press, it does matter,” Scott can be heard responding. “I’m on a public sidewalk.”
At that same moment, one of the officers pushed Ray backward. The Tracker has documented that incident here.
In footage posted by photojournalist Josh Pacheco, Scott can be seen stepping back onto the sidewalk and taking two steps before an LAPD officer appears to push him backward with his baton, sending him sprawling into a car a few feet behind him.
LAPD just assaulted a journalist & legal observer on South Broadway. pic.twitter.com/Mc3PUmljy0
— JP (Josh Pacheco) ✨🏳️⚧️They/Them (@JoshMPacheco) June 25, 2022
“What wasn’t captured in the footage was the attitude: the blatant disregard and hostility the officers had to our legal rights to be there,” Scott told the Tracker. “The more that we identified ourselves and pushed back on their unlawful commands, the more hostile and, obviously, more violent they got toward us.”
In footage from the incident, “press” labels are visible on Scott’s backpack and helmet. In a tweet thread two days later, Scott wrote that his body and ribs were still sore and that his helmet was damaged from the fall.
“Going into this weekend, I was like: Cool. We have these new laws and protections, this should be a lot easier than previous experiences,” Scott said. “And it was the complete opposite. Worse than before the laws were enacted and the supposed training and reform that the department has done.”
In October 2021, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 98, which was written in order to ensure the rights of journalists while covering protests or other civic actions, according to Spectrum News 1. The law states that “law enforcement shall not intentionally assault, interfere with, or obstruct journalists” and explicitly exempts members of the press from dispersal orders.
The Los Angeles Police Department did not respond to a request for comment as of press time.
Find press freedom violations documented by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker at reproductive rights demonstrations across the U.S. here.
Editor's Note: This article has been updated to include comment from Joey Scott.
Documentary photographer Joey Scott, right, with ‘press’ taped on his backpack, is seen moments before a Los Angeles police officer shoves him with a baton while Scott was documenting protests in the city on June 24, 2022.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"court verdict, protest, reproductive rights",,, 2022-05-24 19:23:25.139127+00:00,2023-11-02 14:44:35.595797+00:00,Photojournalist loses camera during confrontation at LA reproductive rights rally,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-photojournalist-loses-camera-while-covering-confrontation-at-reproductive-rights-rally-in-la/,2023-11-02 14:44:35.508230+00:00,,,,Equipment Damage,,,camera: count of 1,Josh Pacheco (Independent),,2022-05-14,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"Independent photojournalist Josh Pacheco lost a camera during a skirmish while covering a reproductive rights rally that was met with a counterprotest in Los Angeles, California, on May 14, 2022.
JP told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that they arrived at the “Bans Off Our Bodies” rally outside of Los Angeles City Hall at about 11 a.m. to document the event and was heading toward the staging area where speakers were set to deliver remarks.
“I didn’t even make it to the stage because as soon as I got there, I immediately walked into a confrontation,” JP said.
A group of individuals had locked arms to create a barrier to keep counterprotesters, who were demonstrating nearby, from engaging with those at the rally. The groups clashed after one individual pushed through the barrier.
Counter protesters are in s standoff with pro choice protesters pic.twitter.com/abtTXHyZiP
— JP (Josh Pacheco) ✨🏳️⚧️They/Them (@JoshMPacheco) May 14, 2022
“At that point, I put my GoPro in my pocket because there was a scrum between protestors and their counters,” JP said.
JP, who was also carrying additional camera equipment, captured footage of the groups clashing but lost the GoPro, valued at about $400, in the process.
WKYC 3 Studios photojournalist Craig Roberson was harassed by individuals and his camera damaged while covering an arrest in Cleveland, Ohio, on April 22, 2022.
WOIO 19 News reported that journalists from multiple broadcast stations were covering a tense standoff in Cleveland’s Kinsman neighborhood connected to a viral video of two men pointing guns at a police officer.
Kelly Kennedy, an investigative reporter with the WOIO team on scene, said in a report for the outlet that a few nearby residents were angry that there were journalists filming.
“When we got to the scene, some neighbors were really angry when they saw our cameras and one man actually tried to grab one of our photographers’ cameras and then he actually knocked over another TV station’s camera and broke it,” Kennedy said, referring to Roberson’s equipment.
According to the police report, the $9,000 WKYC camera was destroyed and broken into multiple pieces. The man was charged with felony vandalism, punishable by 6 to 18 months in prison and up to a $5,000 fine.
When reached for comment, WKYC President and General Manager Micki Byrnes confirmed that Roberson’s camera was damaged and that he was unharmed; Roberson did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
WOIO’s Kennedy wrote on Twitter that everyone was OK, and that the incident was just one example of the kind of harassment journalists face daily when just trying to do their jobs.
This is just one example of the kind of harassment we face day after day as journalists just for doing our jobs. Thankfully everyone was okay, but it was definitely a scary situation. @cleveland19news pic.twitter.com/PBuIscEena
— Kelly Kennedy (@KellyEKennedyTV) April 23, 2022
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documented the WOIO assault here.
A screenshot from a WOIO report on April 22, 2022, shows a photojournalist looking on after an individual threw his camera equipment to the ground in Cleveland, Ohio.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,,,, 2022-04-07 17:43:07.680666+00:00,2023-12-04 22:26:00.199804+00:00,New York Post photographer assaulted by man being evicted from encampment,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/new-york-post-photographer-assaulted-by-man-being-evicted-from-encampment/,2023-12-04 22:25:59.986171+00:00,,,(2023-10-11 00:00:00+00:00) Case sealed for man who attacked New York Post photographer,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,camera: count of 1,G.N. Miller (New York Post),,2022-03-28,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"G.N. Miller, a photographer for the New York Post, was assaulted by a man who was being evicted from his makeshift dwelling in Riverbank State Park in New York City on March 28, 2022.
According to the New York Post, the man, Rewell Altunaga, has lived in the park for several months. His eviction came the day after city officials issued a "notice of clean up" in the area of the park where Altunaga was living. Miller, who was reporting on the New York Police Department eviction of the area with a colleague, captured the assault on video.
Miller did not respond to requests for comment from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. Miller’s colleague, Post reporter Kevin Sheehan, was also assaulted by Altunaga. Sheehan filmed NYPD police officers arresting Altunaga after he hit Miller with a garbage bag, causing Miller’s camera to smash to the ground.
According to the Post, Altunaga was charged with second-degree assault and released without bail on March 30. A judge also ordered that he remain clear of journalists Miller and Sheehan. NYPD has acknowledged but not responded to a request for more details.
WWL-TV reporter David Hammer and a colleague were assaulted by an individual while reporting on the mistaken release of a convicted pedophile in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, on March 3, 2022.
In a report for the broadcast station, Hammer said that he and a photojournalist had gone to the home of Brian David Matherne for comment after he was released more than seven years early from his nearly 30-year sentence. The journalists did not know at the time that Matherne had been imprisoned again after some victims alerted the state Department of Corrections of the error.
“Before we could approach the trailer, we were attacked by the owner of the property — Bruce Verdin — who was arrested by Tangipahoa Sheriff’s deputies,” Hammer said.
WWL-TV reported that Verdin, who is Matherne’s brother-in-law, attacked the journalists with a wrench and attempted to hit the photojournalist with his truck. In footage of the incident, Verdin can be seen repeatedly striking out at the journalists and their camera.
Hammer, who did not respond to requests for comment, identified himself and photojournalist T.J. Pipitone as the journalists attacked in a tweet.
Had quite a day. My @WWLTV investigation got a serial child molester put back in prison after his erroneous early release. Then photographer @TJPIPITONE and I got attacked. See the details next at 10:00 on Channel 4.
— David Hammer (@davidhammerWWL) March 4, 2022
In response to a note asking if they were OK, Hammer wrote that they had suffered “just a couple bumps and bruises.”
In a tweet a week after the incident, Hammer confirmed that Verdin smashed Hammer’s cellphone that he was using to film the attack.
The station reported that the Tangipahoa Sheriff’s Office arrested Verdin on three counts of aggravated battery and a count of aggravated destruction of property. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker was not able to verify whether any of the journalists’ equipment was damaged in the assault.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated with information concerning the damage to David Hammer’s cellphone during the incident.
An unidentified San Francisco Chronicle photographer was robbed at gunpoint in West Oakland, California, on Dec. 3, 2021.
The Chronicle reported that the photographer was on assignment when multiple armed assailants stole two cameras before fleeing in a vehicle. An Oakland Police Department spokesperson said in a statement that the robbery was reported just before 3:30pm. Police officials also said the photographer was not injured during the incident. OPD did not immediately respond to requests for further comment.
I regret to report that a Chronicle journalist was robbed at gunpoint today while on assignment in West Oakland. We are relieved the photographer was not physically hurt. https://t.co/I9SJdVLq5M
— Demian Bulwa (@demianbulwa) December 4, 2021
“Any incident in which a person is robbed of their possessions at gunpoint is incredibly troubling,” Chronicle Editor in Chief Emilio Garcia-Ruiz said in a statement following the incident. “We are relieved that our colleague was not physically injured. We are a part of this community, and we will not retreat from providing the news and information it needs.”
This incident follows multiple other armed robberies involving news organizations in the Bay Area this year.
Most recently, on Nov. 24, a security guard hired for a KRON-TV news crew in Oakland was fatally shot during an attempted armed robbery. Kevin Nishita was killed after confronting an assailant who tried to steal the crew’s camera equipment.
At least two members of a KATU News crew were assaulted by a group of individuals while covering unrest in Portland, Oregon, following a high-profile jury verdict in Wisconsin on Nov. 19, 2021.
Protests began after a jury acquitted 18-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse of first-degree intentional homicide and four other felony charges for killing two men and wounding a third in Kenosha in August 2020. At that time, the city was the site of heightened Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests after a white police officer shot Jacob Blake, a Black resident, during a summer of ongoing civil unrest that followed the death of George Floyd, a Black man, at the hands of a white police officer in Minnesota in May. In 2020, Downtown Portland saw more than 100 straight days of protests, many centered around the Multnomah County Justice Center.
Protests were centered again around the justice center on Nov. 19. In a video published by KATU, an individual in black bloc — a technique of dressing in all black to avoid identification — can be seen crossing the street to where the news crew is standing and asks what the crew is filming. “The protest,” one of the journalists responds. The individual then asks why, to which the journalist responds, “To send a message for you.”
“You’re not trying to send our message,” the individual says. “You’re not here trying to get our message.”
During the interaction, approximately six other people approach the news crew, which begins to move down the street away from the protest. An individual appears to reach out and grab the journalist who was answering the questions, but a voice can be heard saying, “Let them walk.” At some point during the interaction, a smoke bomb appears to be activated in the center of the group.
Multiple individuals continued to walk alongside the crew, with one wrapping his arm around the first journalist, when a voice calls out “Stop filming,” to which a second person responds, “Yeah, we’re going to turn that camera off right now. We’re advising you to turn that camera off right now. Turn that fucking camera off right fucking now!”
As the camera operator attempts to continue walking away, another individual runs up to him screaming that he will break the camera. In the ensuing scuffle, there is an audible crack of something breaking.
KATU reported that the news crew was uninjured but the camera was damaged. Neither the station’s news director nor general manager could immediately be reached for comment. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker also documented the assault of one KATU photojournalist and damage to their equipment here.
The following day, Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty released a statement upholding the right of the press to film and condemning the attack on the KATU news crew:
"I’m still learning the full details of what occurred last night but want to make it clear that attacking or intimidating the press is never acceptable, such as what happened to a KATU crew last night."
In 2020, the Tracker documented seven assaults of journalists covering protests surrounding the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha. Find documented aggressions against journalists following the November 2021 Rittenhouse verdict here and at Black Lives Matter protests here.
Individuals approach a KATU camera operator demanding that he stop filming during a protest in Portland, Oregon, that followed the high-profile acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse in Wisconsin on Nov. 19, 2021.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"court verdict, protest",,, 2021-10-01 17:06:02.077702+00:00,2023-01-30 21:57:59.560667+00:00,Border Report correspondent detained photographing outside Texas Air Force base,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/border-report-correspondent-detained-photographing-outside-texas-air-force-base/,2023-01-30 21:57:59.450819+00:00,,,,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Equipment Search or Seizure, Equipment Damage",,camera: count of 1,work product: count of 1,Sandra Sanchez (Border Report),,2021-09-19,False,Del Rio,Texas (TX),29.36273,-100.89676,"Border Report correspondent Sandra Sanchez was detained for 45 minutes and threatened with arrest by Laughlin Air Force Base military police in Del Rio, Texas, on Sept. 19, 2021.
Sanchez was photographing Laughlin Air Force Base signs outside the base’s gates while reporting on the Del Rio encampment, where more than 12,000 Haitian migrants seeking asylum had settled along the banks of the Rio Grande while waiting to cross into the United States from Mexico.
The day before, Department of Homeland Security officials had announced during a press conference that deportation flights carrying Haitian migrants would be departing from the Laughlin base’s airfields, which is located just east of the Del Rio border.
So I almost got arrested today by military police covering this story in Del Rio, Texas. I was detained for nearly an hour. Details in my #BorderReport blog. https://t.co/muGgvD4C8O
— Sandra Sanchez (@SandraESanchez) September 19, 2021
When asked for comment, Sanchez referred the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker to a Border Report blog detailing the incident. According to the post, Sanchez was not on the base when she took still photos and a short video of the military base sign when military police detained her, claiming she had illegally entered federal property.
Border Report stated there were no signs indicating where public property ended and the military base began. According to the blog, military police claimed base property extends north of the gates she was photographing.
A Val Verde County deputy sheriff was called to the base while Sanchez was being held but military police refused to release her. The deputy sheriff did not respond to phone messages seeking comment.
Before releasing her without charges, military police required that they witness her delete the photos and video of the base, the blog said.
Laughlin Air Force Base Public Affairs office did not respond to requests for comment by the Tracker.
Independent videographer and photographer Emily Molli was assaulted while gathering footage of an anti-vaccine rally outside Los Angeles City Hall in California on Sept. 18, 2021.
Molli told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she was doused with an oily substance and her camera equipment was damaged while covering what organizers called a “fight for medical freedom” rally.
She told the Tracker she had not initially planned on covering the rally because of recent violent eruptions that have occurred at these events but changed her mind and began photographing the speakers several feet away from the crowd. Molli estimated there were close to 50 people at the rally in addition to about two dozen others who were watching from the sidewalk.
Molli said she had not taken her cellphone or her usual press credentials and helmet labeled “PRESS” because her last-minute decision to photograph the event had not given her enough time to prepare.
However, after covering these rallies in the past, Molli said she believed other reporters covering the event would recognize her and at the very least her professional camera would identify her as a reporter.
According to Molli, she was gathering footage of the protest for approximately five minutes when an individual walked up behind her and started hovering over her shoulder.
This was the only shot I got at the park before I was accused of doxxing. Delusional. pic.twitter.com/76oKO7hlDT
— Emily Molli (@emilymolli) September 18, 2021
“I decided at that point I should probably just leave and I started walking away, when more people caught up with me,” Molli said.
The group continued to follow her, accusing her of “doxxing” people in the crowd and being part of the far-left-wing movement antifa.
“In the past, people would sometimes recognize me as a reporter and leave me alone but I knew there was no getting through to these people,” she said.
Molli said she tried to calm the group by telling them she supported freedom of expression and the right to peacefully assemble but by then a man had tried to take her camera out of her hands.
“I was filming just in case something happened — most of the time it does,” Molli said. “As I’m waiting to cross the street someone pumps up a super soaker full of glitter, some kind of oil, and water and shoots me in the back, the back of the head, and my camera.”
Molli managed to get away from the group and walked over to a police officer in a patrol car that had just arrived at the event. She reported the assault and equipment damage to the officer but was directed to file a police report online.
Knowing she wasn’t going to get a name or description of the masked individual who had doused her for the report, Molli said she walked away, but a woman continued to follow her, shoving a sign in front of her camera.
Molli told the Tracker she approached a man across the street from the rally and asked to borrow his cellphone to call her colleague. Molli, who distributes her work through wire services or directly to clients, said she essentially lost a full day of work after her camera was soaked. The substance got onto the camera lens and into the air vents but she will not know the full extent of the damage until she tries to use it again.
Molli said she did not intend to file a police report about the incident.
Student journalist Abel Reyes was confronted and harassed by a group of individuals who demanded that he delete all the photos he had taken while documenting protesters in Long Beach, California, on Sept. 14, 2021.
Reyes told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker a counterprotest was organized in opposition to a rally with President Joe Biden and Gov. Gavin Newsom at Long Beach City College. He said he was leaving an area with a lot of people he identified as supporters of former President Donald Trump when the harassment began.
“It started with a lady who noticed my camera and the press badge around my neck, and she started asking me a bunch of questions, whether I was part of the ‘fake news,’ where I was from,” Reyes said.
The student journalist said he tried to walk away, but the woman followed him and continued yelling at him, telling him to take off his “China mask,” in reference to the face mask he was wearing as a coronavirus safety measure.
Suddenly, Reyes said, a group of men surrounded him. One of the men demanded that Reyes show him the photos he had taken. Reyes said he explained that he had taken close to 400 photos and that he couldn’t show the man all of them. The man then told Reyes to delete all of his images.
“I didn’t argue, I didn’t want to argue, I didn’t say anything. At that point I just wanted to leave because it was not a good situation,” Reyes said, adding that he felt they wouldn’t let him leave until he complied with their demands.
According to Reyes’ Instagram post that night, once the group was convinced he had deleted all of the images one of them told him, “You’re lucky we’re nice.”
Reyes left the protest shortly after without attempting to take any additional photos, and told the Tracker that he has avoided any demonstrations with counterprotesters since the incident.
As a young journalist himself, he is particularly upset by the impact of harassment on student journalists.
“I worry about what ripple effects this is having on journalism as a whole,” Reyes said. “How do you expect someone to go into journalism if they can’t even get through student journalism without something like this happening?”
Abel Reyes, center with camera, documents an August demonstration in Fullerton, California. Reyes was harassed by a group of people who insisted he delete photos off his camera.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"Donald Trump, Joe Biden rally, protest, student journalism",,, 2021-09-15 20:26:13.380629+00:00,2023-11-01 14:18:38.367915+00:00,"Independent journalist assaulted, equipment damaged during Portland protest",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalist-assaulted-equipment-damaged-during-portland-protest/,2023-11-01 14:18:38.252070+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,"camera: count of 1, camera equipment: count of 1, camera lens: count of 1, cellphone: count of 1",Maranie Staab (Ruptly),,2021-08-22,False,Portland,Oregon (OR),45.52345,-122.67621,"Independent journalist Maranie Staab was assaulted multiple times and several pieces of her equipment were damaged while she was covering clashing demonstrations in Portland, Oregon, on Aug. 22, 2021.
Far-right demonstrators had planned for the “summer of love” protest in support of the “political prisoners” of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection to take place downtown, The Intercept reported, but had moved the location that morning to an abandoned Kmart parking lot in east Portland following the announcement of several counterprotests.
The Portland Police Bureau announced ahead of the dueling demonstrations that officers would not intervene in any resulting clashes.
“You should not expect to see police officers standing in the middle of the crowd trying to keep people apart,” Chief Chuck Lovell said in a statement. “People should keep themselves apart and avoid physical confrontation.”
Staab told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she was covering the planned demonstration for the Russian video news agency Ruptly and had arrived at the demonstration before its 2:30 p.m. start. Staab said that approximately 200 demonstrators had gathered, and the general mood was calm as the crowd listened to speeches from a platform.
At around 4 p.m., Staab said, tensions rose when left-wing counterprotesters in black bloc arrived; far-right demonstrators began firing airsoft guns and antifascists responded with fireworks and clouds of mace.
Staab told the Tracker that when both sides fell back, many of the journalists present found themselves in the middle of a no-man’s land between the two groups.
“I was first sprayed with something from behind — I didn’t see the person so I only saw it in a video — with what I thought was WD-40,” Staab said, referring to a rust-prevention spray. “It definitely wasn’t mace. Someone else said it was hornet spray or wasp spray or something.”
Footage of the incident shows an individual quickly running past her and deliberately targeting her with the spray.
Not long after the initial attack, Staab said, an antifa protester approached her and began belittling her personally, accusing her of endangering the community with her recent trip to Colombia and calling her a “slut.”
“That group has never liked being documented. There’s been 10 to 15 that have been on the ground pretty consistently for the past year,” Staab said. “There are people that take particular issue with me.”
Antifascists threatened to "smash cameras" of journalists, and targeted @MaranieRae personally.
— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) August 23, 2021
She approached to speak to their group, and they shot paint and mace at her and threw her on the ground.
As she recovered, one shot more paint at both her and press helping her. pic.twitter.com/XKgDxvFc5D
Staab said the demonstrator told her to stop filming the group, but she refused.
“Pretty immediately someone grabbed my cellphone out of my hand — it was on a little, small gimbal — threw it on the ground and smashed it,” Staab said. “Then someone pulled me down by my camera strap, which was on my right arm.”
Staab said when she tried to get up, individuals also threw a paint-filled balloon at her and maced her. Several other journalists then led Staab away from the counterprotesters and aided her in rinsing her eyes.
“It is only because of my colleagues that I got out of there OK,” Staab said.
Journalist @MaranieRae has been injured, receiving treatment from medics now during street clashes between Proud Boys and Antifa in Portland. pic.twitter.com/RjBK5rP4YX
— Zane Sparling (@PDXzane) August 22, 2021
Footage captured by News2Share co-founder Ford Fischer shows that while the journalists were helping Staab, another individual approached the group of journalists and sprayed them with purple paint. Some of the paint obscured Fischer’s lens, hindering his ability to continue covering events that day. The Tracker has documented his equipment damage here.
In Fischer’s footage, Staab’s press credential can be seen on a lanyard around her neck. Staab told the Tracker she sat on a curb for at least an hour to an hour and a half recovering from the mace before she was able to safely leave the area and return home.
In addition to the deliberate damage to her cellphone, Staab said the gimbal it was on is gone, her fall caused a crack in her camera lens and her Canon DSLR body was damaged by the paint balloon.
“This rounded out a year for me and others where we’ve been assaulted by the police, by persons on the right and now this,” Staab said. “To me this is really just an underscore of how dangerous this job has become.”
Staab told the Tracker she doesn’t intend to file a police report about the incidents.
A demonstrator sprayed the camera of Ford Fischer, co-founder and editor-in-chief of News2Share, with paint while he was documenting demonstrations in Portland, Oregon, on Aug. 22, 2021.
Far-right demonstrators had planned for the “summer of love” protest in support of the “political prisoners” of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection to take place downtown, The Intercept reported, but had moved the location that morning to an abandoned Kmart parking lot in east Portland following the announcement of several counterprotests.
The Portland Police Bureau announced ahead of the dueling demonstrations that officers would not intervene in any resulting clashes.
“You should not expect to see police officers standing in the middle of the crowd trying to keep people apart,” Chief Chuck Lovell said in a statement. “People should keep themselves apart and avoid physical confrontation.”
Fischer told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that far-right demonstrators had gathered and started drinking beer in the parking lot, with speeches beginning at approximately 2:30 p.m. After an hour and a half, Fischer said, tensions rose and conflicts began breaking out when some counterprotesters in black bloc arrived at the Kmart.
“Very suddenly everything changed tone,” Fischer said. “You had Proud Boys who were beginning to shoot paintballs and so forth at these antifascists, who were shooting mace and fireworks.”
At approximately 4:10 p.m., according to Fischer’s livestream, one of the counterprotesters approached independent journalist Maranie Rae Staab and began shouting at her. When Staab attempted to speak with the counterprotester, another protester grabbed and destroyed her phone while others threw her to the ground, maced and struck her with a paint balloon.
“We, the rest of the media, sort of pulled her away from them,” Fischer said. “As she was recovering, one person in black bloc approached and sprayed all of the press with paint again.”
Fischer said it appeared that the individual was using a fire extinguisher filled with paint, adapting what he said was a common leftist tactic of using paint balloons to mark “combatants” or damage electronic devices.
Antifascists threatened to "smash cameras" of journalists, and targeted @MaranieRae personally.
— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) August 23, 2021
She approached to speak to their group, and they shot paint and mace at her and threw her on the ground.
As she recovered, one shot more paint at both her and press helping her. pic.twitter.com/XKgDxvFc5D
Fischer told the Tracker that his 4K video camera was caught in the paint spray, covering the lens with drops of paint that hindered the auto-focus and disrupted his coverage of the clashes.
“The end result is that a lot of the footage that came since then was blurry and obscured by paint,” Fischer said. “It was not long after that assault that the Proud Boys piled on this individual who appeared to be a leftist in a vehicle transporting water bottles.
“While there was a lot of incredible photography of that incident, I think that my video is probably still the best recording of that and frankly it’s quite impeded, it’s probably not as decisive or clear as to who did what as it would have been if that hadn’t happened.”
Fischer said that while he was able to clean most of the paint off the lens, there is still paint in the mechanisms on the side of the camera and he will need to have it professionally cleaned.
Fischer told the Tracker he has not filed a police report about the incident.
While documenting opposing demonstrations in Portland, Oregon, a demonstrator sprayed the camera of Ford Fisher, co-founder and editor-in-chief of News2Share, disrupting his ability to cover the clashes.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Donald Trump, election, Election 2020, protest",,, 2021-09-22 18:57:56.136033+00:00,2023-11-01 14:21:04.573337+00:00,"Video journalist attacked, sprayed with chemical irritant while covering anti-vaccine rally in LA",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/video-journalist-attacked-sprayed-with-chemical-irritant-while-covering-anti-vaccine-rally-in-la/,2023-11-01 14:21:04.476260+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,"camera: count of 1, recording equipment: count of 1",Jake Lee Green (News2Share),,2021-08-14,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"Jake Lee Green, an independent video journalist for News2Share, a collective that sells footage to news outlets, was slapped, kicked and sprayed with a chemical irritant while covering an anti-vaccination rally in Los Angeles, California, on Aug. 14, 2021.
Green told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was covering the “stop socialism, choose freedom march against medical tyranny” rally, a demonstration outside LA’s City Hall, where demonstrators gathered to protest against mask and vaccination mandates.
When counterprotesters arrived, Green moved away from the gathering to record a brawl that had broken out on the outskirts of the rally. Footage of the incident shared on Twitter shows an individual slap Green, who was wearing a black ballistic helmet and flak jacket, both labeled “PRESS.”
Video footage shows the same person then swinging a helmet at Green while a second individual kicked Green and then grabbed at his camera in an attempt to pull it away. In footage captured by Green, he is heard identifying himself as a journalist.
Green said he backed away from the crowd to readjust his camera equipment and refocus his camera on the escalating violence when someone sprayed him with pepper gel.
“I couldn't see anything and then I felt someone grab my camera, start pulling at it, and that’s when my mic broke off and damaged the screen on the side,” Green said.
Green said the attack damaged his microphone but he attempted to keep recording until the pain from the irritant became unbearable.
Green told the Tracker he did not file a police report about the incident. At least two other journalists were assaulted by individuals during the rally.
Grant Stern, executive editor of the news arm of the progressive political organization Occupy Democrats, said he was forcefully removed from a press conference at the Hialeah Gardens Museum in Hialeah Gardens, Florida, on Aug. 5, 2021.
Stern told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was alerted to a press conference with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and other Republican lawmakers via email from the governor’s press office. The email noted that the press conference was open to all and did not require an RSVP. When he arrived, Stern said, he identified himself as a reporter for Occupy Democrats and was granted entry.
“I went into the press conference like anybody else and I was there recording with my audio recorder,” Stern said, “and everything else I did with a cellphone or hand-held camera, recording all of these speeches.”
Approximately 30 minutes into the press conference, Stern said, a congressional staffer approached him and asked him to identify himself and who he worked for. Stern said he identified himself again and offered to show them his Twitter profile and author bio, as he does not carry press credentials with him. When the staffer asked him to leave, Stern said he had complied with the procedure to enter and would leave only if asked to do so by a museum employee.
During the Q&A session at the end of the press conference 15 minutes later, he said, Stern began to ask a question about the House’s proposed Jan. 6 commission. In his footage of the incident, Stern’s camera suddenly begins shaking and moving backward as he attempts to finish his question. Stern said four officers dragged him out of the room on his heels and ordered that he leave the museum.
I tried to ask @GOPLeader McCarthy a question after he decried Cuban police pickup up people in the streets.
— Grant Stern is fully vaccinated (@grantstern) August 5, 2021
Why does he oppose the bipartisan #January6thCommission?
A Congressional staffer had four cops pick me up and drag me from the room.
I still asked the question. pic.twitter.com/HDqrhvARaC
“I start asking a question and I feel a hand on the small of my back through my backpack,” Stern said. “My first thought was whether someone was trying to steal my journalistic equipment and then I realized that they were searching me for weapons.”
Stern said the officers then grabbed him, pulled him out of the room and turned off his phone recording with such force they scratched the face of his cellphone in multiple places; he said he intends to replace the screen as a result of the damage.
“They dragged me clear out of the room, told me to go away, involuntarily turned off my camera and pushed me out of the front door,” Stern said. “They did not make any attempt to identify me, to arrest or detain me further, to ask me any other questions.”
A spokesperson for McCarthy told The Independent that “congressional staff had nothing to do [with Stern’s] removal.” McCarthy’s office did not respond to a request for additional comment.
Stern told the Tracker his left knee capsule was ruptured as the officers pushed and dragged him, and he will need occupational therapy to restore full mobility.
The Hialeah Gardens Police Department did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
Cameraman Marcin Wyszogrodzki, who works for the Polish TV channel TVN Discovery, was trying to film a live broadcast from Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., on July 26, 2021, when members of the public prevented his team from broadcasting and threw objects at them.
Wyszogrodzki told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that just before 11 a.m., members of the public in the park began making it difficult for him to film the TVN journalist Marcin Wrona and screaming at both him and Wrona.
Normally, Wyszogrodzki said, they would walk away and film somewhere nearby, but in this case the angry people continued to follow them, he said.
“The worst thing was they didn’t want to give up — they would follow us and there was more and more hate against us. They were trying to rip off the wires from the camera. They were behind my back and pulling wires from the camera.
“It was something unusual. It never should happen when you are doing your work,” he said.
“I felt like it was coming to the point when it might turn out very badly for us,” he said.
One of the assailants had ripped a wire from the back of the camera and someone threw water at them and their equipment, but the camera was not damaged. Only a wire was missing, he added.
Wrona told the Tracker that the crew had been covering a U.S. State Department-sponsored declaration calling for freedom in Cuba, signed by the United States and 19 other countries, and a protest against government repression in Cuba.
“First we were approached by an individual with a bullhorn who was yelling something in Spanish straight in our microphone and camera. I asked him to stop doing it as the viewers would not be able to hear a word of our reporting. We moved a few steps over,” Wrona said.
“Later a group of about five people lined up behind my back, blocking the view with their raised signs. I asked them to lower the signs because we would not be able to show how big the protest is.”
As he was about to go on air, the crowd started “yelling something in Spanish and telling us that we were not welcome there. They started physically pushing us out of the park,” he said, confirming that they were prevented from doing the broadcast. Wrona said the equipment displayed the station logo and Wyszogrodzki was carrying press identification.
When the TVN crew decided to pack up and leave, the crowd started punching them, grabbing equipment, spraying water on them and throwing bottles and other objects at them. The Tracker documented Wrona’s assault here.
They managed to get across H street, still being chased by the crowd, and went towards two Metropolitan Police officers on a bicycle patrol. The officers tried to hold back the crowd using their bikes and then called for backup. Finally about 10 officers escorted them to safety, Wrona said.
“We covered at least three or four blocks and the crowd was still attacking us. Finally the police decided to get us into their squad vehicle and their lieutenant drove us away, although her car was followed by some Cubans.”
TVN is often described as the last independent news channel in Poland.
Wrona also said that there had been some “horrible” follow-up personal attacks on social media, stoked by people spreading false information.
Protesters in Washington, D.C.’s Lafayette Square park call for the support of protesters in Cuba on July 26, 2021. While broadcasting from the demonstration, a news crew for Polish television station TVN Discovery was chased out of the park.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,protest,,, 2021-07-27 17:22:37.278252+00:00,2023-11-01 14:23:15.611817+00:00,"Photojournalist attacked, has $1,000 of gear stolen while covering Wi Spa protests in LA",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-attacked-has-1000-of-gear-stolen-while-covering-wi-spa-protests-in-la/,2023-11-01 14:23:15.503253+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,"cellphone: count of 1, protective equipment: count of 2, camera equipment: count of 1, equipment bag: count of 1",Eric Levai (Independent),,2021-07-17,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"Photographer and journalist Eric Levai said he was surrounded and had around $1,000 of equipment taken from him after he photographed individuals at the Wi Spa, in Los Angeles, California.
The spa, located in LA’s Koreatown, became a flashpoint for anti-transgender demonstrators as the result of a viral video which police are now treating as a hoax, Slate reported.
Levai, who said he doesn’t wear press identification as he believes it attracts harassment, said it was around noon and he was covering what was happening at the Wi Spa when he spotted a photo opportunity. He stepped forward to take a shot of some masked individuals and a car around 50 feet away.
“I was doing my job and they just attacked me, screaming I was taking their picture,” Levai told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. “Also, when they surrounded me, I kept telling them I was a journalist, but they kept attacking me.
Levai, who works regularly for the Daily Dot and Forensic News, as well as hosting a podcast, told the Tracker that he heard a shout, and then was charged by seven or eight people, who took his backpack including items which he valued in total at around $1,000. The items included a gas mask, goggles and a tripod.
“They grabbed the bag and phone,” he said. “They took pictures of me.”
Levai said he wasn’t injured in the incident, and that he had managed to take the phone with his photos out of the backpack, though another phone was stolen. The masked individuals then took off with his equipment, he said.
He said that going forward he would reconsider wearing a press ID, though he felt it could mean he gets targeted.
Vishal Singh, a videographer who works on Netflix documentaries and has been covering demonstrations in Los Angeles since May 2020, was struck in the hand with a baton by a police officer while covering demonstrations outside a spa in Los Angeles, California, on July 17, 2021.
Wi Spa, located in LA’s Koreatown, became a flashpoint for anti-transgender demonstrators as the result of a viral video which police are now treating as a hoax, Slate reported.
Singh told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he arrived at approximately 10 a.m. to cover what he expected to be another confrontation between anti-transgender demonstrators and pro-LGBTQ counterprotesters outside the spa. Demonstrations had been occuring at the site for days; Singh reported that a Los Angeles Police Department officer shoved him with a baton while he was covering protests there on July 3.
Shortly before 11 a.m., the two groups were about to clash at an intersection a block away from the spa, Singh said, when LAPD officers quickly advanced in order to separate the sides.
“At that point I decided to go down Coronado Street and kind of go around the police barricade and go to the sidewalk and film the far-right side of the protest,” Singh said. Singh said he was a few steps behind a couple of other journalists who were walking the same direction, but an LAPD officer stopped him when he was about halfway across the street and pushed him back, ordering Singh to get on the sidewalk.
“He was basically saying, ‘Get back to the sidewalk.’ I said, ‘Are you serious?’ And he responded, ‘Yes I’m serious, this is our street,’” Singh said.
Within seconds of getting on the sidewalk, Singh said, a group of officers began confronting the pro-LGBTQ counterprotesters. In footage of the incident Singh shared on Twitter later that day, he can be seen on the right-hand side wearing a helmet and tie-dyed shirt.
“I started stepping backwards and I turned my camera to film the side-view shot of the protesters getting brutalized and at that point [the officer] leaned over, stepped forward toward me and with both hands on his baton like a baseball bat hit my outstretched hand that was holding my camera as hard as he could,” Singh said.
Sorry for the stop in coverage. Hand was injured and phone was damaged after @LAPDHQ batoned my hand. Here’s the video from @Exile_in_LA of the assault. pic.twitter.com/LKgG6YKw8y
— Vishal P. Singh (They/He) (@VPS_Reports) July 17, 2021
“My hand immediately fractured around the joints of my ring finger and my pinky finger and my camera phone fell down and was smashed,” Singh said.
Singh told the Tracker the screen of his phone screen was cracked from the fall, the case had been knocked off and it lost all cellular service for days following the incident until he was able to have it repaired. He said he also had to repeatedly turn his phone on and off before he was able to resume filming that day.
“I kept covering the protest right up to when the kettling started,” Singh said. “At that point I was like, ‘OK, I don’t need to get arrested.’ So I left the area and decompressed a little bit and then went to urgent care.”
After being directed to a hand specialist, Singh said, he was told he had a significant fracture in his hand and that in addition to six weeks of recovery he would also likely need physical therapy.
Singh told the Tracker he has filed a report with the department and said he plans to file a lawsuit against the department.
The Los Angeles Police Department did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
Los Angeles Police officers separate clashing demonstrations in the city on July 17, 2021. An officer struck videographer Vishal Singh with a baton during the protest, breaking his hand and damaging his camera phone.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"LGBTQ+ rights, protest",,, 2023-11-22 17:15:13.777193+00:00,2023-11-22 17:15:13.777193+00:00,Woman smashes Connecticut TV station’s camera,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/woman-smashes-connecticut-tv-stations-camera/,2023-11-22 15:40:25.983012+00:00,,,,Equipment Damage,,,"camera: count of 1, vehicle: count of 1",,,2021-07-06,False,Hartford,Connecticut (CT),41.76371,-72.68509,"A woman grabbed and repeatedly smashed a video camera belonging to Connecticut station WVIT-TV and threw it against the station’s vehicle outside the Hartford Police Department, where a WVIT reporter and photographer were parked in the early hours of July 6, 2021.
WVIT reporter Jennifer Joas posted a video of the incident on Facebook shot from inside the station’s vehicle, where she and a WVIT photographer, who was not fully identified, were sitting. Joas wrote in her post that the woman began smashing the station’s camera against the ground shortly before 5 a.m. and that it was unclear why she was doing it.
In the video, the woman can be seen throwing the camera to the ground multiple times, walking away, then returning, picking up the camera and throwing it at the window of the news vehicle, continuing to do so as the crew drives out of the parking lot.
Joas later wrote on Facebook that the woman’s blows dented the vehicle, though they did not break the windows. She also wrote that “police have the video & screen shots.”
“The past few years have been difficult as journalists,” Joas wrote on Facebook. “This is the third time in two months that a person has become agitated for unknown reasons & prevented me from doing my job.”
Joas did not respond to emailed requests for comment from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. But she wrote on Facebook that she and the photographer had “gone through extensive training & have been told no matter what — leave the gear behind. So we had to leave it to protect ourselves. But it's so difficult seeing our camera being used as a weapon against us.”
A spokesperson for the Hartford Police Department told the Tracker by email that the department was unable to identify or locate a suspect for the incident.
A man fleeing from the North Carolina State Highway Patrol stole a car from TV station WRAL reporter Keenan Willard and photographer Lucas Nelson just after they finished a live report to the 11 p.m. newscast on July 3, 2021.
According to a report on WRAL, the Raleigh, North Carolina NBC affiliate, a man had approached the journalist and photographer and offered them cash to drive him to a gas station in the station’s car. When they refused, he jumped into WRAL’s car and drove down U.S. Highway 64.
A State Highway Patrol trooper saw the incident and pursued the man, who shortly after crashed head-on into a trooper’s car and was taken into custody, WRAL reported.
Willard, who didn’t respond to a request for comment, wrote on Twitter just after the incident that the journalist were shaken up.
First off, I’m okay.
— Keenan Willard (@KeenanWRAL) July 4, 2021
One of the two suspects in the Chatham County manhunt just stole my car and crashed it head-on into a State Trooper after a short chase.
We’re shaken up, but we’re coming back live on @WRAL in a few minutes. pic.twitter.com/kkao3EpfTP
WRAL posted video of the incident as it unfolded, adding it wouldn’t make any further statement about the theft of the car.
Four people were later taken into custody, according to the report.
The NCSHP didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Independent video journalist Mason Lake said a Portland police officer shoved him with a baton and damaged his on-camera microphone while he was covering a protest in Portland, Oregon, on June 25, 2021.
According to The Oregonian, protesters gathered near the Oregon Convention Center after a Portland police officer shot and killed a man outside a Motel 6. Some demonstrators shouted for officers to quit their jobs, while officers stood facing the protesters with shields and batons. The Portland Police Bureau on Twitter said officers throughout the city responded to help with “scene security.” A few days earlier on June 16, all of the officers with the Portland Police Bureau's Rapid Response Team resigned together following news of investigations for excessive force, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting.
“The PPB maced & fired 40mm rounds into a crowd of protestors gathered on NE Grand Ave,” Lake wrote on Twitter at 12:04 p.m. on June 25, alongside a video of officers shoving and spraying demonstrators. At the 19-second mark, it appears that an officer physically knocked the camera, cutting the audio for the rest of the clip.
“I was on the front line and I was nearly bear-maced before being physically shoved by & officer with a baton,” Lake wrote the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in a text message. “He hit/shoved me marking my neck & hitting my on-camera microphone damaging it.” He also tweeted a photograph of his neck with a red mark across the middle and said he had multiple “press” markings across his clothes and helmet, as well as a National Press Photographers Association badge on his front strap.
A PPB officer hit/shoved me with a baton, marking the skin on my neck & damaged my on-camera microphone while I was filming them push/mace the crowd of protestors gathered tonight by the Portland Convention Center after a shooting report. #portland #police #assault #press pic.twitter.com/rDlWYPiYSl
— Mason Lake Media (@MasonLakePhoto) June 25, 2021
“The officer issued no orders for press to move or go to designated area,” he added.
PPB didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment.
A group of police officers surround demonstrators during a protest on Oct. 1, 2020, in Portland, Oregon. Journalist Mason Lake was shoved by police and had equipment damaged while documenting protests there in June 2021.
",None,None,None,None,False,3:23-cv-01870,['ONGOING'],Civil,None,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,unknown,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,protest,,, 2021-05-25 19:00:57.097618+00:00,2023-11-02 15:26:45.072090+00:00,Individuals steal photojournalist’s camera drone ahead of George Floyd anniversary demonstrations,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/individuals-steal-photojournalists-camera-drone-ahead-of-george-floyd-anniversary-demonstrations/,2023-11-02 15:26:44.964244+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,camera: count of 1,Mark Vancleave (Minneapolis Star Tribune),,2021-05-25,False,Minneapolis,Minnesota (MN),44.97997,-93.26384,"Minneapolis Star Tribune photojournalist Mark Vancleave said he was threatened and his camera drone was stolen May 25, 2021, as he covered demonstrations in Minneapolis, Minnesota, marking the first anniversary of the police killing of George Floyd.
The death of Floyd, a Black man, sparked months of demonstrations across the country demanding justice and reform of police departments. On April 20, a jury found former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of second and third degree murder and second degree manslaughter in Floyd’s death.
Vancleave told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that shortly after 7 a.m. on the 25th he arrived at East 38th Street and Chicago Avenue, the intersection where Floyd was killed and which has been turned into a memorial site, to capture some aerial footage ahead of planned demonstrations in the afternoon.
“I flew [the drone] around for maybe 10 minutes or so,” Vancleave said, noting that very few people were in the area at that point. Then, said Vancleave, he returned to where his car was parked, about half a block away, so that he could land the drone and change its batteries and camera lens.
Immediately after he landed the drone, Vancleave said, a man approached him and began asking about the drone.
“Two other dudes walked up behind him and immediately got in my face, saying ‘Who are you? What are you doing here?’” Vancleave said. “They started demanding that I show them the video that I had taken.”
Vancleave said they also asked him to show his press credentials and driver’s license.
“They said they were ‘security.’ And then the first guy who came over just grabbed my drone and started walking away,” Vancleave said.
Had my drone taken by three dudes working “security” about a block from 38th and Chicago this morning. Was threatened and told never to come back to George Floyd Square.
— Mark Vancleave (@MDVancleave) May 25, 2021
Ultimately, Vancleave said, the men took his DJI Inspire 2 drone, threatened him and told him never to return to the area, which has been dubbed George Floyd Square. Vancleave estimated that the equipment, which belongs to the Star Tribune, is valued at approximately $5,000.
“One of the reasons I was there so early is I wanted to be as unobtrusive as possible. As a Minneapolis resident I understand how annoying flying things can be over residential areas, I experienced it over the past year,” Vancleave said. “This was not me being belligerent, ignoring community members. This was guys running up, taking my drone, threatening me and running off.”
Vancleave was struck in the hand with a rubber bullet in nearby Brooklyn Center on April 12, where demonstrators had gathered to demand justice in the killing of Daunte Wright, a Black man, who was fatally shot by a white police officer. Because of the resulting injury to his hand, Vancleave tweeted that using the drone was his only means of covering the demonstrations.
It’s very frustrating. I still can’t bend my finger well enough to grip a camera, so this was my way of making pictures.
— Mark Vancleave (@MDVancleave) May 25, 2021
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police-brutality protests here.
Ebenezer Mends, a photojournalist for CBS4 News in Miami, Florida, was attacked and his camera was damaged while he was working on a story about rising crime rates in South Beach on May 12, 2021.
Mends was with CBS4 reporter Bobeth Yates near Fifth Street and Ocean Drive in South Beach. The journalists were there to report on the Miami Beach City Commission’s passage of a resolution to stop alcohol sales past 2 a.m. in the city’s entertainment district as a way to curb unruly behavior, the station reported.
Mends and Yates were doing research in the busy nightlife area about 9 p.m. when a fight broke out. Mends began recording the fight, but some of the people involved in it came up to him and demanded that he not film them.
When they started pushing his camera and hitting Mends, Yates said in the station’s report, she tried to get in the way.
“To be honest, I've been reporting for a very long time,” Yates said, according to the report. “I don't want to date myself, but about 20 years and I've never been attacked like this on a story.”
She said both she and Mends were hit. “The first hit came when we tried to kind of block the camera and I kind of stood in between everything because they started really coming on to Ebenezer and attacking him.”
At one point, Yates said, four or five people surrounded Mends. Yates said they hit her and tried to attack Mends and the camera, which was damaged.
“They also threw a bottle of liquid what I believe is some sort of alcohol because it was literally burning our skin, my eyes,” she said.
Yates called police and followed the people who harassed her and Mends, according to the station’s report. Neither Yates nor Mends responded to U.S. Press Freedom Tracker requests for comment.
Miami Beach police officers later detained two people near Seventh Street and Ocean Drive. The subjects were arrested for criminal mischief, resisting an officer and battery, the Miami Beach Police Department confirmed to the Tracker.
A charge sheet shared by police with the Tracker confirmed that Mends reported he had received a cut on his head during the incident and that Yates had reported being struck on her arms and being targeted when a liquid was thrown at the journalists. The police report also confirmed damage to the CBS4 crew’s Sony PXW-X400 video camera, which has a replacement value of $90,000. A CBS news report confirmed that the camera was damaged but did not specify the degree of damage.
Editor's Note: The date of the assault is May 12, 2021, not May 15, as originally published.
An individual was caught on film assaulting a news team for NBC-affiliate UpNorthLive, based in Traverse City, Michigan. Video posted by the station shows the man throwing one of the broadcast team’s microphones and spitting on a camera during an event with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on May 6, 2021.
The news team was covering an outdoor event in Greilickville, at which Whitmer signed a bill authorizing spending to protect Michigan’s natural resources, UpNorthLive News reported. The man first heckled the governor, shouting profanities during her speech and yelling “We don’t want you here,” before turning to criticize journalists covering the event, according to the broadcaster’s account.
UpNorthLive reporters Natalie Spala and Cortney Brown covered the signing and were scheduled to interview the governor right after, but the interview was canceled when officials escorted Whitmer away from the heckler to her car, the outlet reported.
According to UpNorthLive, the man “then turned his attention to the UpNorthLive news crew, asking if he should destroy the reporter’s [Brown’s] camera before taking a microphone and throwing it across the parking lot.”
Leelanau County Sheriff’s deputies at the scene intervened and arrested the man immediately, but as he was being handcuffed he spat on Brown and the camera she was carrying.
“OK, that’s unnecessary,” Spala can be heard saying in the footage published by UpNorthLive.
In an interview with the outlet, Sheriff Mike Borkovich said, “We have been in contact with this individual before, mostly regarding political-type things. I personally believe that’s not normally what he has done but I do think when you cross the line, people have to know that we will enforce the law.”
Neither of the reporters nor the station’s news director responded to emailed requests for comment.
The man was transported to the Leelanau County Correctional facility, where he was processed and charged with two counts of assault and battery and one count of malicious destruction of property, according to a Facebook post by the Sheriff’s Office.
According to the sheriff’s office, he is currently in the Leelanau County Jail on two counts of assault and battery and one count of malicious destruction of property.https://t.co/HIV7ElZjsa
— upnorthlive.com (@upnorthlive) May 6, 2021
UpNorthLive reported that the man, a 39-year-old Traverse City resident, was released on a $100 interim bond later that night.
Sheriff Borkovich told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the arraignment of the arrested man was scheduled for June 8.
Two journalists with TV news station Valley News Live, an NBC affiliate based in Fargo, North Dakota, were attacked by a man wielding a screwdriver, who damaged their camera while they were reporting in the city on May 3, 2021.
Valley News Live photojournalist Michael Downs and reporter Nachai Taylor were near downtown Fargo, preparing for a 9 p.m. live report about a building the city commission had decided to demolish, Taylor said in a report that aired on the station following the attack.
In that report, Taylor said she was walking toward Downs, who was holding the camera when an unidentified man drove a pickup truck onto the curb. The man approached them, swinging a screwdriver, “which was kind of a scary situation,” Taylor said.
Video published by Valley News Live shows a man approaching the camera, gesturing with a screwdriver, then jabbing the tool directly at the camera.
Taylor said the man was shouting at the journalists to get off his property, though the journalists were on the sidewalk, she reported.
Taylor said after she told the man that she was going to call police, he got in his truck and left. She said the journalists gave statements to police about the incident, including the license plate number of the vehicle the man was driving. Taylor’s assault is documented here.
Neither Downs nor Taylor responded to requests for comment from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
Valley News Live news director Renee Nygren told the Tracker the camera was not operable after the attack. She said it was being repaired and believed that the damage would be fixable, but was not certain.
Nygren said she does not believe either journalist was physically touched during the attack, but she described the incident as frightening. “It's concerning and really unfortunate that they had to go through that,” she said.
On May 18 Valley News Live reported that Gary Reinhart, the owner of the building slated for demolition, was charged with criminal mischief and disorderly conduct. The station reported that a fire had destroyed the property, after which the city ordered the building demolished by June 30.
The Fargo city attorney’s office told the Tracker it would not comment on charges against Reinhart because the case against him is still open. Reinhart entered a not guilty plea to both charges at his arraignment on June 8, according to North Dakota’s court tracking system.
Reinhart’s attorney declined to comment.
Freelance photojournalist Tim Evans told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was assaulted by multiple law enforcement officers and detained while reporting on a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 16, 2021.
Evans was one of at least 10 journalists detained that night, according to reports given to the Tracker, noted on social media or published in other news outlets.
Several hundred protesters had marched to the Brooklyn Center Police Department in response to the fatal shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright, a Black man, by a white police officer during a traffic stop. Wright’s death, on April 11, occurred as a former police officer in nearby Minneapolis was on trial in the death of George Floyd, rekindling a wave of protests against racial injustice and police brutality that had started nearly a year earlier. According to state officials, a coalition of law enforcement agencies, including the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, the Minnesota State Patrol, and the Brooklyn Center Police Department, was involved in enforcement that night.
Evans, whose work has been published by the European Pressphoto Agency, the Guardian, NPR and other outlets, told the Tracker he arrived to cover the protests earlier in the evening. The demonstration was peaceful, he said, though a few people in the crowd shook the fence around the police station or threw a water bottle at law enforcement. Evans said he heard law enforcement announce an order to disperse at 9:45 p.m. Shortly after 10, he said, law enforcement moved swiftly to form a “kettle,” a crowd-control tactic in which officers block people from leaving.
As law enforcement closed in around the crowd, Evans said, dozens of Hennepin County sheriff’s deputies moved out from behind a fence that surrounded the Brooklyn Center police station, tackling people and spraying them with chemical agents “indiscriminately.”
Evans said that after he’d photographed an officer tackle someone to the ground in front of him, he’d looked to his right, toward a group of other photojournalists. When he turned to look back to his left, he said, he saw a sheriff’s deputy running directly at him. Evans said the officer, about 5 feet away, sprayed him in the face with a chemical agent he believes was mace.
Evans, who was wearing a helmet and goggles, said he dropped to his knees and held up his press credential in one hand and one of his cameras in the other; his credential, he said, is a card he made himself that features his name and photo and states “press” on the top and “photojournalist” on the bottom. In addition to his credential, he said, he had a label fixed to his backpack that identified him as “PRESS.”
Evans said that while he was still kneeling, he took a photograph of another photojournalist being confronted by a law enforcement officer. Right after taking the frame, he said, he heard someone shout, “Get on the ground!”
Evans said he then looked to his left and saw a sheriff charging at him. He said he held out his press credential and shouted to identify himself as press, but the officer proceeded to tackle him onto his back and punch him in the face. Evans said his face was largely protected because the brunt of the blow hit the padded goggles he was wearing.
The officer then ordered him to roll over onto his stomach, Evans said, and told him he was under arrest.
Evans said he complied, continuing to tell the officer he was a journalist. The officer, he said, ignored him and told him to “shut up.” While lying on his stomach, on top of his camera, Evans said he held his press credential over his shoulder. He said the officer grabbed the card, unsnapping the clasp on the lanyard, and threw the pass facedown.
“He rips it off and just, like, throws it into the ground and tells me he doesn’t give a fuck who I am, he doesn’t care if I’m media, and that I should have left when I had a chance,” Evans told the Tracker.
Evans said the officer kneeled on his back and used a shield to push down on him. At that point, Evans said, it seemed clear the officer was not going to release him because he was a journalist, so Evans said he started to try and attract the attention of other law enforcement nearby.
Evans said another officer soon came up to them and asked the deputy if Evans was being arrested. Evans said he tried to tell the new officer that he was press. The new officer told him to “shut the fuck up” and smashed the back of Evans’ helmet, thrusting his face into the dirt. Evans said he could not clearly see this officer, but he believes it was also a sheriff’s deputy.
Evans’ hands were restrained with zip-tie cuffs behind his back, he said. After a few minutes on the ground, he said, he was raised to his feet and brought to sit on a curb.
About 10 minutes later, he said, another officer, who Evans believes was a Minnesota State Patrol trooper, came by and offered to make adjustments so he would be more comfortable. He said he told her he shouldn’t be there because he was a member of the press.
The officer looked at his credential and asked him about who he worked for. Evans said she then went to speak to a lieutenant. When she returned, she said they would let him go, “as long as I agreed to leave the area, and not continue to cover,” Evans said.
“I agreed because at that point, you know, I was not in a position to make demands, I suppose,” he told the Tracker.
He said the officer cut the zip-ties and escorted him to the police perimeter, about a block away, where he was allowed to go.
Evans said he does not believe he was targeted by the first officer, who sprayed the chemical agent at him. “But everything from that point on felt targeted,” he told the Tracker.
Evans said he felt the second officer who attacked him “became more aggressive when he realized that I was a member of the media.”
Evans said the spray left him with rashes on his face, though the impact was mitigated because he was wearing personal protective equipment. His helmet and goggles also protected him from the impact of the punch and having his head shoved into the ground, he said. He said he had scratches on his hands, which he thinks were from the scuffle, but he did not require any medical attention.
The body of one of his cameras was scuffed, the screen protector was broken, and a rubber thumb grip was ripped off, he said. He said his equipment, including his lenses, is all still functional.
Evans’ detainment came hours after a federal judge had issued a temporary restraining order barring Minnesota State Patrol from arresting or using force against journalists, in response to a motion filed earlier in the week by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota.
Evans wrote a declaration about his experience, which the ACLU presented with a letter to the court the following day. He told the Tracker he is planning to file a formal complaint with relevant law enforcement agencies and is considering other action.
A spokesperson for the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office told the Tracker that the department is aware of the incident and is investigating whether any of its staff were involved. He declined to comment further, pending the determination of the investigation. Minnesota State Patrol did not respond to a request for comment.
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 here.
Photojournalist Tim Evans was detained while covering an April 16, 2021, protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. Evans said the officer who detained him kneeled on his back and used a shield to push down on him.
",detained and released without being processed,Hennepin County Sheriff’s Department,None,None,True,0:20-cv-01302,"['ONGOING', 'SETTLED']",Class Action,None,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2021, chemical irritant, protest",,, 2021-05-14 16:04:11.713824+00:00,2024-03-10 23:18:13.526979+00:00,"Photojournalist detained, ‘tackled’ by law enforcement in Brooklyn Center",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-detained-tackled-by-law-enforcement-in-brooklyn-center/,2024-03-10 23:18:13.424271+00:00,,,,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Damage",,,camera lens: count of 1,Joshua Rashaad McFadden (The New York Times),,2021-04-16,False,Brooklyn Center,Minnesota (MN),45.07608,-93.33273,"Freelance photojournalist Joshua Rashaad McFadden, on assignment for The New York Times, said he was detained and hit by law enforcement officers while covering a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota on April 16, 2021.
The fatal police shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center on April 11 rekindled a wave of racial-justice protests that began almost a year earlier. Wright’s death occurred as a former police officer in nearby Minneapolis was on trial in the death of George Floyd. Protests began outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department the day Wright was killed, and continued daily through mid-April.
McFadden told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he and other journalists stuck together as a group as police rushed the crowd.
“We're all literally huddled together in one area, and the police rushed in,” McFadden said. “They rushed the crowd and they detained us.”
The group included other photographers, TV news staff and reporters, McFadden said. He said the journalists were repeating “we’re press, we’re press!” Officers told the journalists “we don’t care” and ordered them to lie on the ground, he said.
McFadden said he was on the ground when one officer came over to him and ordered him to get up, then another officer came over and told him to get back down.
At that point, McFadden said, he was on his knees. He identified himself as a member of the press, he said, and asked the officers, “what do you want me to do?”
Then, McFadden said, another group of officers rushed and trampled over him, knocking him to the ground “like a football tackle.”
He said the officers started hitting him and hitting his camera. He said he was holding his phone in one hand, and felt an officer try to yank the device from him. McFadden said he didn’t want to appear to be confrontational, but he was concerned about losing his phone so he held onto it.
McFadden, who is Black, said a white photographer acquaintance came over and told the officers that McFadden was a journalist and that he worked with the Times.
After the other photographer identified him, he said, the officers allowed him to stand up. He showed them his press pass, which is issued by the National Press Photographers Association. McFadden said the officer told him, “anybody could have made that,” and asked to see his driver’s license, which he had left in his car.
McFadden said it was clear that the officers weren’t going to allow him to go, but they were going to let the other photographer go. He said officers only allowed him to leave when the other photographer volunteered to escort him to his car.
He said he previously had similar experiences, including three days earlier in Brooklyn Center.
“I do know it's because Black members of the press are treated differently,” he said. “And I have to acknowledge that.”
McFadden said the other photographer walked with him so she could help him navigate interaction with law enforcement.
“It's because she knew that at every kind of checkpoint they set up, they were going to either try to hold me or arrest or detain me, or I'll get a million questions if my credentials are real,” McFadden said. He said there was also a risk he could be shot at with rubber bullets while approaching officers from a distance. “If I'm with her I'm able to walk up to the group.”
As they were trying to leave the area, McFadden said, they came upon a checkpoint at a gas station where police had stopped a large number of journalists and were taking photographs of their credentials, IDs and faces. He said officers told the journalists the photographs would be entered into a database.
McFadden said law enforcement again asked him to see his license, and he told them it was in his car. He said that they were stopped at the gas station for about an hour.
McFadden said his shoulder was injured when he was tackled and hit. He also had bruises on his legs, adding to bruises he had gotten earlier in the week when he was hit with crowd-control munitions, and hit with sticks by law enforcement officers while in a car. McFadden said he sought medical attention for the injuries he accumulated through the week. He said he was told to take ibuprofen after he declined other medication, he said.
McFadden’s camera was damaged when he was tackled, he said. The body of the camera was scratched up and he said he needed to get some parts replaced. As a result of the two assaults, he also needed to get the lens repaired.
McFadden told the Tracker he believed he was targeted because he was a journalist.
He said Minnesota State Patrol troopers were involved in the incident. MSP didn’t respond requests for comment by email and phone
McFadden was detained the same evening a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order barring MSP from arresting or using force against journalists, in response to a motion filed earlier in the week by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota.
The next day, April 17, more than two dozen media and advocacy organizations, including the New York Times, sent a letter to Gov. Tim Walz expressing concern about the detainments and other police treatment of journalists since the protests began.
In response to the court order, MSP released a statement on April 17 that acknowledged troopers had photographed journalists, their media credentials and their identification “during recent enforcement actions in Brooklyn Center.” MSP said no journalists were arrested, though some had been detained and released during the protests. The Tracker documents detainments in the arrest category, but notes that the journalists were released without being processed.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests here.
Independent journalist Justin Yau said he was attacked and shoved to the ground by an unidentified individual while covering a protest at Lents Park in Portland, Oregon, on April 16, 2021.
According to Willamette Week, Portland police fatally shot a man in the park that morning after receiving reports of a man pointing a gun. Demonstrators immediately gathered near the scene, yelling “shame on you," at police, which led police to declare an unlawful assembly shortly before noon, according to the article.
Yau, who has been published in the Los Angeles Times, Portland Mercury, ProPublica and Oregon Public Broadcasting, said at around 2 p.m., he was attacked by an individual while photographing the protest. Yau said he had a press credential issued by Willamette Week, which he was then on assignment for, clipped to his collar.
"I was standing and talking to a colleague, when the attacker shoved me to the ground,” Yau told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. “It was an unprovoked surprise attack. The attacker pushed my head while I was on the ground & tried to take my cameras, but was unsuccessful."
Yau said he didn’t know the person, and that accomplices stood by yelling phrases like “Don’t take pictures!” and stopping his colleague from protecting him.
Portland Tribune reporter Zane Sparling tweeted two photographs of the scene, writing that Yau was "bleeding after being shoved to the ground, hit multiple times."
Reporter @PDocumentarians bleeding after being shoved to the ground, hit multiple times while covering a protest in Portland right now pic.twitter.com/F1qVyUL1sa
— Zane Sparling (@PDXzane) April 16, 2021
Yau said the attacker grabbed his glasses, scratching his face in the process, and broke the hood of his 18-25-millimeter lens during the scuffle. Sparling's photograph also shows a pair of broken glasses on the ground.
“The injuries were minimal, [but] breaking my glasses made work really difficult for the rest of the day,” he told the Tracker.
At least 15 journalists were detained by police while covering protests in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on the night of April 16, 2021, according to reports given to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, noted on social media or published in other news outlets.
Several hundred protesters marched to the Brooklyn Center Police Department in response to the fatal shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright, a Black man, by a white police officer during a traffic stop. Wright’s death, on April 11, occurred as a former police officer in nearby Minneapolis was on trial in the death of George Floyd, rekindling a wave of protests against racial injustice and police brutality that had started nearly a year earlier.
According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the protest had been peaceful until around 9 p.m., when, authorities told the outlet, some in the crowd began to throw objects and attempt to break through a barrier around the police station, prompting the declaration of an unlawful assembly and orders for dispersal. Minnesota Public Radio reported that police moved swiftly to corral the protesters and members of the press, deploying flash-bang grenades and pepper spray. According to state officials, a coalition of law enforcement agencies, including the Minnesota State Patrol, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office and the Brooklyn Center Police Department, was involved in enforcement that night.
Aaron Nesheim, a Minneapolis-based freelance photojournalist on assignment for The New York Times, was one of the journalists detained.
Nesheim told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was documenting the protest in the center of the intersection of Humboldt and 67th Avenues just after 9 p.m. when officers advanced on the crowd and ordered everyone to lie down on their stomachs.
“I did not get down. I kept photographing until finally an officer pepper sprayed me,” Nesheim said. “I was wearing a bulletproof vest, and eventually a State Patrol officer grabbed me by the front of the vest and used that to throw me on the ground.”
Nesheim said in addition to his body armor vest, which was labeled with “PRESS” on the front and back, he was wearing a helmet similarly labeled and press credentials issued by the Times and the National Press Photographers Association.
“The [trooper] definitely understood I was a member of the press and was — I guess I would use the word ‘exasperated,’ with the fact I hadn’t just complied and gotten on the ground immediately before he threw me,” Nesheim said.
The force of his fall damaged the 70-200mm lens on one of his cameras, Nesheim said, causing the autofocus not to work properly and requiring repair. The officer ordered Nesheim to stay on his stomach, he said, which he did while continuing to take photos from that vantage point.
“I did stay on the ground, kind of on my side. I didn’t make any moves after that until another officer came in and got me up and started escorting me back to where they were processing the journalists,” Nesheim said.
Law enforcement had established a “media checkpoint” at a nearby Pump n’ Munch gas station, where members of the press had their faces, press credentials and IDs photographed before they were permitted to leave the area. Nesheim confirmed to the Tracker that he had to pass through the checkpoint before he could leave the area.
The next day, April 17, more than two dozen media and advocacy organizations sent a letter to Gov. Tim Walz expressing concern about the detainments and other police treatment of journalists since the protests began.
“Journalists must be allowed to safely cover protests and civil unrest. I’ve directed our law enforcement partners to make changes that will help ensure journalists do not face barriers to doing their jobs,” the governor posted on Twitter after meeting with representatives of the media.
When reached for comment, a spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety referred the Tracker to a statement from the Minnesota State Patrol, which acknowledged that troopers had photographed journalists, their media credentials and their identification “during recent enforcement actions in Brooklyn Center.” MSP said that though journalists had been detained and released during the protests, no journalists were arrested. The Tracker documents detainments in the arrest category but notes that the journalists were released without being processed.
The agency’s statement said troopers will no longer photograph journalists and their credentials, but will continue to check media credentials.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests here.
Block Club Chicago reporter and photojournalist Colin Boyle was assaulted by a Chicago police officer while he was covering a demonstration in northwest Chicago, Illinois, on April 16, 2021. According to its website, Block Club is a local, reader-supported nonprofit newsroom “dedicated to delivering reliable, nonpartisan and essential coverage of Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods.”
According to the Chicago Sun Times, hundreds of demonstrators gathered in front of the city’s Logan Square Monument the evening of April 16 to demand justice for 13-year-old Adam Toledo, who was shot and killed by a Chicago police officer on March 29, 2021. After several speeches and chants, the paper reported, the crowd marched north on Milwaukee Avenue, yelling phrases such as, "No justice, no peace, abolish the police!"
Boyle said he was leaving the demonstration around 9:50 p.m., after several hours of covering a peaceful protest, when he saw an alert on Twitter that said the Chicago Police Department was calling units to return to an intersection where Boyle had been photographing earlier.
Around 10 p.m., he said he arrived on the scene of a standoff between officers and protesters. Boyle said he had been following a group of protesters down West Logan Boulevard toward an area where police had blocked off the street.
"There was a police sergeant telling the police officers to form a line and two seconds later after he made that call, he looked at me and directed me to move," Boyle told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an interview. Boyle said he began to move, but “under four seconds after the sergeant told me to move, an officer comes power walking up behind me and he says, 'Sir, he's not going to tell you again.'"
Boyle said he was holding a Chicago Police Department press badge in his hand and had press markings across his helmet and vest on front and back. He said he also verbally announced that he was press. Still, he said, the officer marched up to him and "shoved me backwards through a crowd of police officers."
According to Boyle, he repeatedly told the officer he was already moving, but the officer cut him off and said, "Nope, nope, nope. Keep on going." After being pushed through "a wall of his coworkers [officers] who did not intervene," Boyle said he lost balance and fell on his camera gear, breaking a camera hood, busting open a flash, and shaking up a telephoto lens, which he said still rattles from the impact.
"This is how you treat press credentialed by your department, again?" Boyle wrote on Twitter alongside several photographs taken at the scene. "Shameful."
The cop on the right started tossing me as I was leaving upon order. I was pushed to the ground and that broke my camera lens hood. Thanks, @CPD_Media. This is how you treat press credentialed by your department, again? Shameful. pic.twitter.com/rOdJknBudb
— Colin Boyle (@colinbphoto) April 17, 2021
After the incident, Boyle said he shared his frustration with CPD Director Glen Brooks, and a few days later he filed a formal complaint. As of early May, Boyle said, he had received no information on the status of his complaint.
Chicago police did not respond immediately to an emailed request for comment. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
Independent journalist Naasir Akailvi, of the Minnesota-based social media news outlet the Neighborhood Reporter, said he was detained while covering a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota on April 14, 2021.
Akailvi told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was detained by Minnesota State Patrol troopers at the same time as his Neighborhood Reporter colleague, journalist Tracy Gunapalan. The Neighborhood Reporter covers social justice movements in Minnesota’s Twin Cities region and publishes on social media platforms, Akailvi said.
Demonstrations were held several days in a row outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department in response to the fatal police shooting of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, during a traffic stop on April 11. Wright’s death occurred as a former police officer in nearby Minneapolis was on trial in the death of George Floyd, rekindling a wave of protests against racial injustice and police brutality that had started nearly a year earlier.
Akailvi and Gunapalan were returning to their car late on the night of April 14 as the protest was winding down, they told the Tracker. As they were moving away from the police department, close to a nearby church, a group of people were tapping on the windows of law enforcement vehicles and going up to officers, so Gunapalan said the pair stopped to film the interaction.
Suddenly, she said, a line of MSP troopers started running up the street toward them. Gunapalan said the journalists held up their camera and microphone and yelled to identify themselves as press, but the troopers shouted at them to move, so they turned and started running.
Akailvi told the Tracker that as he was running, troopers grabbed him and pushed him to the ground. As he was taken down, he said, a trooper pulled his microphone out of his hand. As his backpack was taken off of him, a battery pack fell out, he said.
Akailvi said he was restrained on the ground with a trooper on top of him, and his hands were restrained in cuffs.
He said he told the troopers that he was press and had a press pass around his neck. Akailvi said a trooper got in front of him and said, “That doesn’t always work, does it?” When he asked another trooper to speak with a supervisor, he said the trooper responded, “You can get the fuck out of here.”
Akailvi said troopers brought him over to where Gunapalan and another independent journalist, Niko Georgiades of Unicorn Riot, were also detained.
Troopers had the journalists pull their face masks down, and they took photographs of the journalists’ faces and press passes, he said. Akailvi said he and Gunapalan wear self-made press cards that have their photographs, identify them as press and say “The Neighborhood Reporter.” Gunapalan said the troopers told the journalists they wanted to keep a record of their faces so they wouldn’t be detained again. The journalists, who were released after their photographs were taken, said they were detained for between 10 and 15 minutes.
After they were released, Akailvi said they went back to find the microphone and battery pack he lost when he was detained. He said the microphone was more than 15 feet away from where he had been pulled to the ground and was broken into multiple pieces. He said that he wasn’t able to find his battery pack.
The Minnesota State Patrol did not respond to a request for comment.
On April 16, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order barring Minnesota State Patrol from arresting or threatening to arrest journalists. In a statement in response to the court order, MSP acknowledged that the agency is prohibited from enforcing dispersal orders against journalists.
“While journalists have been detained and released during enforcement actions after providing credentials, no journalists have been arrested,” the MSP statement said.
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 here.
Niko Georgiades, a journalist with the nonprofit media outlet Unicorn Riot, said he was detained by police while covering a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 14, 2021.
Demonstrations were held several days in a row outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department in response to the fatal police shooting of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, during a traffic stop on April 11. Wright’s death occurred as a former police officer in nearby Minneapolis was on trial in the death of George Floyd, rekindling a wave of protests against racial injustice and police brutality that had started nearly a year earlier.
Georgiades told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that shortly before midnight, he and other journalists were near the Lutheran Church of the Master, a short distance up Humboldt Avenue from the police station. He said that police had earlier issued a dispersal order for an area near the police station.
Georgiades said the National Guard, which had been in Brooklyn Center to assist law enforcement, were loading up and leaving with their vehicles. A group of people were shouting at the National Guard vehicles and antagonizing them, Georgiades said, which appeared to prompt the Minnesota State Patrol to decide to make arrests.
Georgiades said as a line of the troopers started running toward him, he turned to run as well. After he started running, Georgiades said he slowed down and stopped to identify himself to police as a journalist.
In a video posted on Unicorn Riot’s website, Georgiades can be heard identifying himself as a member of the press as an officer comes up to him and tells him he’s under arrest.
“For what? I’m press” Georgiades says. “I’m not doing anything, I’m press.”
An officer shouts, “stop resisting!” Georgiades told the Tracker that at that point he had his camera in one hand and the officer had straightened out his other arm behind him.
Georgiades responded, “I’m not resisting, I’m press.”
He said that while officers were detaining him, one pulled a wireless microphone out from his pocket, threw it on the ground, and kicked it.
Georgiades said his wrists were restrained in cuffs and he was brought over to where journalists Naasir Akailvi and Tracy Gunapalan, of the social media news outlet the Neighborhood Reporter also were being held.
Georgiades said police photographed the three journalists’ faces and press credentials. He said he was wearing a press card that identified him as a journalist with Unicorn Riot. Police told the journalists they took the photos so that they would not be detained again.
Georgiades said he was detained for less than 15 minutes in total.
After he was released, he said he went back to retrieve his microphone. He said he asked an officer where it was. The officer yelled at him when Georgiades asked why the equipment had been thrown, but did tell him where to look.
Georgiades said he found the microphone under some bushes. He said the mic flag, a label attached to the microphone which has Unicorn Riot’s logo on it, was missing. Yellow foam that covers part of the microphone was damaged.
The Minnesota State Patrol didn’t respond to a request for comment.
On April 16, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order barring the Minnesota State Patrol from arresting or threatening to arrest journalists. In a statement in response to the court order, MSP acknowledged that the agency is prohibited from enforcing dispersal orders against journalists.
“While journalists have been detained and released during enforcement actions after providing credentials, no journalists have been arrested,” the MSP statement said.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas, or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests here.
Getty Images photojournalist Scott Olson confirmed with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that his camera equipment was damaged by police officers while he was covering a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minneapolis, on April 14, 2021.
According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department that evening to demand justice for 20-year-old Daunte Wright, a Black man who was shot and killed by a white Minnesota police officer during a traffic stop on April 11, 2021. Wright's death occurred as a former police officer in nearby Minneapolis was on trial in the death of George Floyd, rekindling a wave of protests against racial injustice and police brutality that had started nearly a year earlier.
The Pioneer Press reported that demonstrators chanted “Don’t shoot” and other slogans, threw objects at officers and tried to dismantle fences, while law enforcement responded with pepper spray and "marker" rounds. Shortly after 9 p.m., officers declared the protest an unlawful assembly, according to the paper.
"When the police let you know that you might be working a little too close to the action," Olson tweeted the next morning at 10:54 a.m. alongside a photograph of a cracked camera lens and lens hood.
When the police let you know that you might be working a little too close to the action. #DuanteWright #BrooklynCenter #GeorgeFloyd pic.twitter.com/iF7nAEAFjR
— scott olson (@olsongetty) April 15, 2021
Olson confirmed with the Tracker that the equipment was damaged from rubber bullets fired by police, but said in a Twitter message that he does not believe he was the intended target. “As I have learned from covering many similar situations, if you work close you are at greater risk of getting injured or equipment damaged,” Olson said. He declined to comment further.
Brooklyn Center Police Department did not respond immediately to an emailed request for comment. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
Joshua Rashaad McFadden, a freelance photojournalist on assignment for the New York Times, said law-enforcement officers hit him with batons as he covered a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 13, 2021.
The fatal police shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center on April 11, 2021 rekindled a wave of racial-justice protests that began almost a year earlier. Wright’s death, on April 11, occurred as a former police officer in nearby Minneapolis was on trial in the death of George Floyd. Protests began outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department the day Wright was killed, and continued daily through mid-April.
McFadden told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that police got more aggressive with the crowd as the protest continued into the night, and that he heard law enforcement order press to leave the area. McFadden, who had been hit with projectiles the previous night, said he decided to leave.
He said he wasn’t able to go directly to his car because the street was blocked, so he walked in the opposite direction to a gas station up the street. He said he hesitated to walk to his car alone, and while he was at the gas station, he saw another photographer he recognized — freelance photojournalist Chris Tuite.
The two photographers saw someone with a car heading in their direction, McFadden said, and the driver offered to give them a ride to where McFadden’s car was parked.
Right after they got in the car, he said, a large number of law-enforcement officers started up the street. Police and National Guard vehicles also pulled into the area, he said.
Officers surrounded the car McFadden was in and beat on the windows with batons, he said.
“It almost seemed like the windows were going to break,” he told the Tracker.
He said the officers pointed their weapons at them. McFadden said he assumed they were loaded with rubber bullets, but that they looked like guns. McFadden, who was in the back seat with Tuite, said the officers were shouting at them to get out of the car, but it wasn’t possible because the vehicle was surrounded.
Officers dragged the driver of the car out, he said, and Tuite was pulled from the car. The Tracker has documented Tuite's assault here.
Then, McFadden said, two officers got into the vehicle — one into the driver’s seat and the other in the back next to him. He said the officers started hitting him with their clubs, striking him on his legs and hitting his camera, like they were trying to break it.
McFadden, who is Black, said he identified himself as a member of the press multiple times, but the officers didn’t stop.
When Tuite, who is white, then outside of the car, saw the officers in the car hitting McFadden, he told another officer that McFadden was a member of the press and a photographer for the New York Times.
McFadden said the officers then stopped and got out of the car. He said they tried to have him get out of the car on the opposite side from the other photographer, but McFadden objected because he saw police were making arrests on that side of the vehicle. He was able to exit the car next to Tuite.
McFadden said the officers checked his press credential, issued by the National Press Photographers Association. He said the troopers were skeptical, and said, “anybody could have made this.”
Officers told him they needed to see his driver’s license, which he had left in his car because he didn’t want to lose it. He said the officers allowed him to leave when Tuite said he would walk McFadden to his car.
“I saw them hitting Josh with their batons, including his camera,” Tuite said. “He’s a Black male, and they trusted me more than him. It took me saying 10 times that he was media before they got off of him.”
In total, McFadden said, it was about 45 minutes from when officers began beating on the car windows until when he was let go.
McFadden said he believes he was targeted because he is a journalist. “It just seemed there was a certain amount of disdain for the journalists there.”
McFadden also said that in this April 13 incident, and when he was detained and hit again by law enforcement three days later, officers released him only after a white journalist vouched for him.
“I do know it's because Black members of the press are treated differently,” he said. “And I have to acknowledge that.”
McFadden said Minnesota State Patrol troopers were involved in the incident. He said officers from other law enforcement agencies were also present, though he wasn’t sure which ones. A coalition of law enforcement agencies, including the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office and the Minnesota National Guard, were involved in the response to protests in Brooklyn Center.
The Minnesota State Patrol didn’t respond to the Tracker’s requests for comment by email and phone.
McFadden said he had bruises on his legs from being hit. After he was tackled and hit by law enforcement again on Friday the 16th, he went to the hospital for treatment. He said he was given a tetanus shot because he had a cut on his hand.
The officers damaged his camera lens, which was “wiggly” and no longer fit correctly on the mount, McFadden said. He was able to continue using it through the week, but as a result of the damage sustained in the two incidents, he needed to get it fixed. He said he hadn’t decided whether he would file a complaint or take any other action related to the incident.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas, or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests here.
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 just after 2 p.m. he was filming the march with his phone and posting coverage to his own Twitter feed.
He said he was not wearing a “PRESS” jacket or identification but he identified himself verbally to the protest group as press.
A team of people monitoring the perimeter of the march identified themselves as security, he said. “Within a few seconds of seeing and identifying me, one of these individuals came up to grab my [phone] camera and force me away from the group,” said Gutenschwager.
Gutenschwager said he told the monitors that he was there solely as a journalist documenting things peacefully, “but they took significant issue with me having covered the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th earlier this year.”
According to Gutenschwager they accused him of being part of the crowd that attacked the Capitol, “and in assuming I was, said that I was a threat and tried to force me to leave.”
Gutenschwager denied he was a participant in the attack and said he was in Washington D.C. as a journalist that day. One of his videos, of a right-wing Proud Boy member bashing in a window of the Capitol with a stolen police shield, went viral.
“It appeared the anger at the Detroit event was targeted towards me for having been in DC to cover the event,” he told the Tracker.
After the group tried to force him away, “I stayed behind the march from that point forward, but several members of the group became fixated on my presence,” Gutenschwager said.
“Some attempted to keep the peace, telling the other protesters ‘Please don't engage with him. Just let him go.’ Others disagreed,” said Gutenschwager, whose video showed people shouting abuse at him, putting a hand over his phone camera and telling him “you are not welcome here.”
“Someone rammed me into the barricade,” he said. “I was then choked by a man who put both his hands around my neck as my [phone] camera was stolen and thrown over the fence.”
Gutenschwager said his lip was injured and he had scrapes on the right side of his body from the barricade. “I was able to retrieve the camera that had been thrown, at which point I resumed recording as protesters taunted me from the other side of the fence about being bloodied up,” he said.
The phone was not badly damaged so he did not report the incident to the police, he said.
Event organizers Detroit Will Breathe and Detroit Eviction Defense did not respond to requests for comment.
Reporter Don Ford, of KPIX 5, a CBS affiliate station based in San Francisco, California, and his security guard were blinded for “almost an hour” after being sprayed with chemicals while working on a story in Golden Gate Park on April 7, 2021, the journalist told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
The KPIX 5 crew had been recording a segment at around 1:20 p.m. near Stow Lake when they were approached by the suspect, who attempted to steal the crew’s camera. The assailant then sprayed Ford and his security guard with a chemical Ford believed to be pepper spray, before running away. The security guard gave chase, and the assailant dropped the camera, after being hit by his own getaway car. The suspect was then driven off by a second man in a car with Nevada plates.
Ford shared with the Tracker documentation he’d made of the incident just after it happened: “Assignment: Coyotes roaming around Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park. Beautiful sunny warm day with lots of people around. Just me and my guard when we were jumped and pepper sprayed. The attacker used a large canister style Pepper Spray, not the small kind sold in Drug Stores. We weren’t really sprayed, we were doused at close range, directly into our faces.”
He added: “Bad guy grabbed the camera. Guard pulled his weapon and we gave chase before the full force of the Pepper Spray had time to take us down. The bad guy had trouble getting the camera into the car. Camera was still attached to the Tripod. We closed in. Seeing the gun, bad boy dropped the camera, jumped into the car and sped away. Seconds later, we were totally incapacitated with the burning pain.
“SFPD and ambulance arrives and spent the next hour helping us get our sight back. Eventually, we were able to see again.
“I made it home, showered for almost another hour but the pepper is delivered in an oily base that soaks into the skin’s pores. Cops said it may take couple days to fully rid myself of the effects.”
Ford said that the assault happened on his second day back to work, after taking a two-week-long break following a separate assault in March. The Tracker has documented that incident here.
The video camera, a Sony HD professional, was severely damaged, Ford said.
When reached for comment by the Tracker, a San Francisco Police Department spokesperson relayed the following details: “As the suspect was fleeing with the camera, he dropped the camera and entered the getaway vehicle, which fled the scene. Officers rendered aid and summoned medics to the scene, who treated the victims’ non-life-threatening injuries.”
A veteran TV reporter who has been working in the Bay Area since 1981, Ford said that during the course of his career he has chased Sandinistas, documented numerous forest fires and multiple accounts of civil unrest, and was once even rescued from a life raft in the Pacific by the U.S. Coast Guard.
“I've seen a lot,” Ford said, “but I've never seen so many attacks on TV news crews as now.”
"I'm now taking time off work to ‘process’ the attacks,” he added.
According to the SFPD, the “incident remains under active investigation and no arrests have been made.”
While attempting to steal the station video camera, an assailant pepper-sprayed KPIX 5 reporter Don Ford and security guard.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,unknown,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"chemical irritant, robbery",,, 2021-05-07 14:42:14.209096+00:00,2023-11-01 14:41:25.105642+00:00,"Journalist hit with police baton, lens damaged while covering Echo Park Lake protest",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-hit-with-police-baton-lens-damaged-while-covering-echo-park-lake-protest/,2023-11-01 14:41:25.006968+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,camera lens: count of 1,Tina-Desiree Berg (Status Coup),,2021-03-24,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"Independent journalist Tina-Desiree Berg was shoved by a police officer while reporting on a protest near Echo Park Lake in Los Angeles, California on March 24, 2021, Berg told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
Protesters gathered near Echo Park Lake to demonstrate against the city’s plan to clear a homeless encampment, blocking Los Angeles Police Department officers from the park, LAist reported.
In the evening protesters were trying to block police from putting up a barrier around the park, Berg told the Tracker.
Berg, who reports for Status Coup, which describes itself as a progressive, independent news outlet, said she was one of about a half dozen journalists between a line of police officers and protesters. She said she asked if she could move through to the other side of the police line, but an officer refused, telling her, “you’ve made your choice.”
Berg, who was filming using a video camera with a light attachment, said that police were objecting to journalists’ use of camera lights, saying that they were trying to blind the officers.
In a video published by Status Coup on YouTube, officers multiple times ask people, including Berg, to turn off their camera lights. Berg can be heard refusing, at times confrontationally.
In one clip multiple people with cameras can be seen near an officer, who says, “Turn off that light please.”
“I’m not turning off my light, dude, it is necessary for my job,” Berg can be heard saying.
In another clip, an officer can be heard saying “Leave the area, ma’am.”
The video then shows the top of another officer’s helmet, abruptly shakes, and Berg can be heard saying “no!”
Berg told the Tracker that’s when an officer hit her camera lens with a baton, then jabbed her in the abdomen with the baton.
Berg told the Tracker she was wearing a Kevlar vest and was not hurt by the baton. The blow to her camera lens cracked the outer casing of the lens, she said. The interior of the lens was not damaged and it is still usable, she said, though she has not gotten the casing repaired.
Berg said she was wearing multiple press credentials on a lanyard around her neck, including one issued by the Los Angeles Press Club and another that identified her as a journalist for Status Coup.
LAPD spokesperson Raul Jovel said the department opened an investigation into the incident after the Tracker reached out to the department for comment.
At a protest in Echo Lake Park the following day, March 25, at least 20 journalists were arrested, detained or assaulted. Find all documented press freedom violations from the Echo Park Lake protests here.
Don Ford, a reporter with California TV station KPIX 5, was robbed at gunpoint while reporting on a story about car break-ins around San Francisco landmark Twin Peaks on March 3, 2021.
Ford had been talking to a local resident when a white luxury sedan with four men inside drove up, according to KPIX. “Three guys jumped out, one had a gun, put it up to my face and said, ‘We’re taking the camera,’” Ford told the station in a later interview. “My whole thought at the moment was: ‘Let’s be calm. Let’s not get this guy excited. He’s got the gun. I don’t.’”
KPIX reported that Ford was not injured in the robbery.
Responding to a Tweet posted later that evening, the journalist wrote: “When someone points a Glock into your face you definitely let the camera go.”
When someone points a Glock into your face you definitely let the camera go
— Don Ford (@DonKPIX) March 4, 2021
Ford told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the station had offered reporters a security guard to accompany them, but on this occasion he didn’t take one: “I was in an upscale neighborhood in the middle of the day. I felt safe. I was wrong,” he said.
The San Francisco Police Department Park Station, which covers the Twin Peaks area, tweeted about the incident the following day, writing: “The camera was recovered. This incident remains an active and ongoing investigation.”
When reached for comment by the Tracker in May, SFPD spokesperson Adam Lobsinger said that one person had been arrested in March in connection with the incident and that “investigators are still searching for additional suspects for this armed robbery.”
“We do not have information to suggest that the victims [of recent attacks] were targeted because of their status as journalists. The information suggests that the victims were targeted because of the high-dollar value of their electronic equipment,” Lobsinger added, referencing a series of incidents targeting TV crews in the city, including one in February and one in April.
A San Francisco TV crew was robbed of its video camera while reporting on a story near the city’s I-80 Bay Bridge ramp, the San Francisco Police Department confirmed.
The attack happened around 6:50 p.m. on Feb. 6, 2021, when the news crew was filming in the South of Market neighborhood, according to a report from San Francisco CBS affiliate KPIX. KPIX said the journalists were from a local NBC station, NBC Bay Area. The report said the journalists were stopped by two men who jumped out of a four-door Lexus; the men claimed to be carrying firearms under their clothing and demanded the journalists hand over their camera equipment.
“The victims surrendered the news camera, and the suspects fled the scene in the Lexus, traveling eastbound on I-80. The Lexus was driven by another suspect that remained in the car. The victims were not injured,” a spokesman for San Francisco police said.
Moments later the journalists flagged down San Francisco police officers passing on their motorbikes, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The paper said the journalists gave police a license plate number and descriptions of the robbers.
San Francisco police confirmed details of the robbery to the Tracker and said they have arrested two men who were found in possession of the camera. Police said they returned the camera, a Panasonic AJ-PX, to the news crew.
NBC Bay Area did not respond to a Tracker request for comment.
There have been two other recent attacks on TV news crews in San Francisco, with attempts to steal camera equipment, one in March and the other in April.
San Francisco police said in a statement that there was nothing to show this attack was connected to an attack on another TV news crew in San Francisco in Golden Gate Park on April 7 : “We do not have information to suggest that the victims were targeted because of their status as journalists. The information suggests that the victims were targeted because of the high-dollar value of their electronic equipment.”
New York Times reporter Erin Schaff wrote that she was assaulted, one of her cameras stolen and the lens of a second broken by rioters as they stormed the Capitol in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021.
A riot broke out as supporters of President Donald Trump marched on the Capitol, swarmed the building and broke inside in an attempt to disrupt the Congressional certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, Reuters reported. At a noon rally held in front of the White House, Trump called on his supporters to protest the vote on the basis of unfounded claims of election fraud. According to Reuters, the building was breached at approximately 2:15 p.m.
Schaff, who did not respond to a request for comment, wrote in an account published by the Times that she followed the noise of protesters on the first floor of the Senate side of the building.
Schaff recounted that the single Capitol Police officer guarding the ceremonial doors to the Rotunda was rushed by the crowd, forcing open the door.
“I ran upstairs to be out of the way of the crowd, and to get a better vantage point to document what was happening. Suddenly, two or three men in black surrounded me and demanded to know who I worked for,” Schaff wrote.
“Grabbing my press pass, they saw that my ID said The New York Times and became really angry. They threw me to the floor, trying to take my cameras. I started screaming for help as loudly as I could. No one came. People just watched. At this point, I thought I could be killed and no one would stop them. They ripped one of my cameras away from me, broke a lens on the other and ran away.”
Schaff’s congressional press credentials were also stolen in the attack.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting multiple assaults, detainments and equipment damages from Jan. 6 events. Find those here.
Vincent Jolly, a reporter for the weekly magazine of French newspaper Le Figaro, had his phone destroyed during a live report about the riots at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021.
Protests organized around Congress’s confirmation of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory devolved into a riot earlier that day, Reuters reported. At a rally in front of the White House, President Donald Trump called on his supporters to protest the vote on the basis of unfounded claims of election fraud. Hoards of his supporters then marched to the Capitol, swarmed the building and broke inside.
In a clip posted to Twitter by Figaro Live Editor in Chief Vincent Roux, Jolly can be heard at the very beginning giving a live report on the riot at the Capitol while filming a crowd of individuals walking away from the building. Jolly tells the host that they were waiting to hear responses to the violence from the Republican Party and Biden.
Plusieurs journalistes et équipes médias agressés et leurs matériels détruits par des Pro-#Trumps. Comme notre confrère @VincentJolly_ agressé en direct. Pas de blessure mais son téléphone avec lequel il est en direct pour @Figaro_Live est completement détruit. Shame! #Capitole pic.twitter.com/7XGzCLLAq2
— Vincent Roux (@vincentroux88) January 6, 2021
In Jolly’s video, a man is seen breaking away from the group, quickly advancing on Jolly and swiping at his cellphone before the feed suddenly dies. The Figaro Live host, seen to the left of the cellphone image, picks up the narration as the man advances, exclaiming that they would see what had happened to Jolly and that it appeared someone had taken the journalist’s phone.
In the tweet, Figaro Live editor Roux wrote that while Jolly was not injured in the assault, his cellphone was “completely destroyed.” “Shame!” he wrote.
Jolly did not respond to messages requesting comment.
Broadcast equipment belonging to The Associated Press was reportedly destroyed as rioters swarmed a group of broadcast journalists covering the unrest in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021.
At a rally in front of the White House earlier that day, President Donald Trump called on his supporters to protest at the Capitol as Congress confirmed President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory. Following Trump’s speech, which included unfounded claims of election fraud and calls to “fight” the outcome, hundreds then marched to the Capitol, swarmed the building and broke inside, Reuters reported.
Elmar Thevessen, a reporter for German public-service broadcaster ZDF, wrote on Twitter that he and his team were reporting alongside journalists from the AP when a crowd of rioters stormed them and broke through the barricades surrounding the journalists and their equipment.
Well, Trumps Mob hat sich ausgetobt. Dem Kameramann, den Kolleg/innen von Associated Press, ARD, RTL und auch mir geht‘s gut. https://t.co/Xo7SECT0ce pic.twitter.com/3BJ4ZwNlJ8
— Elmar Theveßen (@ethevessen) January 6, 2021
In videos of the incident, the rioters can be heard yelling “Fuck the mainstream media” as well as “CNN sucks” and “Fuck CNN!” The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has not found any information to suggest that a CNN news crew or any CNN equipment was targeted in the attack.
Thevessen told ZDF in a broadcast later that day that Capitol Police had begun using tear gas and flash-bang grenades to clear the west side of the Capitol, causing many rioters to move to the east where the ZDF team and other members of the media were located. The rioters surrounded the journalists and started throwing and destroying their equipment, Thevessen said. The news teams decided that they needed to quickly leave the area.
Thevessen said that while his team was able to save their camera, the AP team was unable to do so. Multiple plastic storage containers bearing the AP logo are visible in photos of the wreckage, and according to Thevessen at least two AP cameras were destroyed. Thevessen estimated that at least $100,000 of AP equipment was damaged.
Outside the Capitol, pro-Trump protesters are smashing cameras and other media equipment yelling “CNN sucks!”
— Christal Hayes (@Journo_Christal) January 6, 2021
One man took a wooden stick and bashed the pile of destroyed equipment.
This stuff isn’t owned by CNN. They are destroying AP equipment. pic.twitter.com/NeIUUSuYaC
A video posted by NBC reporter Shomari Stone shows rioters also pouring water atop the damaged equipment.
In total, Thevessen wrote, approximately 30,000 euros — or around $36,500 — worth of ZDF equipment was destroyed. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented that incident here.
According to Thevessen, none of the journalists were injured in the attack.
The AP confirmed to Daily Beast media reporter Max Tani that AP equipment was stolen and destroyed during the violent protests.
The National Press Photographers Association condemned the Jan. 6 attacks on ZDF, AP and other news teams from visual media. “To do our jobs, photojournalists must be on the front lines to record the news,” the group’s statement reads. “The threats, violence and aggression toward visual journalists are unconscionable acts that erode our democracy and our country’s First Amendment rights.”
At least one man has been arrested in connection with the destruction of the ZDF and AP broadcast equipment. According to an affidavit filed by FBI Special Agent Jamie Stranahan, the bureau has identified Pete Harding of Cheektowaga, New York, as one of the participants.
The affidavit identified Harding as the man in a maroon hoodie, seen in several videos of the incident, who attempted to light the equipment on fire once it had been destroyed and piled up. The man believed to be Harding can be seen lighting a plastic bag on fire using a lighter in a video posted by Deadspin reporter Chuck Modi.
More video of Trump Capitol rioters destroying camera equipment. While they yell “CNN Sucks!” and believe it is CNN, I have received a message that this equipment belongs to ZDF, a popular news station in Germany. More videos coming pic.twitter.com/bsGcCP9VEr
— ChuckModi (@ChuckModi1) January 7, 2021
Harding also confirmed to The Buffalo News that he helped pile up the equipment and attempted to burn it.
“That was a symbolic gesture. Nothing burned. It was metal,” Harding told the paper. “It was far from any structure. It was nowhere near the Capitol building. It was nowhere near a tree. It wasn't even on grass that could be lit on fire. There was a plastic bag. I had a Bic lighter and that was it. It was symbolism."
The News reported that Harding was arrested on Jan. 13 on warrant issued by the U.S. Marshals Service.
Journalists survey damaged equipment outside the Capitol on Jan. 7, 2021, a day after supporters of President Donald Trump occupied the capitol building and targeted the media for harassment, assaults and equipment damage.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],The Associated Press,"Donald Trump, election, Election 2020, protest",,, 2021-01-15 16:11:46.462937+00:00,2024-02-29 19:28:08.365071+00:00,"Rioters rush broadcasters, destroy German outlet’s equipment",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/rioters-rush-broadcasters-destroy-german-outlets-equipment/,2024-02-29 19:28:08.204610+00:00,,,"(2023-07-20 12:51:00+00:00) New York men sentenced in destruction of media equipment during the J6 riot, (2023-10-04 16:46:00+00:00) Illinois man who destroyed media equipment during J6 riot sentenced, (2021-06-24 12:12:00+00:00) Individual charged for the destruction of ZDF, other media equipment, (2023-05-01 13:01:00+00:00) Virginia man ordered to pay more than $33,000 in restitution for destruction of German broadcaster’s equipment during J6 riots, (2022-10-28 11:37:00+00:00) Virginia man pleads guilty to felony charges connected to destruction of news equipment, (2023-04-20 16:53:00+00:00) Man sentenced to 3 years of probation for destroying news equipment during J6 riots; two others plead guilty to similar charges, (2023-02-02 00:00:00+00:00) Virginia man sentenced to 32 months behind bars after destroying news equipment",Equipment Damage,,,"camera equipment: count of 8, cellphone: count of 1, live unit: count of 1, miscellaneous equipment: count of 1, recording equipment: count of 3, storage unit: count of 1",Ralf Oberti ( ZDF),,2021-01-06,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"Broadcast equipment belonging to German public-service broadcaster ZDF and worth approximately 30,000 euros was reportedly destroyed as rioters swarmed a group of broadcast journalists covering the unrest in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021.
At a rally in front of the White House earlier that day, President Donald Trump called on his supporters to protest at the Capitol as Congress confirmed President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory. Following Trump’s speech, which included unfounded claims of election fraud and calls to “fight” the outcome, hundreds then marched to the Capitol, swarmed the building and broke inside, Reuters reported.
ZDF reporter Elmar Thevessen and his team were reporting alongside journalists from The Associated Press when a crowd of rioters stormed them and broke through the barricades surrounding them, according to a tweet posted by Thevessen.
Well, Trumps Mob hat sich ausgetobt. Dem Kameramann, den Kolleg/innen von Associated Press, ARD, RTL und auch mir geht‘s gut. https://t.co/Xo7SECT0ce pic.twitter.com/3BJ4ZwNlJ8
— Elmar Theveßen (@ethevessen) January 6, 2021
In videos of the incident, the rioters can be heard yelling “fuck the mainstream media” as well as “CNN sucks” and “Fuck CNN!” The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has not found any information to suggest that a CNN news crew or any CNN equipment was targeted in the attack.
Thevessen told ZDF in a broadcast later that day that Capitol Police had begun using tear gas and flash-bang grenades to clear the west side of the Capitol, causing many rioters to move to the east where the ZDF team and other members of the media were located. The rioters surrounded the journalists and started throwing and destroying their equipment, Thevessen said. The news teams decided that they needed to quickly leave the area; Thevessen said his team was able to save their camera but the rest of their equipment was destroyed.
According to Thevessen, none of the journalists were injured in the attack.
In the center-left of the photo Thevessen posted, a man in a red beanie can be seen holding an orange microphone belonging to ZDF.
Thevessen said in subsequent tweets that a colleague from German broadcaster ARD had retrieved the ZDF microphone from rioters later that day. In total, he wrote, approximately 30,000 euros — or around $36,500 — worth of equipment belonging to the outlet had been destroyed, including a spotlight and portable video uplink.
Unser Scheinwerfer ist wieder da, in fast perfektem Zustand 😉 Was für erbärmliche Wichte, die offenbar ihre Komplexe abreagieren mussten... @ZDFheute pic.twitter.com/GdamYSIoKu
— Elmar Theveßen (@ethevessen) January 9, 2021
While the ZDF team was able to protect their camera, according to Thevessen two AP cameras were destroyed. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented that incident here.
In an article published the following morning, ZDF Today’s Journal Editor-in-Chief Wulf Schmiese condemned the attack on Thevessen and his team.
“Thank God nothing happened to him or his people. But it was an attack on us — on all of my colleagues who do what we owe to the USA: free reporting,” Schmiese wrote.
According to Schmiese, the rioters also stole phones belonging to the journalists and attempted to “terrorize” the outlet’s control room with threatening calls.
At least one man has been arrested in connection with the equipment destruction. According to an affidavit filed by FBI Special Agent Jamie Stranahan, the bureau has identified Pete Harding of Cheektowaga, New York, as one of the participants.
The affidavit identified Harding as the man in a maroon hoodie, seen in several videos of the incident, who attempted to light the equipment on fire once it had been destroyed and piled up. The man believed to be Harding can be seen lighting a plastic bag on fire using a lighter in a video posted by Deadspin reporter Chuck Modi.
More video of Trump Capitol rioters destroying camera equipment. While they yell “CNN Sucks!” and believe it is CNN, I have received a message that this equipment belongs to ZDF, a popular news station in Germany. More videos coming pic.twitter.com/bsGcCP9VEr
— ChuckModi (@ChuckModi1) January 7, 2021
Harding also confirmed to The Buffalo News that he helped pile up the equipment and attempted to burn it.
“That was a symbolic gesture. Nothing burned. It was metal,” Harding told the paper. “It was far from any structure. It was nowhere near the Capitol building. It was nowhere near a tree. It wasn't even on grass that could be lit on fire. There was a plastic bag. I had a Bic lighter and that was it. It was symbolism."
The News reported that Harding was arrested on Jan. 13 on a U.S. Marshals Service warrant.
Journalists survey damaged equipment outside the Capitol on Jan. 7, 2021, a day after supporters of President Donald Trump occupied the capitol building and targeted the media for harassment, assaults and equipment damage.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"Donald Trump, election, Election 2020, protest",,, 2021-01-18 16:38:08.063714+00:00,2023-11-01 14:47:34.341123+00:00,"VICE News journalist assaulted, camera damaged during Capitol riots",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/vice-news-journalist-assaulted-camera-damaged-during-capitol-riots/,2023-11-01 14:47:34.248402+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,camera: count of 1,Chris Olson (VICE News),,2021-01-06,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"VICE News international correspondent Ben Solomon and cameraman Chris Olson were attacked by several rioters as they covered the assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Demonstrators attempted to smash Olson’s camera, damaging the handle.
President Donald Trump spoke at a noon rally that day in front of the White House, promoting false claims of election fraud and calling for his supporters to march to the Capitol where lawmakers were certifying the victory of President-elect Joe Biden, reported the New York Times. Following the rally, pro-Trump supporters violently stormed the Capitol, disrupting congressional action and occupying several areas within the building.
In a video Solomon posted on Instagram, demonstrators can be seen confronting the VICE journalists, shouting, "Get the fuck out of here!" and asking, "Who are you with? Is it CNN? Better not be CNN."
"Chris [Olson] had a broken handle grip and that guy in forest camo gave me a good hard shove to the throat," Solomon wrote in a caption with the Instagram post.
In Solomon’s VICE video story posted to Youtube, the camera is hit at 1:23 and Solomon's voice can be heard, "They tried to smash our camera."
"We were lucky to get away with minimal damage," Solomon wrote on Instagram. "To hear how many colleagues had it worse that day, I consider myself lucky."
As of press time, Olson had not responded to a U.S. Press Freedom Tracker request for comment. The Tracker documented Solomon’s assault here.
The Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country. Find election-related coverage here.
Photojournalist Chris Jones, who covers right-wing extremism for 100 Days in Appalachia through a partnership with Report for America, was assaulted and had his camera pouch damaged while covering the breach of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The violent storming of the Capitol came after President Donald Trump had spoken at a rally in front of the White House in which he promoted false claims of election fraud and called for his supporters to march to the legislative seat of the U.S. government, where lawmakers were certifying the victory of President-elect Joe Biden, reported the New York Times.
Jones told the Tracker that he’d followed a group of demonstrators as they took the building but was stymied at the entrance, first due to the debilitating presence of tear gas and flash-bang grenades and then because rioters impeded his movement.
“Any time I went in, I got very quickly identified as press and it just got bad,” he told the Tracker. At one point, he said, he was no more than 20 feet inside the building when a rioter yelled repeatedly, “Are you press?” before picking him up and dragging him backward. Another then grabbed his legs. “The three of us clumsily made our way to the door,” Jones said.
At around 2 p.m., he said, a Capitol Police officer threw a flash-bang grenade right next to him and the heat tore through his camera pouch.
As Jones maneuvered among the crowd throughout the day, he said that many approached him with “We’re going to get you” and “You need to move on.” As with several journalists that day, such threats and harassment were common. The Tracker has documented such incidents, including one in which Jones was told he “deserved to be shot,” here.
“There was very clearly an intent and willingness. When they said, ‘Don’t stick around,’ they meant it,” he told the Tracker. He said he encountered younger teens who would show that they carried knives and one man who “flashed a pistol,” claiming, “I’m not here to fuck around.”
The Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country. Find election-related coverage here.
Independent videographer Melissa Lewis was hit multiple times by crowd-control munitions while covering dueling demonstrations in downtown Olympia, Washington, on Dec. 12, 2020. One of the rounds struck and damaged her press pass.
Lewis told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she was covering a “Stop the Steal” protest organized by the far-right group Patriot around the state Capitol, where counterprotesters had also gathered.
“There was a much larger ‘Stop the Steal’ presence than anti-fascist presence, so the anti-fascists were beat back by the far-right very quickly,” Lewis said.
The Olympian reported that the two groups began to clash around 12:30 p.m., and soon after Olympia police declared a riot and issued orders to disperse.
Around 2:30 p.m., Olympian reporter Rolf Boone tweeted that police pushed back antifa protesters using flash-bang grenades.
Lewis told the Tracker the Olympia Police Department officers were using small, round flash-bang grenades, some of which contained OC “pepper” capsaicin dust, an irritant also used in some tear gas and pepper sprays.
As the officers pushed the antifascist counterprotesters away from downtown, Lewis said officers blocked the north and south sides of the street, forcing protesters to choose between facing them or entering a private parking garage.
“It was pretty overwhelming,” Lewis said, adding that police were using so many chemical irritants that residue built up in her eyes.
“[It got] to the point that it was gritty and I had to have my eyes washed out,” Lewis said, “and I was afraid that it might scratch my corneas.”
Lewis said she was physically struck twice in the thigh and once in the chest with the plastic flash-bang grenades. The one that struck her in the chest damaged the press pass from the Industrial Workers of the World Freelance Journalists Union that she was wearing on a lanyard.
I was hit in the chest with a flash bang fragment. It blew my press pass apart. pic.twitter.com/oz4K4CPd82
— Melissa “Claudio” Lewis (@Claudio_Report) December 13, 2020
“If they had been the [flash-bang grenade] canisters, I would have been incredibly injured and I’m honestly very glad they were the plastic kind,” Lewis said. She added that the multiple layers she was wearing because of the cold also prevented her from being harmed more extensively.
Lewis said that in addition to the press pass around her neck, she had “PRESS” markings on her backpack. Lewis said she believed police were deliberately targeting her because the incident took place in broad daylight and because of her identifying markings.
The Olympia Police Department did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
KATU ABC 2 reporter Genevieve Reaume was assaulted and had her phone smashed by individuals participating in an eviction protest in Portland, Oregon, on Dec. 8, 2020.
Reaume and KATU ABC 2 photojournalist Ric Peavyhouse were covering a protest against the feared eviction of a Black and Indigenous family from their foreclosed home in North Portland. Activists had been camping out at the property on North Mississippi Avenue — known as the “Red House” — for months when law enforcement came in on the morning of Dec. 8 to try to take control of the house. As more protesters poured into the area, there were clashes with law enforcement before officers withdrew. Protesters ultimately built barricades blocking streets in the area.
Speaking to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, Reaume says she and Peavyhouse had spent an hour in the early afternoon of Dec. 8 interviewing people in the neighborhood before deciding to enter the barricaded zone. As they came upon a barricade, Reaume says they were approached by protesters trying to block their cameras with umbrellas and telling them they could not film there. After they walked away and let the situation calm down, they decided once more to enter the area.
“Immediately somebody started yelling, ‘Film crew,’” Reaume said. “That’s when a dozen or so, a dozen and a half people started coming over towards us, surrounding Ric’s camera with their umbrellas and their bodies.”
Aware that Peavyhouse’s camera was blocked by protesters, Reaume pulled out her cellphone and began to record video. As she attempted to film, she says a man kept pushing her and trying to grab her phone. When he succeeded in knocking it out of her hand, he then smashed it on the ground and pushed her away again as she tried to retrieve it.
“I finally was able to get my hand onto it and he just stomped on my hand,” she told the Tracker.
Reaume’s left middle finger was cut open, an injury that she had to have glued shut at an urgent care. The incident left her work phone inoperable and with a cracked screen.
Sorry for the blood. Hand isn’t broken, thankfully! Wound was glued up at urgent care. pic.twitter.com/YktY4XCrLC
— Genevieve Reaume (@GenevieveReaume) December 9, 2020
In a video captured by Peavyhouse, umbrellas can be seen trying to block his camera in the run up to the assault while a voice is heard yelling, “There’s a film crew coming through. They’re not our friends. Hide your faces! Don’t trust them! Film crew walking through!”
As the protesters surround the journalists and tell them to leave, a woman can be heard saying, “We got cameras we need.”
In Reaume’s shorter video of the confrontation, she can be heard explaining to protesters that “this is our job.”
“I don’t care. This is our life,” responds one. “Your job is hurting us,” says another.
Then, the phone appears to tumble to the ground, landing with its camera facing skyward as an individual brings their foot down on the device.
As Reaume and Peavyhouse moved to leave the area following the assault, protesters followed them, with some taunting her and shouting, “Bye, bitch!” and “Fuck your hand!”
Contacted by the Tracker, the Portland Police Bureau did not comment on the incident.
Reaume said she believes she and Peavyhouse had not been wearing anything branded with their station’s name, though they still very obviously looked like a TV news crew, she said.
Other Oregon news outlets noted a general hostility toward the press inside the barricaded zone.
According to Oregon Public Broadcasting, protesters inside the barricaded zone banned “anyone from taking photos or videos, including pedestrians and neighbors out walking” while limiting livestreamers to a designated area.
And the Oregonian reported that a building in the area had “Fuck Press” spray-painted on it.
Freelance photojournalist Clementson Supriyadi was assaulted and arrested by Oregon State Police while covering a protest in Portland, Oregon, on Nov. 5, 2020.
In Portland, protests had been held on almost a nightly basis since late May in response to police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the May 25 death of George Floyd. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
At around 8 p.m., Supriyadi arrived at a demonstration at Arbor Lodge Park in North Portland, where protesters had gathered to call for cuts to the Portland Police Bureau’s budget.
Protesters first marched to the home of Portland City Commissioner Dan Ryan, who had voted against cutting the police budget, and vandalized his property. By the time they began marching towards the Portland Police Association office, the protest had been declared an “unlawful assembly.”
When Supriyadi started following a group of protesters across a street, OSP officers pulled up in a van beside him, got out of the vehicle and told him he was under arrest, he said.
“Their van and truck snuck up on everyone,” Supriyadihe told the Tracker. “I was in the middle of the street trying to catch up.”
In a video of the arrest posted on Twitter by independent journalist Garrison Davis, people can be heard yelling that Supriyadi is press.
Police left and the march moved on.
— Garrison Davis (@hungrybowtie) November 6, 2020
Just now, officers charged the crowd from behind and arrested a member of the press on the sidewalk. #Portland #PortlandProtests pic.twitter.com/fskd6KNjDx
“I told them I was press, but at that point they were taking me down,” said Supriyadi, adding that he had been wearing a press pass.
The officers placed him on the ground and zip-tied his hands behind his back, said Supriyadi. That’s also when he believes his camera, a Fujifilm X100f, was damaged. They searched his backpack and his pockets, then moved him to a law enforcement vehicle.
Supriyadi wasn’t taken to a police precinct for processing, but instead was given a ticket and released, he said. He was charged with disorderly conduct and interfering with a peace officer.
Supriyadi said he has a court date for these charges scheduled for Nov. 24, but he hopes the charges will be dropped before then.
Supriyadi said he wasn’t very surprised about being arrested. “At every level of law enforcement that have been coming out to the protests, they hinder the press from doing what they’re trying to do,” he said.
After being released, he noticed that his camera lens was wobbly, though the camera still works. He believes the damage to his camera, which he had been carrying in his pocket, occurred when the officers laid him down on the ground.
Since July, law enforcement officers from the PPB and federal agencies have been barred by court rulings from arresting, harming or impeding journalists or legal observers of the protests. The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon didn’t include the OSP when it filed the cases. But the rulings should also apply to state police, said Matthew Borden, a partner at BraunHagey & Borden LLP who is cooperating counsel with the ACLU on the case. He told the Tracker that the “plaintiffs will likely seek relief if OSP refuses to agree not to target or disperse journalists and legal observers."
The OSP declined to comment on Supriyadi’s arrest. Portland City Attorney Tracy Reeve didn’t return a request for comment.
Independent videographer Sean Beckner-Carmitchel was arrested while filming election-related protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in Los Angeles, California, on Nov. 4, 2020.
Beckner-Carmitchel told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that protesters had planned to march from City Hall downtown to Pershing Square a little less than a mile away. By approximately 7 p.m., most of the crowd had dispersed and Beckner-Carmitchel said he thought he could head out for the night.
A few unmarked police cars moved in on the crowd, and when protesters began taunting them the officers called for backup. Officers then began hemming in the crowd and multiple journalists using a police maneuver called kettling.
“I asked the police where there was a ‘First Amendment Zone,’ as they hadn’t announced one,” Beckner-Carmitchel said, referring to the media staging areas the Los Angeles Police Department have been setting up during protests in recent months.
The officer directed him to the sidewalk and stairs leading up into the square. Beckner-Carmitchel tweeted that while in that press area, officers advanced forward through the intersection and he moved with them to continue his coverage. Officers then directed both him and another videographer, Vishal Singh, toward the middle of the road.
In a video posted by Beckner-Carmitchel of the moments before his arrest shortly after 7:30 p.m., an officer appears to point at the videographer and can be heard saying, “Start with that guy.”
Immediately before my arrest, he can be overheard saying “start with that guy.” Another officer says “Sean?”#1stAmendment #dtla #lapd #blm pic.twitter.com/5fmmMLFFHn
— Sean Carmitchel (@ACatWithNews) November 5, 2020
A video posted by Singh shows Beckner-Carmitchel with zip-tied wrists being led behind the police line just moments before officers move in to arrest Singh as well.
Beckner-Carmitchel told the Tracker that while he was taken into custody an officer threw his helmet onto the ground, damaging it.
Singh said that he believed he and Beckner-Carmitchel were targeted for arrest because they were recording and acting as press.
“They very clearly just looked for the people with the cameras who are there the most and just grabbed me,” Singh said. “As I was live-streaming, I saw multiple officers pointing me out.”
The Tracker has documented Singh’s arrest and the detainment of at least two other journalists here.
In the footage of his arrest, Beckner-Carmitchel doesn’t appear to have any visible identification as a member of the media, but he said both he and Singh told police they were press before they were handcuffed.
Beckner-Carmitchel told the Tracker that both he and Singh were cited with failure to disperse — a misdemeanor — and released approximately two hours later. He added that both of them have been ordered to appear in court on March 9, 2021.
If convicted, Beckner-Carmitchel could face up to six months imprisonment and a fine of up to $1,000, according to California’s penal code.
Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson Capt. Stacy Spell confirmed to the Los Angeles Times that two individuals had been arrested and cited for failure to disperse. She also claimed that LAPD officers have been dealing with large, disruptive crowds that all subsequently claim to be members of the press.
“We are having an ongoing challenge with individuals who are participating in disruptive activities, taking over the street and failing to disperse but subsequently claiming to be media,” Spell told the Times. “Literally the entire crowd claimed to be media.”
Singh told the Times that during his months of covering protests in LA, he hadn’t heard any protesters claiming to be members of the press.
The LAPD didn’t respond to an emailed request for further comment.
Los Angeleno photojournalist Jintak Han was assaulted by a law enforcement official dressed in riot gear while reporting on clashes between protest groups in Beverly Hills, California on Oct. 31, 2020, at approximately 2:30 p.m., Han told the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Han said that he was taking pictures of a protest staged by supporters of President Donald Trump and a counterprotest when he was pushed to the ground by an officer from the Beverly Hills Police Department. Though Han said he was unable to see which officer pushed him to the ground, later video footage confirmed that it was a member of the Beverly Hills police force.
Han said he was wearing an off-white T-shirt, which distinguished him from the counterprotesters wearing all black, and a backpack with a helmet with the word “press” written on it.
“[The officer] was in my blind spot — he came up in my blind spot and he did not make any attempts to notify me that he was there or get out of my way,” Han told CPJ.
Over at Beverly Gardens Park. BHPD just tackled me to the ground for photographing counterprotesters fighting a Trump supporter.
— Jintak Han (한진탁) (@jintakhan) October 31, 2020
Han said that the officer knocked him over on his left side, causing Han to fall on top of one of his cameras and sprain his wrist. He told CPJ, a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, that he did not seek medical attention.
In a statement to the Tracker, Han said that the camera, a Canon 5D Mark VI, was damaged during the fall, and he estimated the cost of repairs would be at least $1,150.
“I’ve been shoved by police before, but this was unlike anything that I’ve felt before,” said Han, describing how a police officer in riot gear — including body armor, helmet and a baton — shouldered him to the ground.
Han said two bystanders, including Vishal Singh who recorded the assault, helped Han to stand and move away from the scene.
The journalist told CPJ that he was wearing accreditation from his employer Los Angeleno, the National Press Photographers Association and the Press Photographers Association of Greater Los Angeles.
Han told CPJ that he went to file a complaint at the Beverly Hills Police Department on Nov. 1, and that, while he was there, law enforcement officials questioned his understanding of media laws in California.
“They suggested that I might be charged with a failure to disperse, despite the penal code specifically allowing the news media to be at the scene for news gathering purposes,” Han said. “I felt that was an attempt at journalism intimidation and was completely baseless.”
Han said he still plans to file a complaint with the police department and the city of Beverly Hills.
BHPD executive officer Lt. Max Subin told CPJ via phone that on Nov. 5 Han filed a complaint with the department about one of their officers who allegedly shoved him while he was reporting. Subin said the department is conducting an internal use of force investigation.
Independent journalist Mason Lake said he was shot three separate times with crowd-control munitions by federal law enforcement officers while he was covering a protest outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland, Oregon, in the early hours of Oct. 29, 2020. The pepper balls also damaged his video camera, he said.
Lake, a videographer, was covering one of the many Portland protests against law enforcement violence that first erupted after the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis on May 25. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
Law enforcement officers in Portland have targeted journalists since the outbreak of the demonstrations, according to a class-action lawsuit filed in June by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon. The case resulted in a temporary restraining order on July 2 barring the Portland police from harming or impeding journalists, which was expanded to include federal agents later that month.
The protest began late on Oct. 28, as demonstrators rallied at Elizabeth Carruthers Park, in the South Waterfront district of Portland, and stretched past midnight. The protesters marched several blocks south to the ICE building, chanting against the Trump administration’s immigration policies, including the separation of children from parents that took place from 2017 to 2018 and the lack of progress in reuniting all of the families.
When demonstrators arrived outside the ICE building shortly before midnight, federal officers warned them they were trespassing and fired tear gas to disperse the crowd, according to the local news station KOIN.
Lake, who was marked as press on a helmet and a vest and carried his press identification with him, was shot three separate times with crowd-control munitions after midnight and caught them all on video that he later posted on YouTube. He said he believes he was targeted by the federal agents because he was filming them.
In the first incident, at around 1:27 a.m., Lake captured federal officers advancing down the street in a cloud of tear gas and shooting crowd-control munitions. At about seven seconds in, Lake is heard cursing after being shot with what he believes were pepper balls.
“I was shot in the back of my thigh when we were backing up from the line they were pushing us from,” Lake told the Tracker. “It also hit my back.”
In the second incident, at around 1:34 a.m., Lake approached a tear gas canister on the ground, and was then fired at. He responded by cursing at the federal agents.
“They shot me in the chest with the pepper rounds, and then my camera got hit with a pepper round, got hit with a pellet, and then another pepper round. And the mic itself got hit with a pepper round,” Lake told the Tracker.
His Canon EOS 6D Mark II camera was damaged, with the audio connection and hot shoe needing cleaning and maintenance. The mic also needed work after being hit with a pepper ball.
“I had to send in the camera for work. The camera took some damage, though thankfully not too much,” he said.
In the third incident, at 1:58 a.m., Lake is hit with crowd-control munitions as he walks towards federal officers stationed outside the ICE facility. At about six seconds in, Lake can be heard yelling that he was shot in the face. He then turns his camera to show where a mark was left on his helmet.
Lake told the Tracker it was a pepper round that hit him that time as well.
The Department of Homeland Security didn’t respond to a request for comment on the incidents.
Lexis-Olivier Ray, a freelance multimedia journalist, was tackled to the ground by Los Angeles Police Department officers and beaten with batons, damaging his equipment as he documented the celebrations of the Dodgers’ World Series win in Los Angeles, California, on Oct. 28, 2020.
Los Angeles and cities across the U.S. experienced protests against police brutality throughout the summer, and crowds in L.A. had clashed with police earlier in October during celebrations of the Lakers’ NBA championship win. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
USA Today reported that the Dodger celebrations in L.A. that began the night of Oct. 27 took place mainly in downtown and in Echo Park, a neighborhood near Dodger Stadium. Ray covered the event on assignment for L.A. Taco, a digital-only outlet focused on the city. Ray did not respond to emails requesting comment.
Ray told the Los Angeles Times that he was near the intersection of West 8th and Flower Streets when officers suddenly sprinted forward and pinned him against a car. Ray said that he feared being dragged underneath the car, which was slowly moving forward, if the driver accelerated.
Shortly after midnight, Ray posted a video to Twitter that shows a line of officers in riot gear rushing at him, pushing him repeatedly and ultimately knocking him to the ground. Ray can be heard identifying himself as a member of the press multiple times.
Ray told the Times that he had introduced himself to a police supervisor at the scene moments before the incident, so some of the officers who were standing with the supervisor should have known who he was.
In a subsequent tweet, Ray posted pictures of a few abrasions on his right hand and elbow, as well as damage to his video camera’s microphone and lens. “A group of LAPD officers just broke my camera mic, tackled me to the ground and beat me with their batons, after I identified myself as a journalist multiple times,” he wrote. He noted, however, that he was “OK.”
A group of LAPD officers just broke my camera mic, tackled me to the ground and beat me with their batons, after I identified myself as a journalist multiple times. @LATACO pic.twitter.com/2VaB4sq8IJ
— Lexis-Olivier Ray (@ShotOn35mm) October 28, 2020
“It’s really difficult to be a reporter right now,” Ray told the Times.
The Los Angeles Police Department did not respond to an emailed request for comment as of press time. Officer Lizeth Lomeli, an LAPD spokesperson, told USA Today she had no information about the incident.
Los Angeles Police Department officers in riot gear stand guard near Dodger Stadium on Oct. 28, 2020, following the Los Angeles Dodgers’ World Series win.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,,,, 2021-01-29 16:08:01.127286+00:00,2023-10-27 21:51:11.349664+00:00,"Videojournalist assaulted, equipment broken during Austin demonstration",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/videojournalist-assaulted-equipment-broken-during-austin-demonstration/,2023-10-27 21:51:11.254492+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,camera: count of 1,Hiram Gilberto Garcia (Freelance),,2020-10-24,False,Austin,Texas (TX),30.26715,-97.74306,"Austin-based independent videojournalist Hiram Gilberto Garcia was assaulted and had his equipment damaged while covering a protest in Texas’ capital city on Oct. 24, 2020, according to social media posts.
At approximately 6:40 p.m., Garcia — who posts his livestreams and interviews on Facebook and his website — was documenting a march against police brutality organized to mark the six-month anniversary of the death of Mike Ramos, an unarmed Black and Hispanic man who’d been fatally shot by an Austin police officer on April 24.
The protest was also part of a national movement against police brutality that had swept across the country over the summer. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented hundreds of incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or had their equipment damaged while covering protests in 2020. Find all of these cases here.
In his livestream of the Austin march, Garcia identifies a group of demonstrators he believed were affiliated with the Mike Ramos Brigade, which had organized after Ramos’ death to seek “justice for Mike and all victims of police violence.” The MRB had come to be seen by some in the community as militant, and Ramos’ mother, Brenda Ramos, had distanced herself from the group, KXAN News reported.
“The Mike Ramos Brigade — if it is the Mike Ramos Brigade — is not very friendly with me,” Garcia says in the footage, as some two dozen individuals advanced down South Pleasant Valley Road toward the intersection with East Riverside Drive.
Shortly thereafter, Garcia can be seen crossing the street to document the group more closely after confirming that the group did include members of the MRB.
As soon as Garcia gets a few yards ahead of the group, an individual can be seen breaking away, running up to the journalist and holding a sign in front of his camera in order to prevent him from filming. Multiple other individuals can be heard yelling at Garcia, “Fuck you, Hiram!”
Addressing the animosity, Garcia says in his stream, “Specifically, they’re more concerned that I don’t take really extreme measures to blur out their faces or edit footage afterwards. Obviously this is not what the stream is about.”
“As far as the disagreement between MRB and the platform is simply that, one, I’m unbiased—” Garcia says, before a demonstrator interrupts him, saying, “and two, you’re a fucking snitch!”
In the footage, Garcia continues to follow and attempt to film the group as it crosses the street, with participants consistently holding their signs in front of their faces, cursing him and demanding that he leave.
“Hiram, I don’t know why you’re here!” a participant says through a megaphone. “You’re not here for Black lives. You’re here for yourself.”
Someone then grabs for his camera, which flips the point of view of the footage upside down. It is unclear what transpired after that point, though it appears Garcia was pushed back toward the road and his equipment was knocked out of his hands. Within seconds, the stream abruptly stops.
A post to Garcia’s Facebook page said, “Today during our broadcast Hiram was assaulted and had all of his equipment destroyed and taken (not confirmed), police and EMS were dispatched to the scene and asked Hiram if he wanted to go to the hospital to get checked out, to which he agreed and went with EMS to the Hospital.”
The post went on to condemn the attack on Garcia, but also asked that his subscribers not retaliate against the Mike Ramos Brigade or “seek vigilante justice.”
“Please we only want to bring you information about what is happening around you and report as accurately as possible what is happening, so you all have a better source to make decisions from.”
On Oct. 26 an update was posted to Garcia’s page noting that he was “resting at home and going through standard concussion protocol.”
“[Garcia] suffered from a concussion according to the ER, along with a black eye and some other scrapes and bruises,” the post reads. “Again we continue to denounce any violence of any kind, our mission is truth, Justice, and Honor, we will continue on that path.”
In an emailed comment, a representative for Garcia said, “Our comments will always be the same. We are not the story, our mission is simply to show people who are not down on the streets or at events what is happening in their community as the events happen.”
The representative did not respond to requests for elaboration on the number and type of equipment damaged or whether Garcia has filed or plans to file a police report.
Independent journalist Alissa Azar was shoved and hit with batons by law enforcement officers while she was covering a protest in downtown Portland, Oregon, during the early morning hours of Sept. 27, 2020.
The protest was among the many demonstrations that broke out in response to police violence and in support of Black Lives Matter following the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
Law enforcement officers in Portland had targeted journalists since the outbreak of the demonstrations, according to a class-action lawsuit filed in June by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon. The city agreed to a preliminary injunction in July to not to arrest or harm any journalists or legal observers of the protests or impede their work.
On the night of Sept. 26, several hundred protesters gathered in front of the Multnomah County Justice Center for a demonstration that lasted into the early morning hours, according to local news station KGW8. After an unlawful assembly was declared around 11:30 p.m., law enforcement officers “began bull-rushing and pushing protesters, press, and legal observers,” the article said.
A little after midnight, Azar was pushed around, hit with batons and shoved to the ground by officers while covering the demonstration, she told the Tracker.
“Before we knew it, a few riot vans came in and arrested three people just for standing in the street,” she said, noting that officers from the Portland Police Bureau, Oregon State Police and Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office were working together under a unified command.
“They pushed us SO far. And by pushed I mean literally sprinting as fast as they could after us...I saw countless people get pushed and hit,” Azar tweeted at 12:25 a.m.
In a follow-up tweet, she wrote, “I got told to move and to ‘use my brain’ and ‘self accountability’ for saying I’m moving. I then got pushed to the ground, picked up by my backpack strap & pushed again then told to ‘stop flopping around.’ Wrist is already bruising and swelling & hurt my ankle.”
I got told to move and to “use my brain” and “self accountability” for saying I’m moving. I then got pushed to the ground, picked up by my backpack strap & pushed again then told to “stop flopping around.” Wrist is already bruising and swelling & hurt my ankle 😎
— Alissa Azar (@AlissaAzar) September 27, 2020
Azar sustained a minor concussion, numerous bruises, a thumb injury that required medical attention and a cracked phone screen, she said.
She had been wearing a vest and helmet, both labeled with press markings, she said, as well as a National Press Photographers Association press pass.
In a joint statement on that day’s demonstrations, MCSO Sheriff Mike Reese and OSP Superintendent Travis Hampton praised officers for maintaining safety and order while allowing people to exercise their rights.
When reached by email about this incident, the PPB declined to comment, citing pending litigation. MCSO didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment.
OSP spokesperson Timothy Fox told the Tracker that “if someone feels that excessive or improper force was used against them,” they may report it to the Office of Professional Standards for investigation.
Freelance journalist Michael Elliott said he was repeatedly shoved by law enforcement officers, damaging his camera, while covering a protest in Portland, Oregon, early on the morning of Sept. 27, 2020.
Elliott told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was documenting one of the many protests held for months in downtown Portland and across the U.S. in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
Law enforcement officers in Portland have targeted journalists since the outbreak of the demonstrations, according to a class-action lawsuit filed in June by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon. The ACLU suit led to a temporary restraining order, and later a preliminary injunction, barring the Portland Police Bureau from harming or impeding journalists.
On Sept. 26, a rally organized by the Proud Boys far-right extremist group drew some 800 people to Portland, while at least 1,000 counterprotesters gathered nearby, The Oregonian reported. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown had declared a state of emergency ahead of the rally, putting officers from the PPB, Oregon State Police and the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office under a unified command. After those protests ended, left-leaning demonstrators gathered downtown later that night, according to The Oregonian, and police declared an “unlawful assembly” around 11:40 p.m.
Videos posted on social media into early the morning of Sept. 27 show police pushing many people who were marked as “press.”
Elliott, who says his work has been published by VICE, Oregon Public Broadcasting and Willamette Week, among others, told the Tracker he was one of the journalists repeatedly shoved by officers using their batons shortly after midnight. At least six other journalists also reported being shoved, pushed or grabbed by law enforcement officers that night.
“I was literally pleading with the law enforcement [officers] to stop pushing me because they were pushing me into protesters who were pushing back,” Elliott said. “They were relentlessly pushing us, a group predominantly of press, and the press was essentially trampling each other at that point.”
Elliott added he believes that at some point during the incident, one of the officer’s batons struck his camera, cracking the glass of his camera’s viewfinder. He said that in addition to his camera, he was wearing a press credential around his neck and a helmet labeled “PRESS.”
The following day, the ACLU called for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate police treatment of journalists, The Oregonian reported.
Gov. Brown tweeted on Sept. 27 that she asked the individual law enforcement agencies to investigate any allegations about the use of force against members of the press or public. In a statement on behalf of the three agencies, the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office said it was aware that video had been taken of several incidents involving force, which would be reviewed to determine whether any officers violated law enforcement policies, according to The Oregonian.
Since July, law enforcement officers from the PPB and federal agencies have been barred by court rulings from arresting, harming or impeding journalists or legal observers of the protests. The PPB has said it wouldn't comment on incidents involving journalists covering the protests, citing continuing litigation in the ACLU case. A spokesperson for the Oregon State Police said they weren’t aware of the incidents.
A livestreamer was punched and shoved to the ground while covering a Sept. 26, 2020, rally in Portland, Oregon. The attacker was filmed kicking the journalist in the face, taking his phone and throwing it over a fence.
Journalists covering the Sept. 26 rally of the Proud Boys, a far-right group, Portland’s Delta Park, captured images of a man assaulting the livestreamer, who goes by the name Jovanni, the Daily Beast reports. The event attracted between 200 and 300 people, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting.
Independent journalist Zack Perry told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that at one point during the rally he witnessed members of the crowd yelling at Jovanni and trying to chase him out of the event. A man clad in jeans, gray shirt and a ballcap punched Jovanni in the eye but the livestreamer managed to get away, according to Perry and a Twitter post by Jovanni.
Jovanni did not respond to the Tracker’s requests for comment.
Perry, Jovanni and two other journalists tried to walk out of the event as a group, but Jovanni’s assailant “kept stalking us and berating us, blaming us for killing Jay Bishop and for burning down the city of Portland,” Perry said.
“Jay Bishop” is an alias for Aaron Danielson, a “friend and supporter” of the right-wing, Vancouver, Washington-based Patriot Prayer group who was shot and killed on Aug. 29, 2020, during a clash of left-wing groups and supporters of President Donald Trump in downtown Portland, the Oregonian reports.
“He pushed me very aggressively multiple times and punched me in the back of the head on two separate occasions but we just kept walking,” Perry said. After Perry was struck, the journalist said he stepped away in order to get “some distance to see if I could capture footage of him fucking with us better.”
The Tracker documented the assaults of Perry and independent journalist Justin Katigbak here.
At that point, Perry said, the assailant who had punched Jovanni earlier assaulted him a second time, throwing him into a fence and kicking him in the face.
Portland Tribune reporter Zane Sparling posted a video on Twitter of the attack at about 4 p.m. in which the man is seen kicking Jovanni in the face, snatching his phone from his hand and throwing the device over the fence. The assailant then falls to the ground himself.
Perry said that both journalists and rally attendees then moved to separate the assailant from Jovanni and that he and other journalists took the livestreamer to be seen by medics on hand at a nearby Black Lives Matter protest.
Jovanni tweeted on Sept. 27 that he went to the hospital and learned that he suffered a concussion from the attack. He said that he was unable to recover his phone but that a “homie got me a temporary.”
The Portland Police Bureau tweeted that the department was investigating the on-camera assault and called on witnesses to come forward. But a department spokesperson told the Tracker that investigators were unable to get in touch with Jovanni to look into the matter further.
“I have not been notified that there has been any change to that case. As far as I can tell it remains inactive,” Portland Police Sgt. Kevin Allen told the Tracker on Feb. 1, 2021.
Independent photojournalist John Rudoff was shoved to the ground by police while he was photographing an arrest during a protest in Portland, Oregon, late on Sept. 26, 2020.
Rudoff, whose work has been published in The New York Times, The Nation and Rolling Stone, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he hit the ground “so hard that my teeth hurt” and that his camera lens was significantly damaged.
Rudoff was documenting one of the many protests that had been ongoing for months in downtown Portland and across the U.S. in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. The Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
Law enforcement officers in Portland have targeted journalists since the outbreak of the demonstrations, according to a class-action lawsuit filed in June by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon. The ACLU suit led to a temporary restraining order, and later a preliminary injunction, barring the Portland Police Bureau from harming or impeding journalists. Rudoff is a plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit.
Earlier in the day on Sept. 26, a rally organized by the Proud Boys far-right extremist group drew some 800 people to Portland, while at least 1,000 counterprotesters gathered nearby, The Oregonian reported. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown had declared a state of emergency ahead of the rally, putting officers from the Portland Police Bureau, Oregon State Police and the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office under a unified command. After those protests ended, left-leaning demonstrators gathered downtown later that night, according to The Oregonian, and police declared an “unlawful assembly” around 11:40 p.m.
Rudoff told the Tracker that he was following a crowd of protesters around 11:45 p.m. when several police officers ran up the sidewalk and tackled a demonstrator. Rudoff crossed the street and ran to document the arrest, along with several other journalists and photographers.
When Rudoff started taking photographs, standing at least 10 feet back, two officers put their hands on him and pushed him backwards, he said. He didn’t have time to put a foot back to catch his balance, and he landed on his right hip and the right side of his back. The right side of his head got slammed to the ground, he said.
“All the teeth in my mouth hurt from the impact of my helmet on the sidewalk,” he said.
Video posted on Twitter at midnight by Mike Baker of The New York Times shows officers running alongside a wall and tackling an individual to the ground. About 20 seconds into the video, Rudoff, wearing a bright yellow backpack, can be seen standing several yards back from the arrest, holding a camera up to take a photograph. Then two officers approach him, put their hands on his shoulder, and push him to the ground.
Aggressive arrests, baton jabbing and knocking a photographer to the ground. pic.twitter.com/OXdGhfOs3k
— Mike Baker (@ByMikeBaker) September 27, 2020
Rudoff said he was protected from the impact because he was wearing a helmet and body armor. He continued to work for about 20 more minutes before going home. He didn’t require any medical attention, he said, but was sore for the next few days.
His 24-70mm Canon lens, the shorter of two lenses he had with him that night, was significantly damaged and had to be repaired, he said.
Rudoff said he believes PPB officers pushed him, but that it’s possible it was a state trooper.
He doesn’t know whether he was targeted because he was a member of the press, saying it’s possible he was pushed because he was a civilian approaching a police action. However, he believes it’s more likely he was shoved because he was a clearly marked journalist photographing a violent arrest. “That would be the argument, that I was targeted because I was able to record what they were doing,” he said.
Rudoff noted that he had “press” written on his helmet and body armor, press identification around his neck, and professional-grade cameras.
Attorneys involved with the ACLU suit are aware of the incident on Sept. 26, he said.
The ACLU called for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate police treatment of journalists that night, The Oregonian reported. Matt Borden, a lawyer on the ACLU case, was quoted as saying the incident involving Rudoff “violates basic human decency in addition to the Court’s injunction.”
Brown tweeted on Sept. 27 that she asked the individual law enforcement agencies to investigate any allegations about the use of force against members of the press or public. In a statement on behalf of the three agencies, the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office said it was aware that video had been taken of several incidents involving force, which would be reviewed to determine whether any officers violated law enforcement policies, according to The Oregonian.
A spokesperson for the PPB declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation. A spokesperson for the OSP said they weren’t aware of the incidents.
A journalist with Full Revolution Media said he was arrested by police while covering a protest on the night of Sept. 26, 2020, in downtown Portland, Oregon.
The protest was among the many demonstrations that broke out in response to police violence and in support of Black Lives Matter following the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
Law enforcement officers in Portland had targeted journalists since the outbreak of the demonstrations, according to a class-action lawsuit filed in June by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon. The city agreed to a preliminary injunction in July to not to arrest or harm any journalists or legal observers of the protests or impede their work.
Earlier in the day on Sept. 26, a rally organized by the Proud Boys far-right extremist group drew some 800 people to Portland, while at least 1,000 counterprotesters gathered nearby, The Oregonian reported. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown had declared a state of emergency ahead of the rally, putting officers from the Portland Police Bureau, Oregon State Police and the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office under a unified command.
After those protests ended, left-leaning demonstrators gathered downtown later that night, according to The Oregonian, and police declared an “unlawful assembly” around 11:40 p.m. At 10:23 p.m., the MSCO tweeted that "officers have made more than a dozen arrests."
John, the Full Revolution Media journalist, told the Tracker, "I moved south and decided to separate from the protesters by myself to look for a friend that had my charging cable, as my phone was about to die."
John, who asked that his last name not be used out of safety concerns, said an officer asked him to go with the crowd, but he said, "No, I'm going southwest."
"He told me again, and knowing it was not a legal order, I started to walk when he grabbed me and said, 'You are under arrest,'" he said.
John believes he was targeted, noting he had just interacted with that officer about 30 minutes earlier.
He had press markings on the front and rear of his helmet, he said, but was still transported in a "paddy wagon with people with no masks" to the Multnomah County jail, where he was booked for harassment and interfering with a peace officer. The charges were later dropped, John said.
The journalist said he was released on a Sunday and allowed to pick up his personal belongings on Monday when the property room opened, but his work-related belongings were kept in evidence until he filed for their release. On Thursday he was allowed to retrieve his helmet, GoPro camera, Canon camera, and backpack with a backup phone, charger, batteries and other items in it.
"One of my phones (brand new) had been damaged," he told the Tracker. "I was in booking for 14 hours, and if it weren't for help from people outside jail, I wouldn't have been able to pick up my daughter."
The MSCO didn’t respond to a request for comment. The PPB has said it wouldn't comment on incidents involving journalists covering the protests, citing continuing litigation in the ACLU case.
WLNE-TV ABC 6 cameraman Paul Duddy had his camera kicked by an individual during a protest in Providence, Rhode Island, on Sept. 25, 2020, according to social media posts by station employees.
An ABC 6 news crew had been following a protest march against the Sept. 23 announcement that a Kentucky grand jury would not be filing charges against police officers for the killing of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old unarmed Black woman who was shot and killed during a botched police raid on her Louisville apartment on March 13. The announcement rekindled racial justice protests across the country, including in Providence.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting arrests, assaults and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
At 10:11 p.m., ABC 6 reporter Brittany Comak tweeted a video showing an individual in white sneakers breaking off from the march, running toward the lens of a camera as it filmed the scene and kicking it.
“Many of the protesters were hostile to the media. This happened walking the Brown University Campus. We are okay. Please remember we are just trying to do our jobs,” she wrote.
Many of the protesters were hostile to the media. This happened walking the Brown University Campus. We are okay. Please remember we are just trying to do our jobs. @ABC6 pic.twitter.com/8haz790vaz
— Brittany Comak (@BComakABC6) September 26, 2020
She later wrote on Twitter that the kick was “dangerously close to my photographer’s head.”
Kim Kalunian, a reporter at WPRI 12 who was also at the march, reported seeing the incident as well.
“One of the protesters just kicked the lens of a camera being manned by a photojournalist from @ABC6,” she wrote on Twitter at 9:23 p.m. “We heard them saying they should smack our cameras just moments before.”
Shiina LoSciuto, another WPRI 12 reporter, tweeted: “It sounded like a few people were threatening to scratch our cameras because we are ‘not on their side.’”
A later tweet from ABC 6 reporter Amanda Pitts identified the cameraman whose camera was kicked as Paul Duddy.
Staff at ABC 6 and WPRI 12 did not respond to requests for comment.
On the evening of Sept. 12, 2020, deputies with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department tackled and arrested journalist Josie Huang while she was covering officers making an arrest, she confirmed to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Huang, who is a reporter for a National Public Radio member station KPCC and local news website LAist, wrote on Twitter that she was attending a press conference led by Sheriff Alex Villanueva at the St. Francis Medical Center in Los Angeles and had just gotten in her car to head home when she heard shouting. She wrote that she got out of her car and went to investigate what was happening, noting that she was wearing a press ID around her neck.
Last night I was arrested and charged with obstructing a peace officer by @LASDHQ after videotaping their interactions with protesters in Lynwood. This is what I remember and what I have on video and audio.
— Josie Huang (@josie_huang) September 13, 2020
“A handful of men were on the sidewalk. A couple were carrying large flags. Others were filming deputies and taunting them,” she wrote. “I started filming on my phone, standing off to the side. No one took issue with me being there.”
Huang wrote that she followed deputies down the street and filmed as they arrested an individual, using the zoom on her camera to maintain a physical distance.
The deputies suddenly told Huang to back up and, “Within seconds, I was getting shoved around. There was nowhere to back up,” she wrote.
A video published by OnScene.TV shows deputies throwing Huang to the ground and arresting her. She also tweeted that the officers stomped on her phone and damaged it, but did not break it.
Deputies detained Huang for approximately five hours before releasing her with a citation for obstructing a police officer, according to Huang’s posts on Twitter and a copy of the citation seen by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
If convicted of obstructing police, a misdemeanor, Huang could face a fine up to $1,000, imprisonment in a county jail for up to one year, or both, according to the California penal code.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department tweeted the morning following Huang’s arrest that she did not identify herself as a member of the press and that she “later admitted she did not have proper press credentials on her person.” However, in a video Huang filmed while she was being arrested, she can be heard clearly identifying herself as a reporter for KPCC.
LAist published her full account on Sept. 13.
Committee to Protect Journalists, a founding partner of the U.S.Press Freedom Tracker, called the sheriff’s department for comment and was told by the person who answered that they are not answering questions at this time because there is an ongoing investigation. Deputy Grade Medrano, a department spokesperson, sent an emailed statement to CPJ that said the sheriff’s department was aware of the incident, and that an active investigation was underway.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, a Tracker partner, and a coalition of 65 press freedom organizations — including more than a dozen other Tracker partner organizations — sent a letter on Sept. 16 calling on the sheriff’s department to drop all charges against Huang. It also urged the department to take immediate action to prevent future arrests of working members of the press.
Journalist Josie Huang was arrested outside of St. Francis Medical Center in Los Angeles. Protesters and law enforcement were gathered there following the shooting ambush of two LA County Sheriff's Department deputies.
",arrested and released,Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department,2020-09-13,2020-09-12,True,None,[],None,None,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,,,, 2021-02-05 14:23:30.477879+00:00,2023-12-18 22:09:08.767255+00:00,Man charged with throwing rocks at NYC’s WABC-TV studios,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/man-charged-with-throwing-rocks-at-wabc-studios-in-manhattan-during-broadcast-damaging-wpix-equipment/,2023-12-18 22:09:08.344199+00:00,,,(2023-10-25 00:00:00+00:00) Case sealed for man who threw rocks at WABC-TV studios,Equipment Damage,,,building: count of 1,,,2020-09-09,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"New York City police arrested a man on criminal mischief charges for throwing rocks marked with profanities at the windows of the WABC-TV news studios on Manhattan’s Upper West Side on Sept. 9, 2020.
Jerry Velez, 41, was allegedly caught on camera as he tossed rocks at two windows of the channel’s studios while its noon broadcast was underway.
One of the rocks had “Fuck ABC 7” written on it and the other carried the message “Whore 666,” the New York Post reported.
Police said that the attack caused $40,000 worth of damage to the station’s windows. The criminal charges also allege that earlier that day, Velez had pushed over a light pole that TV station WPIX had set up outside Manhattan’s Hudson Yards, causing it to crash into a set of LED lights and a battery pack and causing $2,000 worth of damage, according to court papers shared by the district attorney’s office.
The attacks touched off a brief manhunt before the New York City Police Department tweeted on Sept. 10 that officers arrested Velez in connection with the incident at WABC.
According to court records, Velez told an NYPD detective that he was the culprit in both attacks. He faces three charges of second-degree criminal mischief, a felony charge.
New York City police arrested a man on criminal mischief charges for damaging a WPIX television crew’s equipment on Sept. 9, 2020.
The criminal charges allege that Jerry Velez, 41, pushed over a light pole that WPIX had set up outside Manhattan’s Hudson Yards on the morning of Sept. 9, causing it to crash into a set of LED lights and a battery pack and causing $2,000 worth of damage, according to court papers shared by the district attorney’s office.
The New York Post reports that a reporter and a photographer were present for the attack on WPIX’s equipment.
About two hours later, Velez was allegedly caught on camera as he tossed rocks at two windows of WABC-TV’s studio in Manhattan’s Upper West Side while the channel’s noon broadcast was underway. One of the rocks had “Fuck ABC 7” written on it and the other carried the message “Whore 666,” the Post reported.
The attacks touched off a brief manhunt before the New York City Police Department tweeted on Sept. 10 that officers arrested Velez in connection with the incident at WABC.
According to court records, Velez told an NYPD detective that he was the culprit in both attacks. He faces three charges of second-degree criminal mischief, a felony charge.
Freelance journalist and National Press Photographers Association member Julianna Lacoste was struck with crowd-control munitions, assaulted by law enforcement and arrested while documenting protests in Los Angeles, California, on Sept. 8, 2020.
Lacoste told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an email that at around 7:30 p.m. she’d arrived at the intersection of Normandie Avenue and West Imperial Highway, where protesters had gathered outside the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department following the fatal shooting of Dijon Kizzee, a Black man, by deputies on Aug. 31.
According to Lacoste, at approximately 8:30 p.m., the deputies declared the protest unlawful and ordered the crowd to disperse. Shortly thereafter, she said, they began to advance on the crowd and fire crowd-control munitions.
“I began to run down Normandie trying to escape the clouds of tear gas, rubber/foam bullets, pepper balls, stinger grenades and sand bags being fired,” Lacoste said. “I kept running, but it seemed like I couldn’t get away from the action.”
Lacoste said that as things began to calm down, about an hour later, she saw some people walking to their cars and that no deputies were in sight. Lacoste said she continued to move and had just passed a group of individuals when she felt a crowd-control munition strike her hand and knock her phone away.
“Then my head was shot, but I was luckily wearing a helmet,” she said. “Then my shoulder was shot as well. At that point I was only looking to find shelter because I was simply getting pelted with shots.”
Lacoste said she was eventually able to crouch behind a nearby car, but almost immediately after hunching down, two deputies appeared beside her. Lacoste said one aimed a weapon at her as the other forced her onto her stomach.
“I said, ‘I’m not resisting. I’m press. OK, OK, I’m not resisting,’” Lacoste recounted. She said she had a press badge in her bag and her helmet featured a “PRESS” label.
Lacoste said that the camera she was wearing around her neck broke from the weight of the deputies during the course of the arrest. “Their knee was on my back and neck as they wrestled for the cuffs,” she said.
Lacoste said the deputies secured the handcuffs incredibly tight, which worsened the pain in her injured hand.
She said they refused to pick up her cellphone from where it had fallen and escorted her to an LASD vehicle, where she waited as others were loaded in “like sardines.” The detainees were taken to a van and then transported to the Imperial Sheriff’s station, Lacoste said. There, she said, deputies used a knife to cut the straps of both her backpack and camera in order to pull them off without removing her handcuffs.
Lacoste also alleged that at the station some of the officers used personal cellphones to photograph her and other detainees. Student journalist Pablo Unzueta, who was also arrested that evening, made similar allegations. The Tracker has published his case here.
“The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department values the media and highly respects the freedom of the press,” Deputy Trina Schrader, a spokesperson for the department, told the Tracker in an emailed statement when asked for comment on Unzueta’s arrest. Schrader also noted that an investigation had been launched into the events that day. The department did not respond to an emailed request for comment about Lacoste’s arrest as of press time.
Lacoste said she was detained for more than an hour before being transported to a hospital for treatment. At approximately 6 a.m. the following day, she said, she was transported back to the sheriff’s station.
Lacoste said that at around 10 a.m. she was finally able to speak with her lawyer, who informed her that her bail had been posted and she should be released within two hours. According to Lacoste’s bail paperwork, which was reviewed by the Tracker, she posted a $5,000 bond.
Before her release, Lacoste said, she was transferred to the women’s jail and asked about her injuries. Upon detailing them, the officer processing Lacoste rejected her paperwork and instructed deputies to transport her back to the hospital so her injuries could be fully documented. According to Lacoste, deputies did not transport her back to the hospital, however, and placed her in a cell at the sheriff’s station.
“After hours of begging for a phone that worked they finally let me use the phone,” Lacoste said. “At that point I called my boyfriend and he informed me that I was going to get out soon and they had been making hundreds of calls on my behalf. During that phone call is when I got released.”
Lacoste was charged with misdemeanor failure to disperse and ordered to appear in court on Jan. 6, 2021. Lacoste hasn’t responded to the Tracker’s latest requests for comment, and the status of her case remains unknown.
Freelance photojournalist Julianna Lacoste photographed the multiple injuries she sustained when she was assaulted, arrested and her equipment damaged and seized by sheriff’s deputies while documenting a protest in Los Angeles on Sept. 8, 2020.
",arrested and released,Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department,2020-09-09,None,True,2:23-cv-04917,['ONGOING'],Civil,returned in full,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,unknown,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, chemical irritant, protest, shot / shot at",,, 2023-09-25 16:44:59.569652+00:00,2023-10-02 14:15:14.135230+00:00,"Livestreamer arrested, assaulted during LA protest; phone searched",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/livestreamer-arrested-assaulted-during-la-protest-phone-searched/,2023-10-02 14:15:13.923580+00:00,rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2020-09-11),LegalOrder object (241),,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Damage, Equipment Search or Seizure, Subpoena/Legal Order",,"bicycle: count of 1, cellphone: count of 1, protective equipment: count of 1",cellphone: count of 1,Hugo Padilla (Independent),,2020-09-08,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"Livestreamer Hugo Padilla was allegedly struck with crowd-control munitions and assaulted by law enforcement before being arrested while documenting protests in Los Angeles, California, on Sept. 8, 2020. Deputies later obtained a search warrant for one of his cellphones.
Padilla subsequently joined as a plaintiff in a lawsuit with three others in October 2020 against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Los Angeles County and then-Sheriff Alex Villanueva, alleging violations of his Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
Colleen Flynn, an attorney representing Padilla, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that Padilla attended the protest to broadcast it on his YouTube channel, Alien Alphabet, while providing audio narration.
Protesters had gathered outside the South Los Angeles Sheriff's Station following the Aug. 31 fatal shooting of Dijon Kizzee, a Black man, by deputies in a nearby neighborhood.
Flynn said that Padilla began filming the demonstration from the parking lot of a nearby 7-Eleven, and confirmed to the Tracker that throughout the protest Padilla was wearing a black bicycle helmet with “PRESS” written in silver lettering on multiple sides.
Approximately an hour into the protest, deputies declared the protest unlawful and ordered the crowd to disperse. According to the lawsuit, officers began to advance on the demonstrators and shortly after fired crowd-control munitions. The crowd dispersed and many individuals — including Padilla — fled into the neighborhood.
In Padilla’s livestream from the protest, he said that he was attempting to circle around to the far side of the crowd, but as he did, a law enforcement helicopter shined a searchlight on him. Within seconds and without warning, Padilla was shot with a crowd-control munition, he said.
The lawsuit claimed the hard projectile struck Padilla in the knee, knocking him off his bicycle and onto the ground. Deputies then “jumped” on him and one of them punched him in the face, splitting his lip, Flynn said. Padilla was tightly handcuffed — his lawsuit states that restraint marks were still visible weeks later — and forced into the back of a large truck where loose pepper ball munitions caused his eyes to water painfully.
According to Flynn, Padilla had no opportunity to identify himself verbally as press before he was arrested, but he did tell deputies he was a journalist while in the truck and in an interrogation room.
Padilla’s bicycle was seized, as was his personal iPhone, which was booked into evidence and later searched. But a Samsung cellphone Padilla was using to livestream fell from his hand and, his suit claimed, deputies did not retrieve it.
Flynn told the Tracker that she believed deputies deliberately left Padilla’s phone and that of freelance photographer Julianna Lacoste, who is also her client, because they were livestreaming.
“It appears that the deputies that abandoned Mr. Padilla and Ms. Lacoste's cell phones on the street while they were livestreaming did so to get rid of the evidence that may have recorded their actions, including their use of excessive force and violation of my clients' constitutional rights,” Flynn wrote in an email.
Padilla’s lawsuit states that once he arrived at the South Los Angeles Sheriff's Station, some of the officers used personal cellphones to photograph Padilla and the other detainees while laughing. Lacoste and student journalist Pablo Unzueta, who were also arrested that evening, said the same.
Padilla was ultimately released from a county jail in downtown LA midmorning the following day with a citation for failure to disperse. His wallet, headphones and a set of keys — not his — were returned to him; the remainder of his equipment was not. Deputies ultimately returned Padilla’s bicycle in December 2020 and his iPhone in June 2021; his bicycle helmet was never returned.
When Padilla appeared for his hearing date at the Inglewood Courthouse on Sept. 11, 2020, according to his lawsuit, a court clerk told him that no charges had been filed.
Sheriff's Deputy Trina Schrader, a spokesperson for the department, told the Tracker in the days following the protest that an investigation had been launched into the events that day. “The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department values the media and highly respects the freedom of the press,” she added.
The day following the protest, sheriff’s deputies obtained a search warrant for cellphones belonging to more than a dozen individuals, including Padilla. The search warrant and an affidavit in support of the warrant were only released in May 2023, more than 2 1/2 years after the incident, and following an August 2022 motion to unseal filed by the First Amendment Coalition and independent news organization Knock LA.
The media organizations said that the sheriff’s department had fought the release of the materials for more than two years, in violation of California state law and the First Amendment. The release only came after Villanueva was ousted in a November 2022 election and replaced by Robert Luna, who acceded to the unsealing.
Susan E. Seager of the UC Irvine School of Law, who represented Knock LA and FAC in the case, said the timing shows that the department never had a good reason to seal the warrants in the first place.
Photos accompanying the warrant materials included the helmet marked “PRESS,” which Padilla’s attorney confirmed belonged to him. FAC noted in a later statement that police records confirmed that the LASD knew journalists were included as targets, which raises press rights concerns.
“Those photos, along with the fact [the] journalists have said they verbally identified themselves as press, should have put pause on the probe or, at a minimum, prompted the department to make disclosures to the judge to ensure press rights were protected,” the FAC statement said.
David Snyder, executive director of FAC, also commented: “While we are grateful the public can finally see these documents, they should have been able to do so long ago. There can be no real accountability without knowledge – what did the police tell the judge who issued this warrant? Now this crucial question can be answered, and accountability for any unjustified arrest and seizure can at long last begin.”
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include additional details concerning the seizure and return of some of Padilla’s equipment.
Livestreamer Hugo Padilla, extreme left, filmed multiple protests outside a Los Angeles Sheriff’s station in 2020. During a Sept. 8 protest, he claims deputies shot him with a munition, then arrested him and seized his equipment.
",arrested and released,Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department,2020-09-09,2020-09-08,True,2:20-cv-09805,['ONGOING'],Civil,returned in part,True,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,unknown,False,None,None,None,None,Journalist,warrant,State,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, chemical irritant, protest, shot / shot at",,, 2021-02-04 18:30:38.390510+00:00,2023-11-01 14:58:37.327461+00:00,"Photojournalist arrested while covering Portland protests, her phone damaged",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-arrested-while-covering-portland-protests-her-phone-damaged/,2023-11-01 14:58:37.221625+00:00,"obstruction: disorderly conduct (charges dropped as of 2020-09-07), obstruction: interfering with a peace officer (charges dropped as of 2020-09-07)",,,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Damage",,,cellphone: count of 1,Rach Wilde (Freelance),,2020-09-07,False,Portland,Oregon (OR),45.52345,-122.67621,"Rach Wilde, an independent photojournalist working with Black Zebra Productions, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was shoved and arrested while covering protests against police violence in Portland, Oregon, on Sept. 7, 2020.
Wilde was documenting protests that had been ongoing for months in downtown Portland and across the U.S. in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. The Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
Law enforcement officers in Portland have targeted journalists since the outbreak of the demonstrations, according to a class-action lawsuit filed in June by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon. The ACLU suit led to a temporary restraining order, and later a preliminary injunction, barring the Portland Police Bureau from harming or impeding journalists.
In the early hours of Sept. 7, Wilde said demonstrators had moved from PPB’s North Precinct toward a nearby parking garage. According to a news report, officers blocked off certain streets from the march and created a closure area. Wilde said the crowd started to dwindle and there was not a lot going on.
“Then a rush came and a bunch of folks started getting arrested and just picked off,” Wilde told the Tracker. Along with several other journalists and legal observers, she said she followed the officers to document the arrests. Soon after, officers asked them to leave and ordered them onto the sidewalk.
“Out of nowhere, the [Portland Police] Rapid Response van arrived and they beelined [toward us],” she said. “One officer on the team had over and over again targeted me at different demonstrations. She knew exactly who I was. She would stand next to me at every demonstration and follow me specifically.”
Wilde said the officer pushed her off the sidewalk right as she was stepping onto it. Another Black Zebra journalist there repeatedly told the officer that Wilde was a member of the press; Wilde said she also had a press pass around her neck.
“I have the entire thing on camera. It was very clear that she was targeting me,” Wilde told the Tracker. Her reporting partner, whom Wilde had been “standing next to the entire time this demonstration,” was not arrested. The officer placed Wilde in temporary handcuffs, took her phone and brought her to where the demonstrators were being detained. She said she was then transported to and processed at Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office for interfering with a peace officer and disorderly conduct.
Wilde said she was released several hours later, around 6 a.m., and that when she received her phone back, the screen was destroyed. “That was the day my charges were dropped, but I didn’t find out until a month later,” she said. Wilde was contacted by a pro bono attorney, who confirmed this information. “They [Portland police] had spelt my name wrong,” she told the Tracker.
When reached for comment during ongoing protests in the fall of 2020, the PPB told the Tracker it wouldn’t be commenting on specific incidents, citing continuing litigation in the ACLU case. Then in early 2021, PPB spokesperson Derek Carmon said the department is committed to upholding civil rights for all citizens, including by requiring officers to report any use of force for review. When reached by email about this incident, Carmon said he had no additional comment.
WCVB-TV reporter Ted Wayman was assaulted while reporting in Boston’s Copley Square on Sept. 6, 2020. A station spokesperson told the Boston Globe that Wayman was taken to a hospital and is “going to be fine.”
According to a police report posted online by the Boston Police Department, officers were called to the intersection of Dartmouth and Boylston streets shortly after 9 p.m. to investigate a stabbing. A victim said an individual had been “antagonizing” him and others throughout the day.
“The victim stated when he asked the suspect to leave him alone, the suspect responded by taking out a pair of scissors,” the report said. The man then began stabbing at the passenger’s side window of the victim’s van, scratching the glass.
The report continued, “As the victim attempted to close the door to the van, the suspect stabbed him on the left forearm causing a severe laceration.”
The Globe identified WCVB’s Wayman as the victim, and the station confirmed that he had been stabbed while reporting on a story in Copley Square. BPD told the Globe it could not comment on or confirm the incident.
Police arrested a suspect, identified as Cirilo Aldana-Peraedes, a few blocks from the scene; he has been charged with assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon.
The photojournalist working alongside Wayman was uninjured in the attack and helped treat Wayman’s injuries before he was taken to a local hospital, the Globe reported.
Actions by Metropolitan Police Department officers led to damage of a camera used by freelancer Andrew Jasiura while he was covering protests in Washington D.C., according to the journalist.
On the night of Aug. 27, 2020, Jasiura, who has been documenting the protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement for several months, was covering demonstrations in downtown Washington D.C. Protesters were gathered in the pedestrian area outside of the White House that was renamed “Black Lives Matter Plaza,” when a man arrived at the scene wearing blackface, Jasiura told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
When protesters started chasing the man, police officers moved to protect him, detaining a protester who allegedly assaulted the man, Jasiura said. Another protester sought to intervene and was pushed away by a police officer, according to the journalist. Jasiura had been photographing the encounter, and the officer shoved the protester in his direction, he said. “He threw that person into me and I hit a barricade. The screen on one of my cameras broke,” Jasiura told the Tracker.
MPD broke the screen on my camera last night while I was recording an unjust arrest. The protestor was released less than two hours later with no charges. This was the occasion where MPD was protecting the white man in BLM Plaza wearing black face pic.twitter.com/Pf1OkDUUyr
— DrewJazzyPhoto (@PhotoJazzy) August 28, 2020
According to Jasiura, police officers told him that if he sent in his footage they could review it and determine if any police misconduct had occurred. “But giving that footage to the police could put protesters at risk, so I didn’t do it,” he told the Tracker.
The Metropolitan Police Department did not respond to a Tracker request for comment.
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 these incidents here.
Independent multimedia journalist Grace Morgan said she was tackled to the ground by several police officers while walking away from them during protests in Portland, Oregon, on Aug. 23, 2020.
Morgan was documenting one of the nightly protests held in downtown Portland in response to police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis on May 25. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
In the early morning hours of Aug. 23, Morgan was covering a protest outside of the North Precinct. She told the Tracker that the police had given protesters orders to disperse, which don’t apply to members of the press, according to a preliminary injunction the city agreed to in July that bars police from harming or impeding journalists.
After forming a riot line, officers began pushing protesters to the west, Morgan said. She stood on the sidewalk filming, but the riot line extended to cover the sidewalk as well, which she described as unusual. Four officers approached Morgan, who was clearly labelled as press and filming while walking backwards, and told her to leave.
“I turned around to walk quicker and disperse essentially, and then I got pushed from behind, face forward,” Morgan explained. “I fell and caught myself on my knees and hands, and that’s when four officers held me down on the ground.”
Her phone fell out of her pocket onto the sidewalk, according to Morgan. The next thing she remembered was someone, who she later learned was a medic, lifting her up by her backpack and pulling her away from the officers. Morgan said the officers made no effort to chase or detain them.
“I realized pretty quickly that my phone was gone,” Morgan said. “Immediately I turned on the iPhone tracker and it was tracked to the North Precinct for the duration of the night, but turned off the next morning.”
The next day, Morgan said she went to the Portland Police Property Room on Northwest Industrial Street to try to claim her lost phone. She told the clerk about the incident and that the phone had been tracked to the North Precinct, but the clerk didn’t find anything relevant in the evidence log. The clerk then asked for Morgan’s contact information and said she could call again for updates.
“I kept calling the next couple of days and on the third day, the clerk said maybe an officer accidentally put it in their car or pocket and took it home,” Morgan reccounted. “I was like what? How is that a thing an officer can do?”
Morgan never got back her phone, which had cost $1,200. She said the clerk later suggested that a protester might have taken the phone, even though Morgan had tracked it to the police precinct.
The morning after the incident, Morgan went to the hospital and was diagnosed with a hairline fracture on her knee cap, she said. This was the first time she had visited a hospital for protest-related injuries despite previous incidents. Additionally, she was bruised in several areas and had to wear a soft knee brace for a month.
The Portland Police Bureau has said it wouldn't comment on incidents involving journalists covering the protests, citing continuing litigation.
An unidentified man attacked Bellingcat journalist Robert Evans with a baton, breaking bones in his hand, Evans said, as the journalist was covering demonstrations in Portland, Oregon, on Aug. 22, 2020.
Clashes erupted after more than 100 far-right protesters, including members of the extremist group the Proud Boys and supporters of then-President Donald Trump, gathered outside the Justice Center for a “Back the Blue” rally on Aug. 22, the Washington Post reported. Hundreds of counterprotesters, including Black Lives Matter activists, amassed in opposition.
Evans, a reporter for investigative news site Bellingcat and host of a podcast for iHeartMedia, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that shortly after 1 p.m. he saw a fight break out as he was reporting on the protests outside the Justice Center.
Video he posted on Twitter shows that as Evans nears the skirmish, a man in a gray baseball hat and orange-tinted sunglasses turns around and hits his baton downward at Evans’s hand, knocking his phone to the ground.
While I am filming a right wing activist charges out and assaults me, breaking my finger with an asp baton. Sergio has more footage of the confrontation that follows pic.twitter.com/gPdPsQ70b5
— Robert Evans (The Only Robert Evans) (@IwriteOK) August 22, 2020
Evans told the Tracker that he had an open fracture, meaning the blow broke the skin on his hand.
In a second video Evans posted, he approaches the man, who is now holding a blue sign that says “God Bless America.” Evans tells him, “you just assaulted a press guy.”
Journalist Garrison Davis posted another video of Evans, blood dripping from his finger, speaking to the man. Evans’s words are indistinct, but his assailant repeats “move back.” When Evans continues to speak, the man uses his sign to slam the journalist in the chest and head.
The person with the “God Bless America” shield assaulted journalist Robert Evans @IwriteOK and cut his hand. As Robert talks about the incident he continues to be assaulted. pic.twitter.com/3cOSQxrrXR
— Garrison Davis (@hungrybowtie) August 22, 2020
Evans, who was wearing a helmet and a protective vest that were both marked with the word PRESS, said he believes he was targeted because he was filming the clashes.
“I made very certain that he knew what he had done and that he knew who he had assaulted,” Evans said.
Evans said a medic who was helping protesters dressed his wound with a bandage and splint on site, and he continued to cover the protest for several hours. He later went to a hospital emergency room for treatment. He told the Tracker his hand was broken in two places.
Evans said his Samsung Galaxy phone screen was cracked and the charging port broken when he was attacked. He was able to continue using it to report for the rest of the day, but later needed to replace it.
Portland Police Bureau did not respond to emailed questions about the attack on Evans. A spokesperson for the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office said they had no record of a case related to the incident.
Evans told the Tracker in February 2021 that he planned to take legal action against his attacker but had not yet done so. He noted that police had not made any arrests related to the attack.
Protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement had been held in Portland daily for months, sparked by the May 25 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
Independent videographer Nicholas Lee said a police officer pushed him and smashed his phone on the street while he was covering a protest in Portland, Oregon, on Aug. 18, 2020.
The protest was one of many that have broken 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. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
Law enforcement officers in Portland have targeted journalists since the outbreak of the demonstrations, according to a class-action lawsuit filed in June by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon. The ACLU suit led to the city agreeing to a preliminary injunction in July to not arrest, harm or impede the work of journalists or legal observers of the protests.
Around 8 p.m., protesters gathered in Colonel Summers Park, in southeast Portland, and about an hour later marched nearly a mile to the Multnomah Building, the county seat of government, on Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard. Some protesters started fires in dumpsters and inside the building, according to The Oregonian, prompting the Portland Police Bureau to declare the gathering a riot around 10:30 p.m.
Lee arrived at the protest around that time and witnessed police officers pushing demonstrators away from the Multnomah Building and making several arrests, he told the Tracker.
About an hour later, while Lee was covering some protesters several blocks away from the building, he said, Portland police officers told protesters and press to remain on the sidewalk.
“There were several cops there. I’m on the sidewalk with other members of the press. They’re like, ‘Move! Move!’ pushing us back,” said Lee.
At one point during the crush on the sidewalk, a police officer took his phone, he said.
”I was holding it, and it had a tether attached to it and it was around my wrist. [The officer] grabbed my phone and tried to wrench it away from me,” Lee told the Tracker. “He pulled on it so hard he got it out of my hand and then smashed it on the street.”
The police officer damaged his phone when he threw it on the street, said Lee. “It wasn’t broken, just cracked. There wasn’t significant damage, but I had to replace the screen protector,” he said.
Later in the night, after midnight, Lee was shoved again by an officer, he said. The Tracker documented the Aug. 19 incident here.
When reached for comment during ongoing protests in the fall of 2020, the PPB told the Tracker it wouldn’t be commenting on specific incidents, citing continuing litigation in the ACLU case. Then in early 2021, PPB spokesman Derek Carmon said the department is committed to upholding civil rights for all citizens, including by requiring officers to report any use of force for review. The PPB wasn't available for comment on this incident.
Independent photojournalist Teri Jacobs was shoved to the ground and hit several times by Portland police while covering protests in downtown Portland, Oregon, on Aug. 18, 2020, according to news reports and a legal filing.
The protests were among many demonstrations that broke out in response to police violence and in support of Black Lives Matter following the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
Law enforcement officers in Portland had targeted journalists since the outbreak of the demonstrations, according to a class-action lawsuit filed in June by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon. The case resulted in a temporary restraining order on July 2 barring the Portland police from harming or impeding journalists, which was extended later that summer.
Demonstrators on that Tuesday the 18th marched to the Multnomah County Justice Center, where police declared the site of a riot around 10:30 p.m., according to news reports. Portland police officers in riot gear pushed protesters toward the north, where Jacobs was documenting along Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard, according to The Portland Mercury.
In a video shared by Twitter user @johnthelefty, an officer uses a baton to knock Jacobs’ head and shoves her to the ground, the newspaper reported. When she rolls over to sit up, he hits her on the forehead again with the baton.
Jacobs has filed a legal complaint with the United States District Court and is represented by attorneys from the Oregon Justice Resource Center, according to the Portland Mercury. “As Ms. Jacobs was knocked to the ground, she was terrified that the officer was going to continue to attack her and she feared that she might never get up again if he continued with his violent attack,” the complaint reads, according to the article. “An entire squad of Portland Police Officers witnessed this act, failed to intervene, and allowed this officer to walk away after committing a violent crime against Ms. Jacobs.”
In an interview with Fox 12, Jacobs’ attorney Juan Chavez said she was wearing a press credential and that prior to the documented shove, she was also hit “repeatedly on the head, neck and back with a truncheon” by the officer. Chavez added that her camera was broken “when she was knocked to the ground.” According to The Portland Mercury, Jacobs is “seeking punitive damages and attorneys fees from the city and PPB officers involved.”
Jacobs declined to comment to the Tracker. When reached by email about this incident, the PPB declined to comment citing pending litigation.
Law enforcement damaged livestreaming equipment belonging to independent journalist Jon Ziegler while he was covering protests in Portland, Oregon, on Aug. 15, 2020.
On the night of Aug. 15 and early into the morning of Aug. 16, Ziegler was covering demonstrations in northeast Portland against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Ziegler, who previously worked with the media collective Unicorn Riot, has been documenting protests for his independent livestreaming account, RebZ.tv.
Sometime after 9 p.m., law enforcement declared the gathering a riot and forced protesters to disperse, Ziegler told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. The journalist said he was walking behind a line of police officers and filming them as they chased protesters down the street, when he saw an officer shove a woman in front of him. In a recording of the incident posted to Twitter, the woman can be seen falling to the ground. Ziegler is then seen following the officer and asking for his badge number. The officer turns, yells “right up behind you” and lunges at Ziegler.
As cops chased and ran protesters down the street from the police precinct, some of the cops took out their aggression on the press trailing behind
— Jon Ziegler “Reb Z” (@Rebelutionary_Z) August 17, 2020
This one tried to rip my phone off my monopod but failed at the tug of war...and the livestream kept going! (but my clip is broken) pic.twitter.com/0vpzMAZjz4
The officer tried to grab Ziegler’s phone, but was unsuccessful, the journalist told the Tracker. The officer pushed Ziegler’s RetiCAM smartphone tripod mount so forcefully into this chest, however, that the clamp broke and the journalist was left with a minor scrape. Ziegler said he was wearing a bulletproof vest with a fluorescent press insignia. “It was obvious from two blocks away that I was press,” he told the Tracker.
Portland Police Bureau spokesman Sgt. Kevin Allen declined to comment on the incident, citing continuing litigation involving the City of Portland. Since July 2020, law enforcement officers from the PPB and federal agencies have been barred by court rulings from arresting, harming or impeding journalists or legal observers of the protests.
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 these incidents here.
According to a local news report, an unidentified broadcast cameraman was robbed at gunpoint while loading gear into a news vehicle in Berkeley, California, on Aug. 10, 2020.
CBS affiliate KPIX 5 reported that the incident took place outside Congregation Netivot Shalom. In security camera footage time-stamped 5:01 p.m. and published by KPIX, an individual can be seen approaching the journalist as he loads a camera into a news vehicle. After the individual draws a gun and points it at the journalist, the journalist attempts to hand the camera off before placing it on the ground. The individual then picks it up and runs away.
According to KPIX, the camera was valued at $25,000. The Tracker was unable to verify the identity of the journalist or station.
On Sept. 10, Berkeley police arrested a man identified as Jimmy Ray, having found items in his home that connected him to the robbery, according to a department news release. It is unclear whether the camera itself was found and, if so, in what condition it was in.
According to the news release, Ray was charged the following day on several counts, including robbery.
When contacted for comment, the Berkeley Police Department was unable to provide further details about the condition of the camera or the cameraman's identity.
Chris Phillips, an independent filmmaker, was hit in the face with pepper spray at close range while he covered a protest in Ferguson, Missouri, on Aug. 9, 2020.
The demonstration was held on the sixth anniversary of the day Michael Brown, a Black teenager, was shot and killed by police in 2014. Mass protests against police violence and racial injustice were held across the U.S. for months in 2020, fueled by the killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, among others.
Phillips, a resident of the same complex where Brown lived, made a documentary, Ferguson 365, about the movement that followed Brown’s killing, and has been documenting the aftermath of Brown’s killing ever since. Phillips runs the production company Maverick Media Group and said his work has been published by outlets including The Associated Press and CBS.
Phillips said he arrived at the police department at night, where protesters and police had been in a standoff. However, he said, about an hour after he arrived, the atmosphere seemed relaxed. He remembered filming a scene of a woman sitting in a lawn chair in the police department parking lot, chatting with officers.
He went to pick up a camera battery he had left charging on the opposite side of the street from the police department. As he pulled the plug from the outlet, he said he heard screaming and turned to see police rush into the crowd.
Phillips said he grabbed his camera and started toward the confrontation to film it. His camera was still powering up, he said, and he was getting positioned to film two police officers who were throwing someone to the ground. Suddenly, he said, a different police officer fired pepper spray into his face from less than 10 feet away. Phillips said there were no protesters close to him at the time.
“For me to get sprayed like that — that was a deliberate act,” he said.
Phillips said the spray was very painful and temporarily blinded him. He said he turned around and tripped, slamming his camera into the pavement.
Protesters came to his aid and helped him to a medical station, where they tried to neutralize the impact of the spray with milk and water, he said. His eyes and face hurt for two days after he was sprayed, he said.
Thank you @MissJupiter1957 for capturing this. One of my eyes is still in pain this morning from the pepper spray. The police use these harsh chemicals without warning. #policebrutality #policeaccountability #ferguson #ferguson365 https://t.co/udquiBycKa
— Chris Phillips (@maverickmedia1) August 10, 2020
Phillips said he heard no warning before police rushed into the crowd, or before he was sprayed. He wasn’t wearing any form of press identification, he said, but he was carrying an elaborate, professional-grade cinema camera. He said he didn’t have an opportunity to identify himself to police before he was pepper sprayed, though he is well-known as a filmmaker in Ferguson, according to other journalists in the area.
Chris Phillips of Maverick Media was pepper-sprayed. He is well-known media by everyone in Ferguson and STL. This is what journalists deal with in Ferguson since 2014.
— ChuckModi (@ChuckModi1) August 10, 2020
6th Anniversary of Michael Brown Jr. murder. #MikeBrown pic.twitter.com/jhLknFsQLa
Phillips said his camera rig was inoperable after the fall. The only component that still worked was the microphone. He said the RED Scarlet-W “brain” of the camera, which he purchased for $12,500, suffered significant interior and exterior damage, so he decided to replace it with a newer model, which he did with the help of an online fundraiser. He also needed to replace a $280 Zoom H-5 audio recorder that was damaged. He said he hadn’t been in contact with police about the incident, but he was considering his legal options.
St. Louis County Police Department spokesperson Tracy Panus told the Tracker in an email that the agency wasn’t familiar with Phillips or aware that he was pepper sprayed. According to Panus, police directed protesters to disperse multiple times over a loudspeaker before beginning to arrest people who didn’t follow the orders.
“While taking several individuals into custody, St. Louis County Police Officers did deploy pepper spray in an effort to make the arrests or prevent interference by others attempting to interfere with those arrests,” Panus said.
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 these incidents here.
While covering an on Aug. 9, 2020, protest in Ferguson, Missouri, filmmaker Chris Phillips was pepper-sprayed at close range by law enforcement. “For me to get sprayed like that — that was a deliberate act,” he said.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, chemical irritant, protest",,, 2020-11-13 21:50:52.784003+00:00,2023-11-01 15:17:08.289302+00:00,Portland-based independent photojournalist assaulted and arrested,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/portland-based-independent-photojournalist-assaulted-and-arrested/,2023-11-01 15:17:08.159421+00:00,"obstruction: harassment of an officer (charges dropped as of 2020-11-13), obstruction: interfering with a police officer (charges dropped as of 2020-11-13)",,,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Damage",,,cellphone: count of 1,Maranie Staab (Freelance),,2020-08-06,False,Portland,Oregon (OR),45.52345,-122.67621,"Portland police assaulted and arrested Independent photojournalist Maranie Staab as she covered protests in downtown Portland on Aug. 6, 2020, according to Staab. Staab, whose photos of the 2020 protests in Portland have been published by Reuters, The New Yorker and Agence France-Presse, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was held overnight at the Multnomah County Detention Center and released the next morning. Her charges of harassment and interfering with a police officer have been dropped.
On the night of Aug. 6, Staab said she was near the Portland Police Bureau’s East Precinct station. Shortly before 10 p.m., police declared the gathering an unlawful assembly due to vandalism and property destruction. The night before, police had declared a protest there a riot. During the Aug. 6 protest, Staab said Portland police officers had formed a line and started to run towards the protesters. According to Staab, some journalists were caught up with the protesters as officers rushed toward them. Along with other members of the press, Staab said, she was being pushed along on the sidewalk.
Staab said that while walking backwards with a camera in each hand, she was pushed to the ground by a police officer. Staab said she had “press” written on her front and back in white text.
“I tried to get up, he pushed me down a second time,” Staab told the Tracker. When she tried to get up again, Staab said, “He pushed me down a third time and then pulled me off of the sidewalk into the street.” Staab said that the officer then handcuffed and arrested her.
In a video shared in a tweet by freelance journalist Justin Yau, police officers can be seen physically blocking the area and using flashlights to prevent other journalists and legal observers from clearly filming Staab’s arrest. According to Yau’s tweet, the arrest took place at 10:20 p.m.
At 2220 last night, photojournalist @MaranieRae was arrested by Portland Police while she was documenting the protest. They used flashlights & physically blocked other journalists and legal observers from filming the arrest. #PressFreedom #PortlandProtests #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/yc1lGjoy8p
— Justin Yau (@PDocumentarians) August 8, 2020
Staab said police transported her in a van to the Multnomah County Detention Center where she was processed and charged with harassment and interfering with a police officer. According to the police report of the arrest, Staab resisted arrest and physically pushed the officer. Staab has denied the police account and said she had “cooperated in full.”
At the detention center, Staab said, the officers took her phone, camera, gas mask and hat when she was arrested, but returned her belongings the next day. Although she was able to keep her phone with her, Staab said the phone screen cracked when she was slammed to the ground. Staab said she was released at 4 a.m. on Aug. 7. She said the charges against her were later dropped.
In July, a U.S. District Court judge issued a preliminary injunction barring Portland police officers from dispersing, arresting or impeding journalists covering the city’s nightly protests, which began in response to police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement after the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis on May 25.
The Portland Police Bureau has said it would not comment on incidents involving journalists covering the protests, citing continuing litigation.
Independent multimedia journalist Grace Morgan was hit with pepper spray, thrown to the ground and detained for hours by federal agents while covering protests on July 27, 2020.
Morgan was documenting the nightly protests in downtown Portland in response to police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis on May 25.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
In the early morning hours of July 27, Morgan was covering a protest in front of the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse. Demonstrators had gathered outside of the fence surrounding the building. In a video Morgan tweeted at 1:14 a.m., federal agents can be seen walking outside of the fenced area, after firing tear gas, pepper balls and flash bang grenades at protesters from inside.
“I was filming a pretty violent arrest of a protester, Noelle Mandolfo,” Morgan told the Tracker. “There were at least 20 other members of the press all surrounding her.”
Morgan said she and other journalists followed closely as Mandolfo and another protester were walked back to the courthouse.
“I remember thinking I was physically pretty close to the agents, but that wasn’t unusual for how the protests have been going,” Morgan explained.
As they walked, federal agents began firing more tear gas into the crowd and one canister landed next to Morgan’s feet, which she said she immediately kicked to her right.
“The next thing I know, I was being tackled to the ground, initially by one agent and then another,” she said. Elijah Schaffer, a reporter at Blaze Media, was walking behind Morgan at the time and recorded the incident, posted at 1:28 a.m. A federal agent can be seen spraying mace into Morgan’s eyes right before another slams her to the ground.
She said she told them that she was a member of the press. She also had two laminated press passes displayed as well as labels on her helmet and backpack. The agents gave no response as to why she was being detained, and walked her along with several protesters to a concealed parking lot at the back of the federal courthouse. When they arrived, agents cut Morgan’s backpack off of her, ruining the straps, and took her gas mask.
“We never got read our rights. The only way I found out why I was being detained was because they put masking tape on our backs and had written on it,” Morgan told the Tracker. “After we were put in our holding cells, we read each other’s backs to each other and that’s how I found out I was being detained for assault on an officer.”
Several times throughout the morning, Morgan said federal agents would tell them all to face the wall and an agent would forcefully push their heads into the wall.
“It wasn’t a full on slam, but it was enough that it was painful and super unnecessary,” she said. That happened at least three times.”
Morgan also asked for medical attention to address the mace in her eyes, which burned, but received no response. Eventually, she tried to wash off the residue with the toilet water in the cell, the only water available, which made her eyes burn even worse.
When she was released around 5 a.m., Morgan said she received her gas mask back, but the straps were cut off, even though agents had already removed the mask from her face.
She told the Tracker that on her release, she was told, “the evidence in your case has been reviewed, and the attorney general has decided to drop all charges.”
A preliminary injunction a judge put in place in July that bars federal agents from harming or impeding journalists was upheld by an appeals court in October. Morgan isn’t sure which federal agency detained her, but the Department of Homeland Security, which coordinated the federal presence, didn’t respond to requests for comment.
In a tweet sent at 10:45 a.m., Morgan wrote, “I went to urgent care this morning after release – just a light concussion, fractured knee cap and mild chemical burns on my arms from the mace. Which means! I can probably go back out again tonight if I rest up today!”’
Capital Public Radio state government reporter Scott Rodd was consistently blocked while covering protests against police violence in Sacramento, California, on July 25, 2020. In the early hours of the next morning, he tweeted that an individual in the crowd had cut his charging cable. Rodd eventually removed himself from the scene to report from afar.
Rodd was documenting a solidarity march in downtown Sacramento in support of the protesters in Portland and the Black Lives Matter movement following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
On the afternoon of July 25, protesters had gathered at Cesar Chavez Plaza to march toward the Capitol, according to news reports at the time. A press release from the Sacramento Police Department stated that a second group of people in black clothing and protective gear arrived later in the evening and escalated tensions among what had been a peaceful demonstration.
“Different vibe than previous protests. Guy in helmet tried to grab my phone when I took this photo,” Rodd tweeted at 11:25 p.m. “I’m now surrounded by 3 people with umbrellas intended to block my view.” Rodd declined to comment further on the incident.
Throughout the night, Rodd tweeted several more photos and updates about his limited access and the frustration protesters were directing toward him.
“Sensing lots of hostility I removed myself from the crowd to report from the edge of the park,” he tweeted a little after midnight. He also mentioned that someone had cut his charging cable while he’d been surrounded in the park.
About 100-150 are marching through midtown.
— Scott Rodd (@SRodd_CPR) July 26, 2020
Different vibe than previous protests. Guy in helmet tried to grab my phone when I took this photo. I’m now surrounded by 3 people with umbrellas intended to block my view. pic.twitter.com/9IR52soyMG
“Multiple demonstrators expressed concern over a recent court ruling in Seattle, which is requiring several media outlets to give police photos and videos captured during a recent protest in order to help them solve alleged arson of law enforcement vehicles and theft of firearms,” Rodd wrote in a story for CapRadio the next day. “The ruling applies to images and videos taken with professional camera equipment, but not cellphones.”
In a tweet at 2 a.m. on July 26, Rodd linked an article that described the Seattle ruling, noting, “Among the more constructive conversations I had with protesters was a about this court ruling out of Seattle,” and then adding, “In the article, one media law expert said the ruling ‘creates a “troubling precedent” that could make news media unwelcome at future protests.’”
Journalist Tuan St. Patrick’s camera lens was broken after he was repeatedly shoved to the ground by Portland, Oregon police in the early morning hours of July 26, 2020, just hours after he and other journalists covering demonstrations say they were hit with crowd-control munitions.
St. Patrick is a national correspondent for Berlin, Germany-based video news service Ruptly, whose sole shareholder is funded by the Russian government. St. Patrick was covering one of the many protests that broke out in Portland in response to police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the May 25 death of George Floyd. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
Protests have been held nightly in Portland since late May and grew more intense as the presence of federal law enforcement in the city increased. Since July, police and federal agents in the Rose City have been under court orders not to harm or impede journalists.
St. Patrick was covering demonstrations that began the night of July 25 around the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse and continued on into the next morning.
St. Patrick and three other journalists told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that they were struck with crowd-control munitions just after midnight on July 26. Their account of that incident is here.
St. Patrick told the Tracker he was sprayed with a chemical irritant in that incident but continued covering the police response to the demonstrations.
He said that at about 5 a.m. on July 26, he was livestreaming while he was among protesters at the intersection of SW 4th Ave and SW Yamhill Street. Police announced an unlawful assembly for the area and dispatched officers to clear the intersection with crowd control munitions and physical force, he said.
“They start running towards us,” St. Patrick told the Tracker. “I turn around and I’m like ‘this is not so safe.’”
St. Patrick told the Tracker that he was pushed to the ground twice and shoved into a tree as officers rushed through the area. He got to his feet and found pepper-ball powder on his vest and his clothing. He was carrying a Sony A7 Mark III digital photo camera and, upon closer inspection of his gear, found that his lens had been broken.
“It was just a messy scene,” St. Patrick said.
Since July, law enforcement officers from the Portland Police Bureau and federal agencies have been barred by court rulings from arresting, harming or impeding journalists or legal observers of the protests. The orders were issued as part of a lawsuit that the American Civil LIberties Union filed on behalf of journalists who allege that law enforcement officials targeted them with arrests and physical violence.
The Portland Police Bureau has said it wouldn't comment on incidents involving journalists covering the protests, citing continuing litigation in the ACLU case.
Independent photojournalist Trip Jennings was struck in his eye with a pepper ball that pierced one of the plastic lenses on his gas mask on July 26, 2020 in Portland, Oregon, while he covered civil unrest in the city.
Jennings was covering one of the many protests that broke out in Portland in response to police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the May 25 death of George Floyd. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
Protests have been held nightly in Portland since late May, which grew more intense in July as the presence of federal law enforcement increased in the city. Since July, both police and federal agents in the city have been under court orders not to harm journalists or otherwise impede their work.
In a Twitter thread, Jennings said he was taking photos of the police response to demonstrations at the intersection of SW 4th Avenue and SW Salmon Street near the Multnomah County Justice Center, standing among demonstrators, when authorities gave an order to disperse.
As the crowd began to disperse, federal agents fired crowd-control munitions that included pepper balls, rubber bullets and tear gas, he wrote.
Jennings wrote that he was ducking for cover behind a tree when what he believes to be a pepper ball hit him in the face, broke through one of the plastic lenses on his gas mask and cut his eye and cheek.
The journalist found medics near the scene. “‘Oh my God, that’s bad!’” one of the street medics tending to his injuries remarked, according to Jennings.
Jennings told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that three medics escorted him to a vehicle to drive him to the emergency room at Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center in northwest Portland. As the group drove away from the scene, federal agents fired impact munitions at the vehicle, he said.
“On the way to the hospital, we drove through clouds of teargas so windows stayed shut and the pepper spray on my clothing and bag choked us all,” Jennings tweeted.
The pepper spray still clung to Jennings after he arrived at Good Samaritan, causing the doctor who treated his injury to cough repeatedly behind a surgical mask, according to Jennings. The doctor put on a respirator mask prior to sewing eight stitches into Jennings’ eyelid and face, he told the Tracker.
The Portland Police Bureau has said it wouldn't comment on incidents involving journalists covering the protests, citing continuing litigation.
A photographer said a Seattle law enforcement officer pepper-sprayed him while he was covering protests in Seattle, Washington, on July 25, 2020.
The independent photographer, who asked to remain anonymous, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker it was clear police were aiming for his head when he was hit with pepper spray. “The entire right side of my helmet was blue,” he said.
The Washington Post reported there were approximately 2,000 people demonstrating that afternoon, the largest gathering in more than a month, as part of a response to news that federal agents had been deployed to Seattle. That morning, Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best released a statement outlining that officers would carry pepper spray and blast balls, but not tear gas.
During the demonstration, the journalist said he was photographing a large gathering of protesters at the Seattle Central Community College and followed them as they began marching. He broke off from the group, he said, when another group of individuals began damaging property. He told the Tracker that he’d gotten ahead of the march when he heard a large explosion.
Seattle police later reported that a device had exploded, leaving an 8-inch hole in the side of the East Precinct at 12th Avenue and Pine Street. Not long after the explosion, a riot was declared and police began clearing people from the area.
The photographer said he was walking down Pine Street on the sidewalk after the demonstration was declared a riot with a group from Converge Media. He said they were walking away from protesters who were marching in the street when he was hit with pepper spray.
“It was pretty clear that a significant group of us were media,” the photographer said. “I had my NPPA [National Press Photographers Association] badge clearly displayed on the right side of my backpack, with press on my helmet, and a big camera.”
He told the Tracker he was most upset that he couldn’t take anymore pictures with his camera because it was covered in pepper spray.
The photographer said he knew what he was going into and that blast balls had already exploded near his feet, but that he didn’t expect to be sprayed in the face.
“I’m not sure what caused the pepper spray,” he said.
He was wearing a respirator, goggles and a helmet, so the side of his neck was the only part exposed to the chemical irritant. He said he experienced chemical burns, but did not seek medical attention. His camera, a Canon 5D Mark IV, had to be sent in for servicing, he said.
The Seattle Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country that followed the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Independent social media journalist Joey Wieser said he was shoved by police and sprayed in the face and mouth with a chemical irritant while reporting on a protest in Seattle, Washington, on July 25, 2020.
Protests in Seattle had been held regularly since George Floyd, a Black man, was killed during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25. In late July, the Seattle protests intensified when the Trump administration deployed U.S. Department of Homeland Security officers to the city, Crosscut reported.
Wieser, who told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he began covering protests in late May by livestreaming and posting videos on social media, said that on July 25 he was reporting from the front of a large protest on 11th Avenue in the Capitol Hill area of Seattle. Police began advancing on the crowd of protesters, shepherding them around a corner onto a narrower street, Wieser said. Because of the size of the crowd, Wieser said, he couldn’t move quickly.
A video he posted on Facebook shows Wieser repeating, “we are moving back, we are being peaceful.” Suddenly, an officer lunges toward him, sprays him and shoves him.
Wieser coughs and shouts out, “Oh my god I just got shoved and sprayed!” Seconds later the camera turns back toward the police, and an officer blasts an orange substance, which Wieser told the Tracker was pepper spray, directly toward Wieser, who begins screaming and repeats “I’m being attacked, I’m being attacked.” The camera becomes blurry from the spray.
Wieser told the Tracker he was “completely incapacitated.”
“I cannot breathe, and I cannot see, and I'm practically flailing about trying to get out of that situation,” Wieser said. “And then I am shoved incredibly hard — I mean the hardest I've ever been shoved in my entire life.”
Seconds later on the video, several bangs can be heard. The video, blurry from the spray on the camera lens, shows a bright orange flash, and Wieser shouts, “That exploded!” He told the Tracker that was when blast balls — explosive devices containing a chemical irritant — started erupting around his feet. He said it felt as though one had gone off directly near him, because he felt heat rushing up his legs.
Wieser said he was incapacitated for about half an hour after he was attacked. The video shows that he retreated to an alley where someone came to help him wash out his eyes. Wieser told the Tracker his Samsung phone, which he used to stream video, was so badly damaged from the spray that he needed to replace it.
In a July 27 declaration he gave for an American Civil Liberties Union motion for contempt, Wieser said he couldn’t open his eyes for at least 15 minutes, and his face, arms and neck were burning. “It was the most excruciating pain I have experienced in my adult life,” he wrote.
The ACLU motion argued that the city had violated an earlier injunction restricting Seattle police from using chemical agents and projectiles, and that the Seattle Police Department “repeatedly targeted journalists with brutal violence” on July 25. The motion led to a modified court order on Aug. 10 that barred police from targeting projectiles and chemical irritants at journalists, as long as they are displaying a press pass or wearing clothing that distinguishes them as members of the media. Wieser, identified as an independent journalist, is named in the ACLU motion.
Wieser said that at the July 25 protest, he was not wearing any press identification, but he stood near other members of the press who repeatedly shouted to police identifying themselves as media.
Weiser said he did not feel that he was targeted because he was a journalist. “I feel that the animosity towards just about anybody on the street was indiscriminate,” he told the Tracker.
Three other journalists — Omari Salisbury and John Mitchell of Converge Media and Renee Raketty of the Seattle Gay News — were also hit with crowd-control devices while covering the July 25 protest, according to statements included in the ACLU suit, interviews with the Tracker and social media footage. Find all incidents from that day here.
Julie Davidow, a spokesperson for the ACLU, said in a statement to the Tracker that the August court injunction had been effective in strengthening protections for journalists, as well as legal observers and medics.
“[W]e have not seen journalists subjected to the same kinds of indiscriminate and excessive police force they faced while covering the demonstrations that took place in Seattle last summer in response to the murder of George Floyd,” Davidow said.
Seattle Police Department spokesperson Randy Huserik told the Tracker in an email that the department investigates cases of use of force or crowd control devices. Huserik confirmed that the department used pepper spray and flash-bang devices on July 25.
“If journalists covering events choose to place themselves within a crowd where those devices may be deployed, they have the potential to be exposed to these devices,” he said.
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 these incidents here.
Freelance photojournalist Lee Smith said he was hit with crowd-control munitions shot by federal agents while he covered protests against police violence in Portland, Oregon, on July 24, 2020.
Smith was documenting protests that continued for months in downtown Portland and across the U.S. in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests.
On the evening of July 23, demonstrators gathered outside the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse where law enforcement had constructed a fence around the perimeter. According to news reports, federal officers occasionally warned protesters when they shook or hit the fence. The officers later fired pepper balls at the protesters. At 12:30 a.m. on July 24, Portland Police declared an unlawful assembly after firework mortars and other objects had been launched over the fence, according to a report from the Department of Homeland Security.
Smith told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker federal agents had conducted numerous pushes throughout the night to disperse the protesters, but mostly stayed behind the fence, deploying tear gas, pepper balls and other crowd-control munitions. Officers also positioned themselves on top of the courthouse with long-range flashlights that would emit green lasers, which Smith said law enforcement was using to point out particular individuals.
“They kept singling me and a couple of people out, targeting specific press and activists,” he said. Smith said he had distinct “press” markings on his helmet and backpack and wore a press pass issued by Raindrop Works, a Portland-based site that has covered the protests there. “Eventually that person was either arrested or shot with munitions,” he said, of those picked out by the green lasers.
In a video Smith tweeted later that morning, there is a loud bang at 0:48 and the camera jerks. He can be heard saying, “They just hit me again.” Smith said his press pass had been hit by a canister that exploded and shattered the case.
Feds exploded a CS triple chaser on my chest. Shattering the case my press pass was in. #FedsOut #PortlandProtest pic.twitter.com/hysSDYqobp
— Lee “Threat level -7” Smith (@LeeSmithPDX) July 24, 2020
Smith said he was shot at least 12 times that night by a variety of crowd-control munitions, including pepper balls and foam rounds. He said the hits left bruises across his body, especially on his chest. He said he also suffered effects from tear gas and pepper spray, and he told the Tracker that at some point his iPhone 6S camera was broken.
Smith’s injuries came just hours after a judge’s July 23 preliminary injunction barred federal agents from harming or impeding journalists. The ruling was upheld by an appeals court in October.
The Department of Homeland Security didn’t respond to a request for comment on the incidents.
Federal officers struck Black Zebra videographer Johnny Lynch multiple times and dragged him to the ground as Lynch covered protests against police violence in Portland, Oregon, on July 22, 2020.
Black Zebra Productions, based in Sacramento, California, is a video production company that has drawn thousands of views for its livestreams at Black Lives Matter protests across Sacramento. Company videographer Lynch was in Portland covering one of the many protests that continued for months in that city following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25.
On the night of July 21, protesters gathered outside of the Multnomah County Justice Center in downtown Portland. A report issued by the Department of Homeland Security said that about 2,000 people had gathered by 10:30 p.m., when “rioters started to launch mortar-style fireworks over the fence at the federal courthouse and officers.” The DHS report also said protesters attacked a fence put up around the courthouse. In response, federal officers deployed tear gas, flash bang grenades and other crowd control munitions for several hours to break up the crowd, according to news reports.
In an interview with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, Lynch said federal officers rushed protesters numerous times to disperse the group and deployed crowd control munitions, including tear gas and pepper balls.
"There was tear gas everywhere," Lynch told the Tracker. “I got my gas mask back on and went out to the Justice Center and that's when the rush happened."
In a live stream shared on Facebook by Black Zebra Productions, federal officers can be seen running towards a crowd of people at 1:24:03 into the video. Lynch said the rush began shortly after midnight July 22. Lynch, who is wearing an orange helmet, is caught in the commotion and pushed to the ground. A few seconds later he can be seen running away from the officers and smoke that is enveloping the crowd. Another video posted by Black Zebra shows, in split screen, the attack as seen from the livestream alongside footage from Lynch’s camera. In Lynch's perspective, which is in the top frame of the video, a federal officer's baton can be seen slamming down towards the camera.
"They said move, I turned around, and then they hit me," Lynch told the Tracker. "They hit me a couple of times [and] dragged me into a cloud of tear gas that had just started to go off." He said another officer hit him while he was being dragged on the ground.
"This was very obviously a group of camera people," Lynch said. "That officer was standing there next to me for at least long enough to have seen my camera.”
Lynch said he had been wearing press passes issued by The Sacramento Bee and Black Zebra Productions. He said he lost his lens hood, sustained several bruises across his body and suffered nausea from the tear gas. After he left the scene, he said he regrouped with his team and they continued documenting till 2 a.m. on July 22.
DHS didn’t respond to a request for comment on the incidents.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country. The Tracker documented a previous incident involving Black Zebra here.
Rach Wilde, an independent photojournalist working for Black Zebra Productions, says she was shoved to the ground by a federal officer while covering protests against police violence in Portland, Oregon, on July 22, 2020.
Team members from Black Zebra Productions, a community-based storytelling production crew, were documenting protests that have been ongoing for months in downtown Portland and across the U.S. in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. In mid-July, federal agents were dispatched to the city, increasing tensions and drawing backlash.
On the night of July 21, protesters had gathered outside the Multnomah County Justice Center. By 10:30 p.m., the situation had escalated, according to a report from the Department of Homeland Security, the agency coordinating the federal presence in Portland. Around 12:30 a.m., Wilde told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was looking toward the side of the building, where officers were shooting impact munitions from a window.
“Out of nowhere, I heard a slight commotion. They [federal agents] just popped up and were right next to me,” she said. “Right as I turned around, one of the federal officers was beelining straight toward me.”
Wilde said the officer shoved her “as hard as he could” and kept running past her. In a livestream shared on Facebook by Black Zebra, federal officers can be seen running toward a crowd of people at 1:24:03.
Wilde, who was dressed in all black with a helmet and gas mask on, said she was pushed straight into a tree. “I hit my knee and my shoulder really bad,” she told the Tracker. She said her shoulder still hurts if she does certain movements and her knee will occasionally act up. The body of her camera was also damaged, as it hit the ground first, according to Wilde.
“It was clearly a pocket of press,” she said. “All of us had cameras. Majority had press presses.”
Wilde said she was wearing a press pass issued by Black Zebra Productions around her neck. After she left the scene, she regrouped with her team and they continued documenting until 2 a.m.
DHS did not respond to a request for comment on the incident.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
Photojournalist Mathieu Lewis-Rolland was hit with crowd-control munitions and tear gas fired by federal agents while covering protests in Portland, Oregon, on July 22, 2020, causing damage to his camera.
Lewis-Rolland, an independent photographer whose work has been published by the Portland Mercury, The New York Times and Reuters, was covering one of the protests that had been held in Portland almost nightly since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering Black Lives Matter protests across the country.
The Portland protests had grown more intense as the presence of federal law enforcement increased in early July. A temporary restraining order on July 2 that barred the Portland police from harming or impeding journalists wasn’t expanded to include federal agents until July 23. Lewis-Rolland is a plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon, that led to the ban.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, who had been criticized for his handling of law enforcement during the protests, attended the demonstrations the night of July 22. Protesters confronted the mayor for tactics the city police used to crack down on demonstrators, according to local news outlet KATU, while the mayor spoke out against the presence of federal law enforcement agencies in Portland.
Lewis-Rolland was standing about six feet from the mayor outside the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse, a focal point of the protests, when he was hit with munitions, according to a statement he provided for the ACLU case.
In a video Lewis-Rolland posted on Twitter, a crowd is seen up against the metal fence that had been set up around the courthouse. A round of shots can be heard, followed by Lewis-Rolland exclaiming, “I just got shot! I just got shot!” As he moves away from the fence, a white cloud of tear gas envelopes the crowd, including the mayor, who can be seen facing the fence and wearing a blue shirt and goggles.
“So if life could't get any stranger for me, last night I was shot with less lethal's by feds and then tear gassed all while standing next to @tedwheeler, the mayor of Portland, Oregon,” Lewis-Rolland wrote in the post.
So if life could't get any stranger for me, last night I was shot with less lethal's by feds and then tear gassed all while standing next to @tedwheeler, the mayor of Portland, Oregon. 2020 won't quit. pic.twitter.com/bclUiUBEFT
— Mathieu Lewis-Rolland (@MathieuLRolland) July 23, 2020
Wheeler was likely hit with tear gas at around 11:15 pm., according to KATU.
In the court statement, Lewis-Rolland said the munitions first hit the metal fencing, and the shrapnel damaged his camera and backpack. He didn’t respond to a request for comment about the damage to his equipment.
In the statement, Lewis-Rolland said that beginning on July 22, he started wearing a reflective yellow vest with a transparent pocket, where he displayed a press pass issued by the Portland Mercury. He also had “press” marked on his white bicycle helmet and on his backpack.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which has coordinated the federal presence in Portland, didn’t respond to a request for comment about the incidents.
Documentary photographer Rian Dundon was on assignment for the Economic Hardship Reporting Project on July 22, 2020, when he was repeatedly thrown to the ground and pinned down by a federal officer while covering protests in downtown Portland, Oregon, according to a lawsuit filed by the photographer in 2022.
Protests had been held in Portland on almost a nightly basis since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May. The Portland protests had grown more intense as the presence of federal law enforcement increased in early July. A temporary restraining order on July 2 that barred the Portland police from harming or impeding journalists wasn’t expanded to include federal agents until July 23. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documented assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering BLM protests across the country.
Dundon filed a lawsuit against the regional director of the Department of Homeland Security, which coordinated the federal presence in Portland, and more than 100 federal officers in April 2022. Dundon declined to comment on advice from counsel.
According to the suit, Dundon was photographing a fire started outside the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse in downtown Portland alongside other journalists in a group away from protesters, and was wearing a press badge.
“Federal officers dressed in military fatigues and wearing gas masks approached Plaintiff [Dundon] and the other journalists from behind,” the lawsuit states. “Plaintiff turned to run, but federal officers grabbed him and threw him to the ground.”
Dundon landed on a live, unexploded gas canister which then exploded.
“Plaintiff stood and again tried to flee, but federal officers again threw him to the ground. Federal officers then pinned Plaintiff on the ground,” the lawsuit says. In footage of the incident, Dundon can be seen pinned under an officer as a cloud of gas engulfs them.
Federal officers stormed towards the crowd from the North entrance arresting many along the way. There was a brief exchange of tear gas cannisters flying in different directions. #PortlandProtest #Portland #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/ggIS9vhLv9
— Justin Yau (@PDocumentarians) July 22, 2020
“One of the Marshals rips the press ID from around my neck,” Dundon wrote in a description of the incident for The Washington Post. “Another pinned me under the gas with his nightstick for 10 excruciating seconds before allowing me to leave the area.
“I walked home with third-degree burns that night, bedraggled but buzzing on residual adrenaline,” Dundon wrote.
The lawsuit alleges that the officers violated Dundon’s First and Fourth Amendment rights and restricted his ability to cover the protests. Neither Dundon’s attorneys nor DHS responded to requests for additional information.
“Targeting journalists was not a quirk of the federal enforcement efforts, it was one of its objectives,” the suit alleges. “DOJ and DHS agents could have completed the objectives of their response without causing harm to Plaintiff.”
The Tracker documented seven other journalists assaulted while covering the Portland protests that day.
Dundon is seeking noneconomic, economic and punitive damages in the lawsuit.
This screenshot, cited in Rian Dundon’s lawsuit, shows the photographer after he was thrown to the ground amid protests in Portland, Oregon, in July 2020. The 2022 suit alleges that federal officers deliberately targeted him.
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Protests continued for months in downtown Portland in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. On the evening of July 21, demonstrators gathered outside the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. courthouse, where protesters held signs and sang songs, according to Olkhovskaya, the Washington, D.C. bureau chief for the outlet.
The gathering remained peaceful, she told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, until some new arrivals began to agitate the crowd. A Department of Homeland Security report about the evening describes several hours of violence, including attempts to set fire to the courthouse and break into its entrance.
Arkhipov and Olkhovskaya, had State Department-issued press badges visibly displayed and had a camera on a tripod nearby, Olkhovskaya said.
Olkhovskaya said that they were watching the courthouse scene at about 9 p.m. when officers came from the back door and kicked her. The Tracker documented her assault here.
Arkhipov said a federal agent hit his right wrist with a baton and a second federal agent grabbed his backpack from behind and pushed him to the ground.
"Two agents snatched the camera out of my hands and threw it on the ground,” he said. “Then one of the agents kicked the camera with his boot."
After the officers left the area, Arkhipov returned to the courthouse area, only to find the camera had been destroyed.
The camera’s memory card wasn’t damaged so the crew managed to file a story about the protest and the encounter with what the story described as “extremely aggressive” security forces.
According to an Izvestia news report, the Russian Federation sent official complaints to the United States about the Portland attack and another assault on Channel One journalists in Philadelphia in October. The Dec. 15, 2020, story said there had been no response from the U.S.
The Department of Homeland Security didn’t respond to a Tracker request for comment on the two Channel One incidents.
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 here.
Yuliya Olkhovskaya, the Washington, D.C., bureau chief for Russia’s Channel One, said that she and cameraman Viacheslav Arkhipov were assaulted by federal agents while covering protests against police violence in Portland, Oregon, on July 21, 2020.
Protests continued for months in downtown Portland in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. On the evening of July 21, demonstrators gathered outside the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. courthouse, where protesters held signs and sang songs, according to Olkhovskaya.
The gathering remained peaceful, she told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, until some new arrivals began to agitate the crowd. A Department of Homeland Security report about the evening describes several hours of violence, including attempts to set fire to the courthouse and break into its entrance.
Olkhovskaya said that as she observed the courthouse scene about 9 p.m., she felt a kick from behind. "It was completely unexpected because there had been no officers around. They came from the back doors," she told the Tracker. "One of them pushed me to the ground and I dropped my phone.”
Olkhovskaya said she and Arkhipov both had State Department-issued press badges visibly displayed and had a camera on a tripod nearby. “It was obvious we were a professional crew,” she said.
Arkhipov, who was hit with a baton and pushed to the ground, said federal agents snatched the camera from his hands and threw it to the ground. The Tracker documented his assault here.
Olkhovskaya said that she repeatedly yelled that she was press, but the officers never acknowledged that. She said one officer grabbed her helmet, threw it to the ground and pushed her away. After the officers left the area, she returned to the courthouse area, only to find a few remnants of the camera and no helmet.
"They destroyed it completely and intentionally," Olkhovskaya said. "I still don't understand why they broke our camera."
Olkhovskaya said she got scratches on her hands but they were able to file a story about the protest and their encounter with what the story described as “extremely aggressive” security forces.
According to an Izvestia news report, the Russian Federation sent official complaints to the United States about the Portland attack and another assault on Channel One journalists in Philadelphia in October. The Dec. 15, 2020, story said there had been no response from the U.S.
The Department of Homeland Security didn’t respond to a Tracker request for comment on the two Channel One incidents.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
The cable connecting a KSTP 5 News crew’s camera to its live truck was cut during a live shot outside a bar in Anoka, Minnesota, on July 20, 2020.
Reporter Kirsten Swanson told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that her crew was working on a general assignment piece about bars and restaurants warned by the state’s Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division after failing to comply with coronavirus safety guidelines.
While the news crew, based in Saint Paul, was in an Anoka bar speaking with the owner, Swanson said they noticed a patron who went in and out several times, but specified that the man hadn’t acted aggressively toward them.
“Right before six o’clock, when my photographer went to set the camera up, the patron asked him, ‘Is that camera live? What are you guys doing?’” Swanson said. Her photographer explained they were preparing for a live shot and that they were reporting on the bar. The man scowled at the photographer, she said, before going back inside.
Swanson went on-air shortly after 6 p.m., and she introduced their piece before the recorded package began playing. Within seconds, however, she said they received word from their producer and the technician in the KSTP truck parked up the block that their live shot had dropped.
“Being in this business for a long as we have, you know technology sometimes doesn’t work so we didn’t really think anything of it,” she said. When they went to see what had gone wrong, the technician began rolling in the cable that connects the camera and the truck but only half of it came back.
“The tech stopped and looked down and said, ‘Oh my god, someone cut the cable,’” Swanson said.
Boy, this is a new low. Someone saw us going live on Main Street in Anoka and CUT the cable that runs from the truck to our camera. Shot dropped. Thanks @JackieCainTV for finishing the story up. pic.twitter.com/F25OvCaC6L
— Kirsten Swanson (@KirstenKSTP) July 20, 2020
Swanson said they filed a police report for the damages, and that security cameras captured footage of what happened.
The Anoka Police Department did not respond to an email requesting comment.
An unidentified man cut the cable connecting a KSTP 5 News crew's camera and live truck, interupting their broadcast on July 20, 2020.
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Jankowski was covering the protests that broke out in Portland in response to police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the May 25 death of George Floyd. For more than six weeks, nightly protests had taken hold in downtown Portland, escalating tensions and violence between protesters, Portland police and federal officers. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
In the early morning hours of July 17, Jankowski was covering a protest at Southeast 47th Avenue and East Burnside Street, outside of the Penumbra Kelly Building, which houses the PPB’s crime-prevention and neighborhood-involvement units as well as space for the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office. Jankowski told the Tracker he recalled two dispersal orders from Portland police officers ordering protesters to move west.
“I guess they [officers] decided that we weren’t moving fast enough and did what’s come to be known as a bull rush,” Jankowski. “Out of nowhere, they run at people and start shoving.”
As protesters and officers scattered in different directions, Jankowski felt someone push him. He believed it was an officer.
“I yelled ‘Media!’ while I ran, and even screamed the word as they twisted my wrist behind my back to take away my phone,” Jankowski wrote in an article for the Portland Mercury. “People from across the street saw I was wearing a press pass. I tried making it easier for the officer to zip tie me, and was told to stop resisting.”
He said he had thought ahead to wear a protective vest, which absorbed most of the impact, but he still sustained cuts and scrapes on his hands. Officers also grabbed his backpack, which was later destroyed.
A video documented and tweeted by Nicholas Lee, an independent photographer and videographer, shows Jankowski being held by officers at around 12:50 a.m. A few seconds into the video, officers can be seen shining a bright light into Lee’s lens, hampering him from capturing the footage.
As Lee continues to film, he shouts, “Are you press?” Jankowski responds with a “Yes” and his name. A bystander can be heard asking, “Have they told you why they are arresting you?” to which Jankowski replies “No.”
Jankowski said he believed the officers answered the question about his charges only because protesters were demanding it. But at that moment, he was still in shock and couldn’t fully understand what the officers were saying. The PPB announced later that morning that Jankowski was booked for disorderly conduct and interfering with a peace officer.
“I don’t know if I was targeted, but once they knew who I was, they still weren’t letting me go,” Jankowski said, noting that he had a large press pass taped to his chest. In a photograph Jankowski shared with the Portland Mercury, he can be seen with a sign taped on his chest that had “freelance journalist” written across the top along with logos of the Portland Mercury and other news outlets.
The officers brought Jankowski to the Penumbra Kelly building, where they removed the press pass from his chest, cutting through the line that read “Freelance journalist,” he said. He was finally processed at 3:44 a.m. at the Multnomah County Justice Center and released about six hours later, with the two charges pending.
“Through their questions, I came to realize that the officers questioning me didn’t understand, or didn’t want to understand, how freelance journalism works,” he wrote. “I felt they were trying to provoke, intimidate, and belittle me when they asked why an arts writer was reporting on protests.”
PPB spokesman Derek Carmon declined to comment on Jankowski’s arrest, citing continuing litigation.
When Jankowski went to court in September, he learned that the district attorney had declined to prosecute him, but that the case could still be reopened in the future. He also received a notice from the PPB regarding a complaint that he had allegedly filed. He said that while he hasn’t filed a dispute, he is currently working with a lawyer to potentially file a civil case.
Since the incident, Jankowski has gone to physical therapy for his wrist and wore a brace for several months, he said. In the Portland Mercury, he wrote about experiencing “bizarre trauma responses,” claustrophobia and paranoia.
Independent videojournalist Hiram Gilberto Garcia was arrested and his equipment seized while covering protests in Austin, Texas, on July 17, 2020.
Garcia, who posts his livestreams and interviews on Facebook and his website, was documenting protests against police brutality in front of the Austin Police Department Headquarters downtown when officers tackled him to the ground and punched him, KXAN News reported. Garcia’s livestream from that evening can be seen here.
According to an affidavit obtained by KXAN, Austin Police Department officers were arresting another man and had warned Garcia to get back when the videojournalist began reaching between the officers. An officer then pushed Garcia back, the affidavit alleges, and Garcia attempted to turn and run into the crowd. Officers then took Garcia to the ground in the APD parking garage and placed him under arrest, according to the affidavit.
In Garcia’s footage from that night, he appears to be filming the arrest of a protester when an officer repeatedly pushes him back from the individual under arrest. The officer then points at Garcia and can be heard saying, “Grab him!”
A video of Garcia’s arrest was posted on Facebook that night. In the video, multiple officers can be seen wrestling Garcia to the ground while individuals can be heard shouting “Get off of him” and “Give us Hiram back!” Approximately 1 minute and 30 seconds into the video, Garcia appears to free his right arm before officers immediately restrain him again. An officer can be seen punching Garcia twice in the stomach before other officers block the view.
The affidavit said officers “kept telling Hiram he was under arrest and to place his hands behind his back, but Hiram would not comply and kept tensing his arms in an attempt to not be placed in handcuffs.”
A post to Garcia’s Facebook page at approximately 11:30 p.m. alerted his followers to the arrest.
“Hiram was taken into police custody tonight during his stream. We are dealing with it, and appreciate all your help and concern,” the post reads.
Garcia was booked at the Travis County Jail at 12:16 a.m. and released at 11:45 p.m. on July 18, according to booking information shared with the Tracker. A post to Garcia’s Facebook page announced his release on bond at 1:20 a.m. on July 19.
KXAN reported Garica was arrested on charges of interfering with public duties and resisting arrest.
Garcia posted on July 21 that his equipment — which included a “GoPro, light, monopod, microphone, battery pack, adapters and other important accessories” — was not returned to him upon his release, and that he would not be able to retrieve it until the following day.
When the equipment was returned, Garcia posted that his microphone was broken and a cord was missing.
“Overall, my equipment was obviously not handled with care,” Garcia wrote.
In a statement to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker emailed from Garcia’s account, a representative for Garcia said, “We have no comment on the arrest as that is not our position or job. We are there to show what is happening as it happens. In this case we were targeted and arrested as you can see on the video by the very police we had been interviewing for months.”
The representative also stated that the charges against Garcia have since been dropped.
APD and the Travis County Jail did not respond to requests for comment.
Editor's Note: This article has been updated to reflect booking information shared with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in compliance with a Texas Public Information Act request.
A multimedia journalist for FreedomNews TV, was assaulted by individuals and had her camera smashed while covering a pro-law enforcement “Back the Blue” rally in the Brooklyn borough of New York on July 11, 2020. The rally was a response to continuing Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests sparked by the May 25 police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The journalist, who publishes under the name Oliya Scootercaster, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an interview that she had been walking in the neighborhood of Dyker Heights with two other photographers when a man from the rally approached and asked, “Why does the media show fake information?” Moments later, she said, another person shoved her into a tree causing abrasions to her left elbow. She tweeted a photo of the wound.
This was the worst of it physically. Now need a new camera though. pic.twitter.com/f9oSfcrRPq
— @SCOOTERCASTER (FNTV) (@ScooterCasterNY) July 11, 2020
Scootercaster also tweeted a video from someone she identified as “the neighbor Zena P.,” writing, “The video filmed by the neighbor starts after they shoved me. She saw that happen and started recording.”
I am very grateful to the neighbor Zena P. who filmed it. pic.twitter.com/szfE9z3tvk
— @SCOOTERCASTER (FNTV) (@ScooterCasterNY) July 11, 2020
In the footage, a man can be seen grabbing the journalist's camera and swinging it at her, before it drops to the ground.
Scootercaster said on Twitter that the camera had “shattered,” and she told the Tracker that it had to be replaced.
Scootercaster said that police officers on bicycles, who’d arrived on the scene during the attack, initially refused to file a report, saying, “We didn’t see anything.” Once the bystander’s video was brought up though, they agreed, according to the journalist.
Following the rally, Scootercaster said her case was assigned to a detective with the New York Police Department. According to Scootercaster, he had not returned her emails or calls since July. The Tracker’s request to the department for comment was not returned as of press time.
The New York Office of the Deputy Commissioner, Public Information also did not respond to a request for comment.
Scootercaster said an assistant attorney general reached out to interview her about the incident. They have not responded to the Tracker’s request for comment.
In the aftermath of the assault, Scootercaster said she hopes for some sense of justice. “I just want to see that there’s accountability for people no matter which side they’re on,” she said. “I mean, it was very disheartening. I’m not on either side, I’m a journalist. I’m literally just documenting ... it was just unpleasant from all sides.”
Independent journalist Ari Taylor told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was assaulted and detained by federal officers while covering a protest in Portland, Oregon, on July 2, 2020.
Taylor, who was livestreaming for Halospace Community Media and filming for the Grassroots Activist International Association, was documenting one of the many protests that have been ongoing for months in Portland and across the U.S. in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. The Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
The Portland protests had grown more intense as the presence of federal law enforcement increased in early July. A temporary restraining order on July 2 that barred the Portland police from harming or impeding journalists wasn’t expanded to include federal agents until July 23. Taylor said she is participating in a separate class-action suit against federal officers and Chad Wolf, former acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, for using excessive force against protesters.
On the night of July 2, several hundred protesters gathered outside of the Multnomah County Justice Center, according to local news station KGW. After several demonstrators broke into the building, federal agents emerged to clear the area around 11:42, according to a Portland Police Bureau report. The Portland police declared a riot about 10 minutes later.
Taylor told the Tracker that right before the riot was declared, she was filming a glass door that had been shattered during an altercation between federal officers and a shirtless individual. According to Taylor, the officers were pushing down on the door and broke it, but the individual was arrested for the incident.
"They [officers] had shoved another member of the press with their shield, and I had gone to help him up," Taylor said. "Then they went after the shirtless individual, and I turned around to get his arrest. I had my back to the officers and was filming the crowd, and that's when they attacked me."
In a video taken by independent journalist Eric Greatwood and posted on YouTube, at about the one-minute mark, several officers can be seen pulling Taylor across the courthouse entrance and into the building amidst clouds of purple smoke and yelling from the crowd. At the 1:45 mark in another video, it is clear that Taylor is being dragged by her arm and leg. Another video shows Taylor's camera footage intercut with another individual's footage, and she can be seen being dragged up the stairs around the 0:50 mark.
Taylor said the officers pulled her across a pile of broken glass, damaging her DSLR camera and lens in the process.
Once inside the building, Taylor identified a mix of officers from the Portland police, DHS, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, based on their uniforms and badges, she told the Tracker. They brought her to a holding facility on the third floor, she said, but wouldn’t tell her what she was being charged with.
"A male officer patted me down and searched me," said Taylor. "Every hour, they'd come in and I'd ask to talk to a lawyer and they wouldn't let me."
Around 5:30 a.m., the officers released her without any paperwork or rationale as to why she was detained, said Taylor, adding that they only stated, "We may be talking later."
"They still have my gimbal," she said, referring to a mechanical stabilizer for her camera. She said the officers had confiscated all her belongings, including her backpack, gas mask and camera equipment when they searched her. "There's nothing to be held accountable. I have no paperwork to prove that I was ever in their facilities."
At the time, Taylor had press credentials stating the organizations she was affiliated with, she said. She tweeted photos of numerous bruises, cuts and scrapes sustained from the incident, and said she ended up going to the hospital for treatment of injuries to her hip, back and foot.
This just my view and one other persons view there are many other views of my federal kidnapping that you can watch. I was given no paper work and still don’t have all my stuff. I had many injuries but I will post pictures of a few. https://t.co/9hWBP4LCEe pic.twitter.com/oiAfVAkyec
— Pdx Peoples News (@PdxPeoples) July 17, 2020
The DHS, which has coordinated the federal presence in Portland, didn’t respond to a request for comment about the incident.
Freelance journalist Justin Yau was arrested on July 1, 2020, while filming the arrest of a protester in northeast Portland, Oregon.
Yau, a student at the University of Portland whose work has been featured by the Daily Mail and The New York Times, was covering one of the many protests that had broken 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. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
Law enforcement officers in Portland have targeted journalists since the start of nightly demonstrations in late May, according to a class-action lawsuit filed in June by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon. Yau is a plaintiff in the suit, which led to a U.S. District Court judge issuing a temporary restraining order the day after his arrest that barred police from arresting or harming journalists. The city later agreed to a preliminary injunction in July to not arrest, harm or impede the work of journalists or legal observers of the protests.
In the early hours of July 1, Yau was following a group of protesters moving toward the North Precinct of the Portland Police Bureau. The police had earlier declared a riot and dispersed the protesters shortly after 10 p.m., and the group had reassembled.
Yau told the Tracker that the crowd he was following made visual contact with a police riot line at around 12:45 a.m. at the intersection of Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Northeast Killingsworth Street. Police pushed the crowd westward. “I was about like 30 feet away from the police line and I was walking away following instructions and I was on the sidewalk matching their pace,” said Yau.
As they moved down Killingsworth toward Northeast Mallory Avenue, Yau observed a protester walking slowly with their hands up. Then he heard police warn the protester to get out of the street faster, followed by an order to arrest them. He began to film the arrest on his cellphone. But when the police charged forward, Yau didn’t initially realize they were taking him into custody as well.
Yau was tackled from his right side and fell on his left side on top of his camera and the gimbal he used to stabilize it. His phone flew out of his hands and was permanently damaged, though still working. “I just went limp and didn’t say anything,” he told the Tracker.
Freelance photojournalist Alex Milan Tracy captured video of Yau’s arrest. The video shows Yau being cuffed on the ground. “The person that you are arresting clearly is identified as press from his helmet,” Tracy could be heard telling the officers, who didn’t respond. “Why are you arresting a member of the press?”
I question officers actions as police arrest an identifiable member of the press @PDocumentarians near NE Killingsworth and Mallory. pic.twitter.com/AqMQ5kvm3q
— Alex Milan Tracy (@AlexMilanTracy) July 1, 2020
In addition to wearing a helmet marked as “press,” Yau said he had a glow vest attached to a backpack labeled “press.” He was also wearing neutral colors to distinguish him from protesters, who are often in all black.
Tracy also captured footage of one of the arresting officers putting his backpack in a bag and escorting him into a police van. The restraining order required the police “to return any seized equipment or press passes immediately upon release of a person from custody,” but Yau’s equipment was not returned until July 6, according to the ACLU claim.
Yau appears to be limping in the second video from the impact of landing on his knee during the arrest. “My left knee was kind of in a lot of pain throughout booking, I couldn’t sleep,” he told the Tracker.
The reason given for Yau’s arrest was felony riot and interfering with a peace officer — this resulted in a no-complaint charge after the district attorney decided not to press charges.
Yau believes he was targeted for being press, a view shared by Tracy, who referenced Yau’s arrest in a declaration for the ACLU suit. “It seemed to me that the police were specifically targeting and retaliating against reporters for seeking to enforce out First Amendment protections,” said Tracy.
The PPB has said it wouldn't comment on incidents involving journalists covering the protests, citing continuing litigation in the ACLU case.
A CNN news crew was harassed and its camera damaged while filming unrest in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 13, 2020.
Correspondent Natasha Chen and her crew were filming that evening outside a Wendy’s in South Atlanta, the site where 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks had been fatally shot by Atlanta police the night before and the impetus for reignited protests in the city against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
When Chen, a producer, two photojournalists and a security guard arrived at the Wendy’s, she told CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer in an on-air segment later that night, several people were throwing objects at the restaurant’s windows, while another attempted to set fire to an umbrella on the restaurant’s patio area. With the windows smashed, Chen reported, some people were also entering the restaurant.
“We were trying to get video of what was happening and there were protesters very angry that we were recording this and tried to block our cameras,” she told Blitzer.
When contacted for comment, CNN referred the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker to Chen’s on-air statements made in the incident’s aftermath.
In a video Chen posted on Twitter of the scene, people can be heard shouting, “Block the camera,” while one waves their hand in front of the lens to try to obstruct filming. In her tweet, Chen wrote that the people trying to block the photojournalists ended up “taking a skateboard to that camera.”
More from the moments right after that, when people had broken in. pic.twitter.com/H3N5yLz5MT
— Natasha Chen (@NatashaChenCNN) June 14, 2020
Speaking to Blitzer, Chen described the camera as “broken” following the assault. Footage broadcast by CNN during Chen’s call with Blitzer showed hands holding a skateboard trying to block a camera before the camera began to shake wildly.
“I was trying to record cellphone video while the photojournalist was recording video on his camera. The next thing I know, I’m turning around, I see these two protesters really going after the camera and that’s when I was told that we should get out of there,” she said.
Following the incident, Chen and her crew left the Wendy’s. That night, the restaurant was set on fire. In July, it was torn down.
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 these incidents here.
A Wendy’s fast food restaurant burns in Atlanta on June 13, 2020, following a rally against racial inequality and the police shooting death of Rayshard Brooks.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,CNN,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, protest",,, 2020-08-21 15:08:05.554842+00:00,2023-11-01 15:34:39.953763+00:00,Youth smashes windshield of TV news crew’s car in Louisville,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/youth-smashes-windshield-of-tv-news-crews-car-in-louisville/,2023-11-01 15:34:39.859816+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,vehicle: count of 1,Shaquille Lord (WLKY),,2020-06-15,False,Louisville,Kentucky (KY),38.25424,-85.75941,"A young, unidentified male hurled a concrete block into the windshield of a television news crew’s car after a June 15, 2020, protest in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, video of the incident shows.
The protest was held in response to the killing of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman who was shot dead by police on March 13, as well as the May 25 police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis. Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since late May.
Shaquille Lord, a reporter for CBS affiliate WLKY, posted a video to his Twitter page showing a group of people heckling the crew as they walk to their car. A young male holding a large concrete block walks into the street and yells, “You better hop in that car before I break the shit.” The video shows him throwing the block into the vehicle’s windshield and the news crew fleeing the scene.
“Our crew just got attacked as we were trying to leave,” Lord said on Twitter. “We’re okay and I recorded the entire thing. I can tell you things are definitely not peaceful in the downtown area today.”
Our crew just got attacked as we were trying to leave. We’re okay and I recorded the entire thing. I can tell you things are definitely not peaceful in the downtown area today @WLKY #Louisvilleprotests #DavidMcAtee #BreonnaTaylor pic.twitter.com/nnlv0lX34k
— Shaquille Lord (@ShaqWLKY) June 15, 2020
Neither Lord nor WLKY News Director Andrea Stahlman responded to requests for comment from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. Newsweek also reported on the incident. It isn’t clear whether the crew was targeted for being members of the media. WLKY’s vehicles are clearly marked with the station’s logo.
A teenager was later arrested in Louisville and was charged with wanton endangerment, burglary, and criminal mischief in relation to the incident, police spokesman Sgt. Lamont Washington said.
Because he is a minor, the youth isn’t being identified and the Tracker was only able to obtain a redacted copy of the police report. Washington said he couldn’t provide any further information about the case.
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 these incidents here.
A reporter for nonprofit media outlet Unicorn Riot was hit repeatedly while he filmed protesters who said they were defending a statue of Christopher Columbus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 14, 2020.
The night before, on June 13, a group of vigilantes had gathered at South Philadelphia’s Marconi Plaza to defend its Columbus statue. Monuments of the Italian explorer and other figures across the country had been toppled or vandalized during continuing protests sparked by the May 25 police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota. That evening, Schiano had filmed a group of men carrying bats and guns at the statue before he was assaulted and had his bike tires slashed.
On June 14, a much larger crowd of demonstrators claiming to defend the statue converged on Marconi Plaza, drawing counterprotesters. Schiano said when he arrived in the late afternoon, police were trying to separate the two sides but failed to keep them apart, resulting in several heated confrontations.
In one video Unicorn Riot shared on Twitter that night, Schiano asks a man if he can tell him what was going on.
“How about I beat you the fuck up? Get the fuck out of here,” says the man before walking away.
Another man sitting next to Schiano then says: “Listen, you’re not supposed to be here, like, videoing everyone, you know what I’m saying?”
It then appears Schiano is repeatedly hit by different members of the group surrounding him over the course of 30 seconds. Schiano said his camcorder was smashed into a tree by one of the people in the group, damaging the equipment.
Footage from a 6abc Action News reporter captured part of the incident, showing a crowd converging on Schiano and attacking him as he filmed. “Kill him!” a voice can be heard shouting. “That’s the one from yesterday!” another voice yells as Schiano is punched and shoved.
In video footage from the aftermath of the incident, members of the crowd can be heard taunting Schiano and threatening bodily harm as police officers intervene to keep them away from the reporter.
Like the previous evening, the assaults on Schiano appeared to come from members of the group that said they were there to protect the Columbus statue.
Schiano told the Tracker that at another point, he was standing near a police officer when a man came and tackled him to the ground. He added that at several points, people in the crowd tried to take his phone from him.
“I was standing within inches of a cop when this happened, too, who didn’t do anything,” he said.
He added that he also saw assaults on counterprotesters by members of the group purporting to defend the statue that didn’t attract police intervention.
The Philadelphia Police Department declined to comment on the incident.
Schiano said he tried to leave the plaza several times that evening, only to realize he was being followed, at which point he decided to stay, he said.
Schiano said he has covered dangerous and traumatic events previously, like the far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in the summer of 2017, where he was also attacked.
“This felt like that,” he said. “It was like the stress and adrenaline of things I’ve experienced before, but dialed up to 1,000.”
He told the Tracker that he had slight swelling on his lip where he got punched and “serious bruising” under his right arm from the blows he received.
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 these incidents here.
On June 13, 2020, Unicorn Riot reporter Chris Schiano was physically assaulted and saw his bike’s tires slashed while filming protesters who claimed to be protecting a statue of Christopher Columbus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
After statues — including some depicting Christopher Columbus — were toppled or vandalized in cities across the country during protests over the police killing of George Floyd, a group of individuals stationed themselves at South Philadelphia’s Marconi Plaza on June 13 saying they were protecting the Columbus statue there.
Schiano told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he headed to Marconi Plaza after he saw a brief news article online that featured a photo of an armed man by the statue. Upon arriving on his bicycle, Schiano was quickly confronted by men asking who he was and what he was doing. He said he attempted to calm the situation and explained he was there as a journalist. However, he was assaulted within minutes of his arrival after he took out his camcorder and began filming.
In one video Unicorn Riot tweeted that evening, Schiano appeared to be in a confrontation with several men who had come to the statue.
“Sir, I’m just here taking a video of you with your bat,” says Schiano. “You’re here at the Columbus statue with a bat. That seems newsworthy to me. That’s all. Any of you guys want to tell me why you’re out here today?”
One man tells him that they are there “protecting history.” Then, the man with a bat Schiano was originally addressing begins taunting him, saying “look at you, you’re fucking shaking. How scared are you?” As he says that somebody else appears to hit Schiano.
In a second video, a man in a red-shirt walks up to Schiano holding a baseball bat and appears to slap him. About 14 seconds later, Schiano says “this guy just hit me in the head” and the camera pans to a man in the group surrounding Schiano hauling away his bicycle. Schiano can be heard asking for his bicycle to be returned before the camera shakes violently and there are sounds of a struggle. The clip ends with a man slashing the bike’s tires with a knife.
After those assaults, Schiano said police came and formed a line in front of him. He said some protesters continued to try to come at him and a video he posted on Twitter showed one being shoved away by police while yelling “I don’t want him fucking filming.”
Later, a police officer approached Schiano and ordered him to leave the area, saying that it was a “volatile situation” and Schiano’s presence was “aggravating the situation.”
Schiano told the officer he was there as a journalist to document what was going on.
“And you’re inciting a riot,” said the officer.
Fearing arrest if he did not comply, Schiano left the area.
“I walked away with my slashed tires bike under threat of arrest to these cheering sounds of basically everybody who was there,” he told the Tracker. “It was like they’d just won a baseball game because the cops told me to leave.”
Contacted by the Tracker, the Philadelphia Police Department declined to comment.
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 these incidents here.
A skateboard thrown at a television news station’s car smashed the vehicle’s windshield and broke the driver’s door near protests against police violence in Colorado Springs, Colorado on June 6, 2020.
Reporter Colette Bordelon was driving the marked KOAA News5 car near Colorado Springs’ City Hall to cover the demonstration on June 6. When she made a left turn on a street heading away from City Hall, someone threw a skateboard at the car. Later that night, Bordelon tweeted a video showing damage to the car and said: “I can’t open the driver’s side door as a result. Friendly reminder that your local reporters are here to tell your stories.”
A video clip that accompanies the tweet shows a large smash on the left-hand side of the car’s windscreen.
It isn’t clear whether the vehicle was specifically targeted for belonging to a media outlet. “It was pretty close to the protests, but I have no way of knowing if it was a random person or actually a protester,” Boredelon told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
“There are too many unanswered questions in my specific incident to go ahead and attribute it to an attack on the press, or as related to the protests,” Bordelon said in an email.
Bordelon tweeted after the incident that she was uninjured, and livestreamed on Facebook Live from the scene of the protest that night.
“So everyone knows - I’m totally okay!” she tweeted. “Also, I realize this is an isolated incident, and it doesn’t represent all of the people I have met at these protests over the past week. The main message of the protests is still the story I will share - systemic racism in America.”
Bordelon filed a police report about the incident.
The Colorado Springs demonstration was one of many protests that broke out across the U.S. in response to police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement since the end of May. They were sparked by a viral video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.
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 these incidents here.
A screenshot from a video taken by journalist Colette Bordelon and posted to Twitter shows damage to her news vehicle.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,unknown,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, protest",,, 2020-06-23 03:13:42.190502+00:00,2024-02-29 19:37:02.814702+00:00,"NYPD officer assaults British photojournalist, breaks camera",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/nypd-officer-assaults-british-photojournalist-breaks-camera/,2024-02-29 19:37:02.704758+00:00,,,"(2023-09-08 00:00:00+00:00) Judge voids First Amendment settlement with NYPD, (2024-02-07 00:00:00+00:00) Judge accepts journalists’ settlement with NYPD, (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","Assault, Equipment Damage",,,"camera: count of 1, camera lens: count of 1",Jae Donnelly (Daily Mail),,2020-06-02,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"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.
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.
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 exempt as “essential workers.”
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.
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 wrote in an account for the Daily Mail.
“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.
The final photograph Donnelly captured was of a highly decorated officer coming toward him with a wooden stick taken from a protester.
“I remember trying to get away as he came at me, while explaining, ‘I’m media,’” he said.
Footage captured by The Associated Press 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.
The officer is then seen charging and striking Donnelly again.
“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.
Donnelly told the Tracker that he is sure that the officer deliberately chose to assault him.
“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.”
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.
“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.
When asked for comment, an NYPD spokesperson directed the Tracker to the “30-minute mark” of a press briefing held by New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Dermot Shea on June 3.
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.”
Donnelly told the Tracker that he has been unable to work since the incident due to the damage to his equipment.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred total incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country related to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Find all of these cases here.
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.
",None,None,None,None,False,1:21-cv-06610,['SETTLED'],Civil,None,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, protest",,, 2020-10-30 14:33:09.798523+00:00,2023-11-01 15:44:35.338327+00:00,Detroit Metro Times journalist assaulted while covering civil unrest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/detroit-metro-times-journalist-assaulted-while-covering-civil-unrest/,2023-11-01 15:44:35.231980+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,"camera lens: count of 1, cellphone: count of 1",Steve Neavling (Detroit Metro Times),,2020-06-02,False,Detroit,Michigan (MI),42.33143,-83.04575,"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 a police officer grabbed him and threw him to the ground.
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. pic.twitter.com/o4dSZ8uMVN
— Motor City Muckraker (@MCmuckraker) June 3, 2020
“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.
Neavling said the officer warned him he would be arrested. Neavling said he then heard another voice saying Neavling should be let go.
“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.
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.
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.
Sgt. Nicole Kirkwood from the Detroit Police Deparment’s media relations team did not respond to CPJ’s request for comment.
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.
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.
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 these incidents here.
Independent photojournalist Joe Piette was shot by law enforcement officers with a projectile that injured his hand and destroyed his camera while covering protests in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 1, 2020.
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.
Piette told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was photographing protesters as they poured onto the I-676 highway, halting traffic in both directions at around 5 p.m. Minutes later, Piette said, Philadelphia police began firing tear gas into the crowd.
“I was one of many people who ran up a grass embankment through a lot of gas fumes to street level,” he said.
Piette told the Tracker that once he was out of the gas, protesters helped pour water into his eyes and he crossed to the other side of the expressway, where there were very few people.
“From that vantage point, I had a good view of police continuing to shoot [crowd control munitions] at protesters as they tried to flee up an embankment and over a 10-foot-tall fence,” Piette said. “I took a few photos, and suddenly my camera was shot out of my hands and I felt a lot of pain in my right hand.”
After looking at his photos the following day, Piette saw that his second-to-last image shows an officer on top of a tank approximately 20 feet from him. Piette told the Tracker that he assumes that is the officer who shot at him.
While Piette was not wearing any press identifiers, he told the Tracker that the officer had no cause to shoot at him, as he was standing away from the disturbance and with no other people around him.
“The camera is totaled. The glass was shot out of the lens. The in-camera flash is stuck in the up position. When I turn on power, nothing happens,” Piette said.
Piette told the Tracker that he went to the hospital to have his hand X-rayed. While it was not broken, he said that it was discolored, sore and swollen.
“This is an attack on the press, a clear violation of the Constitution. I have a right, as every citizen does, to film and report on police activities, especially when the police are violating the rights of peaceful protesters,” Piette said.
In a late-night statement on June 1, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney and Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said that officers had no choice but to use tear gas after the protest turned violent, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
WHYY reported that there does not appear to be evidence to support those claims.
Neither Mayor Kenney nor the Philadelphia Police Department responded to requests for comment.
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. Find these incidents here.
Photojournalist Joe Piette captured this image of Pennsylvania police officers using crowd control ammunition during a protest on June 1, 2020, moments before he was hit with one of the projectiles.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,unknown,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, chemical irritant, protest, shot / shot at",,, 2020-07-21 02:18:44.373413+00:00,2023-11-01 15:46:27.000225+00:00,Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporter assaulted while covering Little Rock protests,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/arkansas-democrat-gazette-reporter-assaulted-while-covering-little-rock-protests/,2023-11-01 15:46:26.907420+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,work product: count of 1,Tony Holt (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette),,2020-06-01,False,Little Rock,Arkansas (AR),34.74648,-92.28959,"Tony Holt, a reporter for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, was struck in the face and injured while he covered protests in Little Rock, Arkansas, on June 1, 2020.
Protests in Little Rock began after the death of George Floyd, a Black man, who was killed during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020, when a white police officer kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes. Floyd’s death prompted widespread demonstrations against racism and police violence across the country.
Holt was reporting on the third day of protests in Little Rock when he was hit and hurt to the point of needing medical treatment.
Holt didn’t respond to a request for comment. Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Managing Editor Eliza Gaines detailed the incident in an interview with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
Shortly before he was attacked, Holt tweeted that hundreds of people were still out a few minutes past the city’s 10 p.m. curfew. People had been throwing rocks through windows and damaging property, Gaines said. Holt was “in the thick of it,” she said, when he felt someone take his reporter’s notebook from his pocket. Then he was struck with something.
Gaines said many of the details around the attack were unclear. Holt doesn’t know exactly what happened to him, or who did it, she said.
A “good Samaritan” got him to emergency services, she said, and he was transferred to a hospital. Editors — alerted to the attack by a tweet Holt sent at the time — went to wait for word of his status outside the building, since Covid-19 restrictions barred them from entering.
The following day, Holt posted on Twitter that his nose was broken in the attack and that he was in the hospital for five hours.
“I have no memory of the attack last night in Little Rock, but there was a small group among the rioters who clearly didn’t want me there,” he wrote.
I have no memory of the attack last night in Little Rock, but there was a small group among the rioters who clearly didn’t want me there. Suffered a broken nose, but no other fractures. All journos, seriously, be careful. I got too close and paid for it w/ a 5-hour hospital stay pic.twitter.com/Dju2BfdsZ6
— Tony Holt (@HoltDemGazette) June 2, 2020
Holt wasn’t wearing anything that would clearly mark him as a reporter, Gaines said, though he had credentials with him and carried a notebook. The newspaper bought vests with the word “press” on the back for reporters after the assault on Holt, Gaines said, but “we realized it might put a target on someone's back.” Reporters can decide whether or not to wear them, Gaines said.
“It'd be good if you had it so the police could see it but otherwise it's kind of, you know, alerting others that you're press,” she said.
Gaines said she didn’t believe the incident had been reported to police. A spokesperson for the Little Rock Police Department said police weren’t aware of the incident.
Two days earlier, reporter Shelby Rose of KATV Channel 7 News was shouted at and struck with an object while she was broadcasting live from protests in Little Rock.
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 here.
Freelance photographer Stephen Yang was assaulted by an unknown individual and had his camera stolen while covering protests in New York City on June 1, 2020, for the New York Post.
The protests were held in response to a video showing a Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, for more than eight minutes during a May 25 arrest. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. The incident sparked anti-police brutality and Black Lives Matter demonstrations across the country.
Yang told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that while covering June 1 protests in Manhattan he was taking photos of individuals looting stores near the intersection of Sixth Avenue and 39th Street.
He said that an unknown individual approached him from behind and began to yank on his camera strap. Yang said that the individual then punched him in the face and was able to get the camera free from his shoulder.
Yang said the blow left him with a bloody nose but that he did not seek medical attention. He also said he did not get a clear look at the individual who threw the punch and that he didn’t believe he was targeted for being a journalist.
Yang said that police officers at the scene did not directly witness the assault but that one officer approached him after it was over and encouraged him to report it.
He later reported the assault and the camera theft to the New York City Police Department. He said the stolen camera was valued at $2,500 and that his equipment is covered by insurance.
Fortunately, Yang was carrying a backup camera on the night of the assault and was able to keep covering protests for several more hours, he said.
Yang said he did not encounter any further violence while covering demonstrations in New York City, but that he took time off work after the June 1 assault to recuperate.
“I had to take a couple of days off after, I think, just for my mental health,” Yang said. “Overall I felt extremely lucky that this was the only incident I’ve experienced.”
The NYPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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 these incidents here.
A New York City police officer stands in front of a vandalized store following protests in the Manhattan borough of New York on June 1, 2020.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,no,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, protest, robbery",,, 2020-09-29 15:22:33.141668+00:00,2024-03-10 23:09:28.027548+00:00,"Freelance photojournalist hit with projectiles, arrested while documenting protests in Worcester, Mass.",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-photojournalist-hit-projectiles-arrested-while-documenting-protests-worcester-mass/,2024-03-10 23:09:27.874983+00:00,"obstruction: disorderly conduct (charges dropped as of 2020-11-22), obstruction: disturbing the peace (charges dropped as of 2020-11-22), rioting: failure to disperse during a riot (charges dropped as of 2021-03-19)",,"(2021-03-08 12:31:00+00:00) Freelance photojournalist still facing charges of failure to disperse after arrest during June protest, (2021-03-19 13:31:00+00:00) Final charge against photojournalist dropped based on insufficient evidence, (2020-11-20 13:54:00+00:00) Two of three charges against photojournalist arrested at Worcester protest dropped","Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Search or Seizure, Equipment Damage",,"camera: count of 1, cellphone: count of 1",work product: count of 1,Richard Cummings (Freelance),,2020-06-01,False,Worcester,Massachusetts (MA),42.26259,-71.80229,"Freelance photojournalist Richard Cummings was arrested and charged with failure to disperse and other charges while documenting a protest against police violence in Worcester, Massachusetts, on June 1, 2020.
Cummings told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he went to the protest that day to photograph from a distance, but added he didn’t stay long before heading for the Main South neighborhood to continue work on a long-term documentary project on the area.
Cummings said that at around 9:30 p.m. he noticed an escalated police presence, with officers from the Worcester Police Department, the Massachusetts State Police and the Clark University Police blocking roads and offloading vans filled with officers in riot gear.
Cummings said he heard the officers screaming, as if “to get pumped up for something.” He added he didn’t understand what was happening, because the protest was elsewhere and he hadn’t seen any escalation there.
The Telegram & Gazette, Worcester’s daily newspaper, reported that a group of people had gathered in the neighborhood after the peaceful protest in downtown had dispersed. A confrontation reportedly ensued with law enforcement after the group staged a “die-in” in a roadway.
According to Cummings, the officers moved in formation down Main Street, chanting, “Move back,” and firing tear gas and projectiles as some individuals threw rocks and shot fireworks toward them. He said several people were arrested, many of whom appeared to not have been the ones throwing objects.
Cummings said he was struck twice by projectiles fired by police during the melee, once on his left shoulder and once on his right elbow. He told the Tracker he was unsure what type of projectiles they were.
Cummings said he then moved to stand next to a police formation near the intersection of Hammond and Main, figuring it was a safer place to photograph. He said he told an officer that he was a freelance photojournalist and that the officer directed him to stand on the sidewalk, which he did, continuing to document the scene.
Another officer, who Cummings said seemed to be in charge at the scene, asked Cummings what he was doing. Cummings said he was told it was all right to be where he was. A recording filmed by Cummings and published by the Telegram & Gazette appears to have captured this interaction.
In the video, an officer can also be heard saying of a protester, “I’m keeping eyes on him. I’d love to hit him with a pepper gun.”
About 15 to 20 minutes later, Cummings said, he was suddenly grabbed by an unknown number of officers, who bent him over a brick wall with his arms behind his back. Cummings said an officer screamed he was going to break Cummings’ arms and called him a homophobic slur.
Cummings told the Tracker that he didn’t resist and pleaded with the officer to not break his camera. While a second officer took his camera, Cummings said, the officer who pinned and screamed at Cummings seized his cellphone.
Both the Worcester Police Department and the Worcester County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
Cummings said he was then escorted to a police van, where he said he began to have a panic attack, in part due to the impact of exposure to pepper spray or tear gas and in part due to fear of contracting coronavirus in a confined space. He also said the metal handcuffs cut into his wrists.
“It was hell, pretty much for taking pictures on the sidewalk,” Cummings said. “I wasn’t being rude to any cops. I wasn’t yelling at any cops. I went there ... I didn’t show any side. I was just documenting it.”
Cummings was one of nearly 20 people arrested that night on charges of disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace and failure to disperse during a riot, the Telegram & Gazette reported.
Cummings told the Tracker that, on his release early the next morning, he noticed that videos on his phone appeared to have been deleted. He said that his phone didn’t have password protection, so its data would have been accessible. Cummings said that he was unable to recover any of the deleted footage.
Cummings’ legal team, who are representing multiple people arrested that night, said the phones of two other individuals had disappeared or been destroyed, the Telegram & Gazette reported.
Cummings pleaded not guilty on Aug. 21, according to the Telegram & Gazette. A Worcester County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson told the Tracker that his next hearing is scheduled for Nov. 28. If convicted on all charges, Cummings faces up to a year in prison and fines totaling up to $800.
The protest was held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred total incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering demonstrations across the country. Find all of these cases here.
A news crew for Australia’s 7News was assaulted by law enforcement while covering protests against police violence in Washington, D.C., on June 1, 2020, a chaotic day for demonstrations throughout the nation’s capital.
Correspondent Amelia Brace and cameraman Tim Myers were reporting live on-air amid a group of protesters facing a police line when officers rushed the crowd. An officer wearing riot gear can be seen pushing Myers with a shield and hitting his camera. As Myers and Brace fled the scene, an officer can be seen swinging a baton at Brace.
Watch the shocking moment #7NEWS reporter @AmeliaBrace and our cameraman were knocked over by a police officer LIVE on air after chaos erupted in Washington DC. pic.twitter.com/R8KJLnfxPN
— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) June 1, 2020
“They were quite violent and they do not care who they’re targeting at the moment,” Brace told in-studio anchors during a subsequent report for 7News.
“We were trying to move on. The last thing we ever want is to get in the way, but there was just no opportunity,” she continued. “There was really no choice but to try to hide in that corner, hoping that they pass by ... as you can see in those pictures, they did not.”
Brace also told the anchors that a rubber bullet hit her “on the backside” and that another round struck Myers on the neck.
7News did not respond to requests for comment or make its journalists available for interviews.
D.C. is notable for the large number of different police forces that operate within its borders. The Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia did not respond to requests for comment on these incidents as of press time.
Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the country after a viral video showed a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
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 here.
Law enforcement officers rush protestors and observers in Lafayette Park and near the White House on June 1, 2020, in Washington, D.C., to clear a path for the president.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, protest, shot / shot at",,, 2021-02-24 15:12:33.001862+00:00,2023-11-01 15:52:19.004182+00:00,7News van windows smashed during Boston protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/7news-van-windows-smashed-during-boston-protest/,2023-11-01 15:52:18.907905+00:00,,,,Equipment Damage,,,vehicle: count of 1,,,2020-06-01,False,Boston,Massachusetts (MA),42.35843,-71.05977,"Windows of a WHDH 7News van were smashed while a news team from the local TV station was covering protests in Boston, Massachusetts, in the early hours of June 1, 2020.
Demonstrations in Boston began as protesters gathered in cities across the country, sparked by the May 25 death of George Floyd, a Black man, in police custody. Thousands of people joined Boston protests on May 31 against police brutality and racial injustice. Late that night, after hours of peaceful demonstrations, protests escalated into violence as some participants smashed windows and set fires across the city, WBUR reported.
Nathalie Pozo, a reporter for 7News, posted on Twitter that her news team had covered the protests for six hours and was wrapping up its work for the night when the station’s van was attacked. Video she posted shows the vehicle driving by a group of people when the driver’s side window suddenly bursts, spraying glass into the cab. Another object hits and breaks the windshield.
A voice can be heard asking if the driver is okay, and the driver responds, “Yeah, I got glass in my eye.”
As our night was coming to an end...This happened. Thankfully we are all ok. After six hours of covering peaceful #GeorgeFloydProtests in Boston- It took a turn, from powerful messages to vandalism & looting @7News #7News @photogsap pic.twitter.com/KSY80n2tep
— Nathalie Pozo (@NathalieWCVB) June 1, 2020
In her tweet, Pozo said the news crew was okay but noted that after hours of covering peaceful protests, the demonstrations “took a turn, from powerful messages to vandalism & looting.”
WHDH 7News did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
According to a report about the incident filed with the Boston Police Department and reviewed by the Tracker, the news station’s van was surrounded by about 30 people, who were trying to break into the vehicle. The windshield and windows on the passenger and driver’s side were smashed before the van was able to drive away, the document states.
7News reported that the window was shattered when someone threw a large rock. A photograph included in Pozo’s video shows a rock and shards of glass on the seat of the van. Other photographs show graffiti on the side of the van and another window of the vehicle entirely missing.
The police report noted that one person had been pelted with glass and would seek medical attention independently.
Det. Sgt. John Boyle, a spokesperson for the Boston Police Department, said that the incident remains under investigation as of February 2021 and no arrests have been made.
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 these incidents here.
Maya Saenz, a news anchor for Omaha-metro area CBS affiliate KMTV, said she was shoved by National Guard officers while covering a June 1, 2020 protest in Omaha, Nebraska, against police violence.
Protests against police violence had spread across the country following the May 25 death of George Floyd. On June 1, demonstrations in Omaha also protested a decision by Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine to not charge a white bar owner, who had shot and killed 22-year-old Black man James Scurlock two days earlier, according to the Omaha World-Herald.
After an 8 p.m. curfew went into effect June 1, the World-Herald reported that at least 150 protesters remained on downtown streets. According to Mayor Jean Stothert's proclamation, as reported by WOWT 6 News, members of the media were exempt from the curfew.
Saenz told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she and her KMTV colleague, Kent Luetzen, were covering protests near Jackson Street and South 13th Street when they were aggressively confronted by National Guard officers.
“Guardsmen quickly ran towards the middle of the street and started grabbing protesters and throwing them on the ground and then placing zip-ties around their wrists,” she said. “I started recording on my cellphone and recorded when one guardsman shoved my colleague and I against a wired fence and attempted to arrest both of us and place zip-ties around us. We yelled, ‘We’re media! We’re media!’ and that’s when they let us go, but several others barked at us to leave the scene.”
In a video posted to Twitter at 9:07 p.m., both reporters repeatedly scream that they are media as a National Guard officer grabs Luetzen. Saenz said she was wearing a shirt with a KMTV logo in the top corner as well as her media credential on a lanyard around her neck. “During the forceful encounter with the guardsmen, my lanyard tore,” she said. “After that, I put it in my pocket.”
Luetzen told the Tracker he was briefly put into zip-ties, but quickly released. At the same time on the same block, one of their colleagues, Jon Kipper, was tackled and also briefly detained.
Approximately half an hour later, Luetzen and Saenz were briefly detained by Omaha police.
Around 9:30 p.m., Luetzen said protesters had spread out after police made a series of arrests in the downtown area. He told the Tracker that he and colleagues from his station, including Saenz, were walking away from the main demonstration area after being told repeatedly that they would be arrested if they didn’t leave. At the intersection of Leavenworth Street and South 15th Street, they came across four Omaha police officers who had detained two people.
"They made us get on the ground and put our hands behind our backs," Luetzen said. "Even though we work with them daily and they knew my co-worker, they still made us get down, put our chests to the ground."
Luetzen said he had his press credentials around his neck and a KMTV logo on his hat. He said that Saenz told the officers that they were all working journalists and were leaving the area. After Saenz’s clarification, he said, the officers let them leave.
The Nebraska National Guard did not respond to an immediate request for comment. When asked for comment about Luetzen’s detainment, Lt. Sherie Thomas, a spokesperson for the Omaha Police Department, told the Tracker that Police Chief Todd Schmaderer had ordered “an overall review of the protests.” Thomas later said that the department sent “clear communication” to news outlets “to make sure employees had visible badges showing that they work for the media” and to “wear highly visible vests.”
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
Law enforcement officers fired a nonlethal round at a car driven by Minneapolis Star Tribune reporter Ryan Faircloth, breaking the left passenger window and injuring him with glass shards, while he was covering protests in the city at about 12:15 a.m. on May 31, 2020.
Protests that began in Minnesota on May 26 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.
Faircloth told the Committee to Protect Journalists in a phone interview that he was driving and arrived at a street blocked by National Guard and Minnesota State Police. He turned away from the police line, and then a marker round shattered the window, sending pieces of glass into the car, which cut him on his left forearm and brow.
He said he could not tell whether police or the National Guard troops fired the round, or whether they had fired other shots as well.
“I was taken aback,” Faircloth told CPJ. “I thought I was leaving the area [of the protests] and so my guard wasn’t up at all. And then everything shattered and all of a sudden I was bleeding.”
The Ford Focus he was driving is owned by the Star Tribune, and did not have any markings identifying it as a press vehicle, Faircloth said.
Faircloth had tweeted earlier in the night that the car had been fired upon by law enforcement on another street, but said no damage was done then.
My colleague, @ChaoStrib, and I were driving near Lake Street and mistakenly turned down a street that was blocked off at the end. Before we had a chance to reverse, the Guard/ State Patrol fired #rubber bullets at our car without warning. https://t.co/8yUVKz7rhA
— Ryan Faircloth (@RyanFaircloth) May 31, 2020
Protesters and law enforcement at a rally in Minneapolis on May 31, 2020.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,no,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, protest, shot / shot at",,, 2020-07-17 12:17:12.071463+00:00,2023-11-01 15:55:37.468780+00:00,Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist shoved to the ground by LAPD,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/pulitzer-prize-winning-photojournalist-shoved-ground-lapd/,2023-11-01 15:55:37.310117+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,camera lens: count of 1,Barbara Davidson (Freelance),,2020-05-31,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"A Los Angeles Police Department officer shoved freelance photographer Barbara Davidson to the ground, breaking a camera lens, while she covered a protest in the city on May 31, 2020.
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. The officer has been charged with second-degree murder. Three other officers who were present face felony charges.
The demonstrators were taking a left turn on foot from West Third Street onto South Fairfax Avenue when a police line advanced. An officer yelled at Davidson to leave. “I said ‘Sir, I’m a journalist’ and they just kept on screaming,” Davidson told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. She also showed them the badge identifying her as a journalist, but it made no difference in their demeanor toward her.
The LAPD didn’t respond to a request for comment.
“I realized in that moment that I wasn’t going to win this debate,” said Davidson, a Pulitzer-prize winning photographer who is currently a Guggenheim fellow. “I turned to walk away, and as I turned to walk away he shoved me with his baton and I went flying.” Davidson was wearing a helmet.
Fellow freelance journalist Jason Ryan witnessed the incident. “They wouldn’t even give her a minute to get up,” he told the Tracker. At 5:06 p.m. Davidson tweeted a photo of herself with the caption, “I got pushed from behind by the @911LAPD after I told them I was a journalist. I was hit so hard that I went flying before crashing to the ground and hitting the back of my head on a fire hydrant. Protesters picked me up preventing me from being crushed by the ‘line’.”
I got pushed from behind by the @911LAPD after I told them I was a journalist. I was hit so hard that I went flying before crashing to the ground and hitting the back of my head on a fire hydrant. Protesters picked me up preventing me from being crushed by the "line" pic.twitter.com/Hbp1M6RskL
— barbaradavidson (@Photospice) May 31, 2020
Davidson said she had the symptoms of a concussion but had to delay seeing her doctor due to COVID-19. The lens of her Hasselblad camera was damaged in the fall and needed to be shipped to New Jersey for repair at her own expense.
Davidson has covered Los Angeles for 13 years and said she never had an encounter like that with an officer. “I was specifically targeted because I was a journalist and that’s why I decided to speak up,” she told the Tracker.
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 these incidents here.
Photojournalist Jason Ryan said he was hit in the head with what he believes was a rubber bullet while covering a protest in Santa Monica, California, on May 31, 2020.
The protest was part of a wave of demonstrations against police violence 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. The officer has been charged with second-degree murder. Three other officers who were present face felony charges.
Ryan told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was photographing protesters at the intersection of Colorado Avenue and Ocean Avenue. He began behind the police line, then moved to the side of the protesters to get a better shot. He said the police were using teargas, pepper balls, rubber bullets and flash bangs against the crowd. He didn’t hear them make any announcements before firing.
“They just started right into it,” said Ryan, who was covering the protests independently. Ryan was carrying several cameras and said he was wearing a yellow vest that said “Press” on it, with a badge also identifying him as a journalist pinned to one shoulder. He said he believes he was targeted for being a journalist, given how prominent his identifiers were.
The last photograph Ryan took before he was hit shows a line of officers almost entirely obscured by teargas. The timestamp on the photograph is 3:15 pm. Ryan told the Tracker that the rubber bullet narrowly missed his temple. “It was above my right ear, a couple of inches or an inch from my temple. Just above my right ear, there’s still a small knot,” he said.
Ryan added that the impact reactivated a prior issue with nerve pain in his face. One of his cameras, a Fujifilm X-T3, also required cleaning and repair after being damaged by a projectile.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country related to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Find all of these cases here.
At least two news vehicles were vandalized amid protests against police violence in Kansas City, Missouri, on May 31, 2020.
The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.
KSHB 41 Action News reported that one of its vehicles was parked near the intersection of 46th and Main streets when it was vandalized and set on fire. In its request for tips, the Kansas City Police Department posted on Twitter that it occurred at around 9:30 p.m.
KSHB reporter Megan Strickland published a video of the burning car on Twitter. Lines of spray-painted graffiti were also visible on the hood and passenger doors of the Ford SUV.
A KSHB 41 Action News team films a standup in front of the burned out remains of its news vehicle after the car was vandalized amid protests on May 31, 2020. KSHB 41 NEWS/KATHLEEN CHOAL
Station General Manager Kathleen Choal told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the station took additional precautions — including hiring security for each field crew — to ensure the journalists’ safety while covering protests.
Choal told the Tracker that prior to the fire, several KSHB journalists had rocks, bricks and water bottles thrown at them, but no one was injured.
“Journalists find themselves facing more aggression and hostility while documenting history,” she said. “However, this has not diminished their passion to tell the stories of the amazing Kansas City community.”
KCPD spokesperson Capt. Dave Jackson told the Tracker they were working on the cases, but that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had taken the lead on the arson investigation.
A KMBC 9 News vehicle was also vandalized that night. The Tracker has documented that case here.
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 here.
A 41 Action News vehicle burns at the intersection of 46th and Main streets after it was vandalized and set on fire during protests on May 31, 2020.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,KSHB-TV,"arson, Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, protest",,, 2020-10-14 15:23:23.586230+00:00,2023-11-01 15:59:25.438404+00:00,"Voice of America video journalist punched in face, toes fractured while covering protests in Santa Monica",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/voice-america-video-journalist-punched-face-toes-fractured-while-covering-protests-santa-monica/,2023-11-01 15:59:25.332836+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,camera: count of 1,Khrystyna Shevchenko (Voice of America),,2020-05-31,False,Santa Monica,California (CA),34.01949,-118.49138,"Voice of America video journalist Khrystyna Shevchenko was punched in the face and fractured three toes while covering protests against police violence in Santa Monica, California, on May 31, 2020.
Shevchenko told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an interview that she and a friend, Christian Gomez, had been filming along the Third Street Promenade in downtown Santa Monica that afternoon when individuals split away from the protesters and broke into various stores, taking shoes and other items.
As Shevchenko was setting up her frame, an unidentified man charged toward her and punched her in the face, she said. She immediately blacked out, and her camera and tripod fell on her foot, fracturing three toes and breaking the camera’s viewfinder. Gomez told the Tracker that the assailant then punched him in the face as well.
“My friend fought back,” Shevchenko said. “But then that guy started to call for help, so [other individuals] started to kick my friend without any analysis of what was going on.”
Gomez told the Tracker that he had pinned the assailant down, but then released him to check on Shevchenko, who had regained consciousness. The assailant ran away with Gomez’s gimbal and lens. Gomez then helped Shevchenko to his car and drove her to the UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center emergency room, where a doctor diagnosed the three fractured toes and a minor head injury, Shevchenko said. Shevchenko underwent surgery on her foot two weeks after the incident.
Shevchenko said she couldn’t be certain if she was targeted specifically because she was a journalist, though she surmised that the assailant attacked her in order to take her camera and other equipment.
After returning home from the ER, Shevchenko filed her story for Voice of America’s Ukrainian service.
“I was so shocked—I couldn’t think that I would go through all of that and not have the story air,” Shevchenko said of her need to get the story out despite the pain she was in. “I had to write the story.”
In early June, Shevchenko and Gomez filed a report with the Santa Monica Police Department.
“He [the unidentified man] is in my footage and my friend recognized him,” Shevchenko explained. “However, the police said that because I didn’t document the action of punching, they cannot confirm that he did it.”
Additionally, Shevchenko made clear that Gomez was a witness to the incident, but the police department never reached out to him after taking his initial statement, according to Gomez. Shevchenko’s case is pending, but as of early October, she said she has yet to receive new updates.
The Santa Monica Police Department did not respond to multiple requests for comment as of press time.
“It’s an injustice,” Gomez stated. “She went through neuropathy for a month, and it seems like there’s no recourse to alleviate financial hardships or provide any help at all. It’s not just a physical thing that she had to overcome. It’s emotional, mental.”
Shevchenko told the Tracker that she still experiences post-traumatic stress and is unable to walk independently.
Numerous protests across the Los Angeles area ensued following the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. In a widely circulated video online, a white police officer kneeled on Floyd’s neck, ignoring his calls that he could not breathe. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
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 these incidents here.
Khrystyna Shevchenko, a Voice of America video journalist, was injured by an unknown assailant while covering protests in Santa Monica, California, on May 31, 2020.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,unknown,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, protest",,, 2020-10-30 14:08:13.469688+00:00,2023-11-01 16:15:10.824091+00:00,"SacBee photojournalist's hand broken, camera stolen while covering protest",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/two-sacramento-bee-journalists-hit-behind-their-equipment-damaged-and-stolen-while-covering-protests/,2023-11-01 16:15:10.635800+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,camera: count of 1,Paul Kitagaki Jr. (The Sacramento Bee),,2020-05-31,False,Sacramento,California (CA),38.58157,-121.4944,"Two Sacramento Bee journalists were assaulted and their work equipment damaged and stolen while covering protests against police violence in downtown Sacramento, California, on May 31, 2020.
SacBee photojournalist Paul Kitagaki Jr. was reporting that night with colleague reporter Sam Stanton. The pair had been following protests at the state Capitol, which law enforcement had dispersed with flash-bang grenades and tear gas at around 11:30 p.m. As the crowd broke up, Kitagaki and Stanton left the area, soon walking past a 7-Eleven a block from the Capitol that appeared to be being looted, according to Kitagaki.
Kitagaki told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in a phone interview that the city was loud that night and the journalists didn’t hear as two men ran up behind them, hitting them, in Stanton’s words, “full speed from behind.” Stanton was thrown to the ground, hitting his knee and head, while Kitagaki had one of his cameras yanked off his shoulder, breaking his right hand in the process. Stanton’s assault and equipment damage are documented by the Tracker here.
Kitagaki told the Tracker that he got the impression that the attackers, who quickly ran away after the assault, were looters, unassociated with the protesters, and that he and Stanton were targeted because of the camera equipment he was carrying.
Kitagaki and Stanton intended to continue working that night, with Kitagaki using his left hand to take photos with a second camera of which he was still in possession. However, within 10 minutes of Stanton tweeting about the attack, all Sacramento Bee reporters and photographers were pulled out of the area. Reporter Alex Yoon-Hendricks tweeted that the newspaper was concerned for its journalists' safety, as looting had escalated and police were hard to find.
All @sacbee_news reporters and photographers have been pulled out of downtown/midtown Sacramento. Right now, groups of mostly young men are smashing windows, stealing. Few cops along J and K St. Some people were walking dogs right next to people in ski masks breaking into cars. https://t.co/qrjUNoCdk5
— Alex BOOn-Hendricks 🐝 (@ayoonhendricks) June 1, 2020
Kitagaki reported the assault to the police the following day, and Kitagaki and Stanton were both interviewed about the attack. The Sacramento Police department did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
Kitagaki took two months off work to heal his broken hand, and will continue in physical therapy four months after the assault.
Protests in Sacramento and across the United States have surged in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following a viral video that showed a white police officer kneeling on the neck of a Black man, George Floyd, during his arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
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 here.
Two Sacramento Bee journalists were assaulted and their work equipment damaged and stolen while covering protests against police violence in downtown Sacramento, California, on May 31, 2020.
SacBee reporter Sam Stanton was reporting that night with colleague photojournalist Paul Kitagaki Jr. The pair had been following protests at the state Capitol, which law enforcement had dispersed with flash-bang grenades and tear gas at around 11:30 p.m. As the crowd broke up, Stanton and Kitagaki left the area, soon walking past a 7-Eleven a block from the Capitol that appeared to be being looted, according to Kitagaki.
Kitagaki told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in a phone interview that the city was loud that night and the journalists didn’t hear as two men ran up behind them, hitting them, in Stanton’s words, “full speed from behind.” Stanton was thrown to the ground, hitting his knee and head, and his work iPad in his backpack was smashed on impact. Kitagaki had a camera yanked off his shoulder, breaking his right hand in the process. The Tracker has documented Kitagaki’s assault and equipment damage here.
Kitagaki told the Tracker that he got the impression that the attackers, who quickly ran away after the assault, were looters, unassociated with the protesters, and that he and Stanton were targeted because of the camera equipment he was carrying.
Stanton said he “was just roughed up” and he and Kitagaki intended to continue working that night. However, within 10 minutes of Stanton tweeting about the attack, all Sacramento Bee reporters and photographers were pulled out of the area. Reporter Alex Yoon-Hendricks tweeted the newspaper was concerned for its journalists’ safety, as looting had escalated and police were hard to find.
All @sacbee_news reporters and photographers have been pulled out of downtown/midtown Sacramento. Right now, groups of mostly young men are smashing windows, stealing. Few cops along J and K St. Some people were walking dogs right next to people in ski masks breaking into cars. https://t.co/qrjUNoCdk5
— Alex BOOn-Hendricks 🐝 (@ayoonhendricks) June 1, 2020
Stanton tweeted at 11:42 p.m., “I have never willingly left the scene of a news story because of personal peril in my 38 years in the business. But when my editor ordered me to leave tonight, I did it.”
Kitagaki reported the assault to the police the following day, and Kitagaki and Stanton were both interviewed about the attack. The Sacramento Police Department did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
Protests in Sacramento and across the United States have surged in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following a viral video that showed a white police officer kneeling on the neck of a Black man, George Floyd, during his arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
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 here.
At least two news vehicles were vandalized amid protests against police violence in Kansas City, Missouri, on May 31, 2020.
The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.
A news vehicle belonging to KMBC News 9 was vandalized during demonstrations downtown that night, according to social media posts by a reporter with KSHB 41 News. The car’s windows were broken, internal mechanisms reportedly tampered with and the exterior spray-painted with graffiti. KMBC didn’t respond to requests for comment from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
.@kmbc car vandalized. pic.twitter.com/jvFY4xbV2g
— Megan Strickland (@StricklyMeg) June 1, 2020
A KSHB 41 News vehicle was also vandalized that night, and was set on fire. The Tracker has documented that case here.
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 here.
Ian Smith, a photojournalist for CBS News affiliate KDKA-TV, was attacked by protesters while covering unrest in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on May 30, 2020.
Protests in Pittsburgh occurred as demonstrations that started in Minnesota on May 26 spread across the country. The protests were sparked by video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, during an arrest. Floyd was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Smith, who has worked for KDKA-TV for 15 years, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was following groups of protesters near the PPG Paints Arena, a hockey arena, after an organized, peaceful demonstration ended.
He said he was near a police car that had been set on fire when multiple protesters yelled at him that he wasn’t allowed to film. As he started to move away to try to film from a different spot, he said he felt multiple people pull on his camera. After he lost his balance and fell to the ground, a group of people — he estimated between four and six — began punching and kicking him, while others were nearby. He said he heard them chant, “Kill him, kill him.”
Smith said his attackers took his camera and “smashed it into 1,000 pieces.”
Another group of protesters intervened, forming a wall around Smith to protect him, then helping him to outside the nearby arena where there was a medic, he said. Those demonstrators told him the attackers were not a part of their group. Smith said he found out later he was helped to a safer area by the CEO of the Pittsburgh Penguins, confirmed by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Smith was taken by ambulance to a hospital, evaluated and later released. He said he was struck several times in the head and sustained bruises and scrapes on his face, arms and legs.
I’m was attacked by protestors downtown by the arena. They stomped and kicked me. I’m bruised and bloody but alive. My camera was destroyed. Another group of protesters pulled me out and saved my life. Thank you! @KDKA pic.twitter.com/clyANKodth
— Ian Smith (@ismithKDKA) May 30, 2020
KDKA-TV reporter Paul Martino, who was covering the protests with Smith, wrote in a Facebook post that demonstrators threatened him as he tried to approach Smith during the attack. He was hospitalized after the incident with severe chest pains.
A spokesperson for the Pittsburgh Police Department said police were aware of the incident, and said the department does not discuss ongoing investigations.
Smith said he was grateful to the people who had stepped in to protect him.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting damage of equipment and multiple journalists arrested or struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas while covering related protests across the country. Find all of these cases here.
Photojournalist Ian Smith shows some of his wounds on Twitter after being attacked by protesters in Pittsburgh on May 30.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, protest",,, 2020-06-02 12:08:39.044484+00:00,2023-11-01 16:18:58.858996+00:00,"Fox News photojournalist, crew chased from park while documenting DC protests",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/fox-news-crew-chased-park-while-documenting-dc-protests/,2023-11-01 16:18:58.681709+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,"camera: count of 1, recording equipment: count of 1",Christian Galdabini (Fox News),,2020-05-30,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"Fox News photojournalist Christian Galdabini and his news crew were chased out of Washington, D.C.’s Lafayette Park by a mob on May 30, 2020.
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.
Fox correspondent Leland Vittert told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he arrived with Galdabini and two Fox security officers to report on the protests near the White House at about 8:30 p.m. Galdabini did not respond to an email requesting comment.
The protest was “entirely peaceful” during the early evening, Vittert said, but grew more restless later into the night.
Around midnight, one protester wearing a black and white bandana kept approaching them, questioning which outlet they worked for and why they were there. An hour later, Vittert said he noticed that the protester had stopped recording them and was looking at his phone.
As photojournalist Galdabini told Fox, “Somehow he figured out that we were Fox News and decided that that should be announced.”
Vittert told the Tracker that shortly after, “A crowd of about 50 people surrounded us, a number of them stopped throwing things at the Secret Service [officers] and started beating on us.”
In footage captured by The Daily Caller, Vittert, Galdabini and their security officers can be seen making their way out of the park while numerous voices call out curses and shout “Fuck Fox News!”
Vittert told the Tracker that while they attempted to leave, individuals threw objects at them, grabbed their microphone and used it as a club against them. One of their security officers was punched in the face, and Vittert received more than one blow to his stomach.
The camera Galdabini was carrying was also broken when one of the individuals attempted to grab it. The crew eventually found refuge near a police cruiser outside the park, Vittert said.
“We were all pretty roughed up,” he said.
Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott denounced the assault in a statement published by the outlet.
“We strongly condemn these actions against FOX News Media reporting teams as well as all other reporters from any media outlets who are simply trying to do their jobs and report the news during an extraordinary time in our country’s history,” Scott said.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests here.
On May 30, U.S. Secret Service uniformed division officers face demonstrators during a rally near the White House in Washington, D.C. A Fox News crew was assaulted, its equipment damaged.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, protest",,, 2020-06-04 03:57:05.140721+00:00,2024-02-15 20:33:55.489602+00:00,"NBC producer, group of journalists targeted in assault by state patrol",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/nbc-producer-group-journalists-targeted-assault-state-patrol/,2024-02-15 17:21:59.076239+00:00,,,"(2021-09-28 00:00:00+00:00) NBC journalist sues following arrest while covering Minneapolis protest, (2022-02-08 11:58:00+00:00) Journalists reach settlement agreement with Minnesota State Patrol, rest of suit ongoing, (2024-02-08 00:00:00+00:00) Journalists get nearly $1M settlement over Minneapolis BLM protest attacks","Assault, Equipment Damage",,,"camera equipment: count of 2, miscellaneous equipment: count of 1, protective equipment: count of 1, recording equipment: count of 1",Ed Ou (NBC News),,2020-05-30,False,Minneapolis,Minnesota (MN),44.97997,-93.26384,"Minnesota State Patrol fired tear gas, pepper spray, and concussion grenades at NBC journalist and producer Ed Ou and a group of other journalists in Minneapolis on May 30, 2020, Ou told the Committee to Protect Journalists via phone.
The journalists were covering ongoing protests in the city sparked by the alleged police killing of George Floyd, a black man, on May 25.
Ou told CPJ that the journalists were standing apart from the protesters in an indented section of a brick wall when troopers assaulted them. Ou said that he held up his press badge and screamed “Press!” but the patrol continued the assault.
"We were very explicit about saying we were press and we were nowhere close to any protesters or anyone else," Ou told CPJ. "They kept on throwing concussion grenades at us. They came up to us and maced me or pepper sprayed me on my camera and my face."
Ou, who was videotaping the protest, told CPJ that he was hit in the head. He said he couldn’t see the weapon or projectile as his eyes were blurred by tear gas and pepper spray. He said he stumbled past law enforcement officers asking for help, but none provided assistance. Eventually, a colleague found him, he said.
Ou told CPJ he later went to a hospital and received four stitches in his head.
Ou said that troopers damaged his equipment in the assault. He said the XLR connector between his microphone and camera was damaged, one of his lens filters was cracked, and a UV filter is no longer usable. He said that he can no longer safely use his microphone because pepper spray reached the microphone through the windsock. His gas mask, he added, is now unusable even with a new filter because of the large amount of pepper spray that entered it.
CPJ emailed Minnesota State Patrol for comment but did not receive an immediate reply. It also called the patrol’s press center but was unable to leave a message because the voicemail box was full.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting damage of equipment and multiple journalists arrested or struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas while covering related protests across the country. Find all of these cases here.
A video posted to Twitter by journalist Ed Ou shows Minnesota State Patrol troopers coming upon Ou and a group of journalists and spraying them with tear gas and pepper spray during protests on May 30 in Minneapolis.
",None,None,None,None,False,0:20-cv-01302,"['ONGOING', 'SETTLED']",Class Action,None,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, chemical irritant, protest, shot / shot at",,, 2020-06-06 03:19:23.429500+00:00,2023-11-03 13:53:52.692739+00:00,Police officer strikes Unicorn Riot journalist’s phone with baton,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/police-officer-strikes-unicorn-riot-journalists-phone-with-baton/,2023-11-03 13:53:52.591178+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,cellphone: count of 1,Christopher Schiano (Unicorn Riot),,2020-05-30,False,Philadelphia,Pennsylvania (PA),39.95238,-75.16362,"On May 30, 2020, a police officer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, struck Unicorn Riot journalist Chris Schiano’s phone with a baton while Schiano was covering an arrest.
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.
The incident occurred around 10 p.m. on the night of May 30, while Schiano was covering a group of police officers arresting a young black man. He had been live-streaming the protests for Unicorn Riot, a non-profit media collective based in known for its extensive and sympathetic coverage of street demonstrations.
Unicorn Riot later published a video on Twitter showing Schiano’s interaction with the police officers.
Philly police pin young black man to the ground with their knees, swat our field reporter with a baton for filming the scene.
— Unicorn Riot (@UR_Ninja) May 31, 2020
"Beat it."
"I'm a journalist, sir!"
"I don't care what you are. Beat it." pic.twitter.com/llguNcdTlx
As seen in the video, Schiano approached the officers, who had pinned the young man to the ground. As Schiano moved closer to document the man’s arrest, an officer appeared and waved his baton at Schiano.
Schiano identified himself as a journalist, and the officer said, “I don’t care what you are, beat it!” and struck his phone with his baton, bringing the video to an abrupt end.
Schiano said that, after he was forced to stop filming, one of the officers told him, “You’re not essential,” and suggested that he was in violation of Philadelphia’s 8 p.m. curfew. The curfew, which exempts “persons with essential duties,” is not supposed to apply to members of the media.
Schiano told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was wearing a press pass during the incident. He said the altercation was “fairly minor” and he did not suffer any injuries, but he was upset that the police stopped him from documenting an arrest.
“This seems fairly egregious if the First Amendment is supposed to be real,” he said.
Schiano said that Philadelphia police officers similarly attacked him with batons in 2016, while he was documenting protests around the Democratic National Convention, and in 2018, while he was documenting a demonstration outside of a federal prison.
“Cops here are quite proficient swatting phone cameras with those little metal batons,” he said. “It was clearly a motion they are used to making for the specific reason of not getting filmed.”
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred total incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country related to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Find all of these cases here.
While filming an arrest during protests in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a police officer knocked the phone from Unicorn Riot journalist Chris Schiano’s hand with a baton, ending his recording.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, protest",,, 2020-06-08 18:23:50.366538+00:00,2023-11-01 16:24:42.917875+00:00,"Independent journalist hit with projectile, shield while covering DC protests",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalist-hit-projectile-shield-while-covering-dc-protests/,2023-11-01 16:24:42.719007+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,"camera equipment: count of 1, cellphone: count of 1, recording equipment: count of 1",Jenn Dize (Status Coup),,2020-05-30,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"Journalist Jenn Dize said law enforcement officers shot her with a projectile and pushed her to the ground twice, causing her to lose her grip on her equipment, while covering protests for progressive independent outlet Status Coup in Washington, D.C., on May 30, 2020.
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.
Dize, the co-founder of Status Coup, was livestreaming the protests near Lafayette Square park on YouTube, when someone lobbed an object at police. The livestream shows police firing at the crowd. Dize was shot in the right arm by a projectile; she believes it may have been a pepper ball, she told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. The projectile left her arm bruised with a red, raised welt. Dize, who was standing outside a crowd at the time, was wearing Status Coup press credentials and was carrying a monopod and microphone. "They had to have been aiming at me," she told the Tracker.
Based on the design of officers’ shields in the livestream, they appear to be with the United States Park Police. Park Police spokesman Sergeant Eduardo Delgado told the Tracker via email that this was the first he had heard of this incident; he did not provide comment on Dize’s claims.
Dize continued reporting. A few hours later, she said she was livestreaming a burning vehicle and interviewing onlookers when someone lobbed a firecracker at the feet of police. Dize started to leave, but stopped to help a protester who had fallen down.
Law enforcement officers advanced toward the crowd, and Dize said one of them knocked her down with his riot shield. Her monopod, phone, and microphone slipped from her fingers. She could see her phone a short distance away on the sidewalk.
“I didn’t want to make any sudden moves, so I asked the officers ‘Can I bend down and pick up my phone?’” she told the Tracker.
The officer who had initially knocked her down reacted by ramming her multiple times in the upper body with his shield, knocking her onto her right hip, she said.
"I will never forget the look on the cop's face who was attacking me," she said. “He did not care.”
Protesters intervened, grabbing her underneath her arms and helping her reach safety. “My hip is quite sore still, and all my equipment is lost,” she said. Her phone, which she could not locate, continued to livestream for 90 additional minutes. Status Coup edited a short video on YouTube including footage from Dize’s perspective as she was knocked down the first time.
The Tracker shared a screenshot from the video with Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia spokesperson Alaina Gertz, who confirmed that the officers depicted were part of its force. Gertz did not respond to a request for comment about Dize’s claims.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred total incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country related to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Find all of these cases here.
This article has been updated to reflect that Dize was hit in the right arm with a projectile, not the left arm as originally reported.
U.S. Park Police and protesters gather near the White House on May 30, 2020, in Washington, D.C.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, chemical irritant, protest, shot / shot at",,, 2020-06-09 03:05:33.331964+00:00,2023-11-01 16:25:58.696382+00:00,Phoenix television reporter hit by projectile; news van vandalized,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/phoenix-television-reporter-hit-projectile-news-van-vandalized/,2023-11-01 16:25:58.373560+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,vehicle: count of 1,Josh Sanders (KPNX),,2020-05-30,False,Phoenix,Arizona (AZ),33.44838,-112.07404,"Phoenix television reporter Josh Sanders was hit in the thigh with a rubber projectile while reporting across from police headquarters on protests in the city on May 30, 2020. Sanders and his crew were unable to retrieve their news vehicle due to the protests, and found it vandalized the next morning.
The protests were sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, for 8 minutes and 46 seconds during an arrest on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Sanders, a reporter for 12 News, Phoenix's NBC affiliate, was standing outside of Phoenix Police Department headquarters when police fired the projectile, hitting him in the thigh. In a live broadcast after the incident, he said the impact was “very painful” and that he didn’t know why police shot in his crew’s direction.
Later, he found another such projectile on the ground and posted the photo to Twitter.
This is a picture of what the rubber ball looks like that Phoenix Police fired in our direction earlier hitting me in the left thigh. #12News pic.twitter.com/uvsci1laop
— JOSH SANDERS (@JoshSandersTV) May 31, 2020
He also posted a picture of his thigh, with a large pink, red and purple bruise.
The aftermath of being hit by a Phoenix Police rubber ball night 3 of the protests. #12News pic.twitter.com/7K5q3Tp1WD
— JOSH SANDERS (@JoshSandersTV) May 31, 2020
Sanders did not immediately reply to an interview request from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
Sanders wrote on Twitter that because of the protests his crew could not retrieve its 12 News car parked outside of Phoenix City Hall until the next morning. When 12 News retrieved it, it had been tagged in black paint with George Floyd’s name.
We had to leave one of our news cars outside of Phoenix City Hall last night due to the protests.
— JOSH SANDERS (@JoshSandersTV) May 31, 2020
This morning you can see the name George Floyd in graffiti sprayed on the side of the car. #12News pic.twitter.com/wjPCOhzyg0
In an emailed response to a request for comment, Phoenix Police Department spokeswoman Mercedes A. Fortune wrote that she has not briefed on that specific incident.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred total incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country related to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Find all of these cases here.
Protesters march toward Phoenix Police Department headquarters on May 29, 2020.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,unknown,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, protest, shot / shot at",,, 2020-06-09 04:15:54.027872+00:00,2024-02-21 21:15:05.401211+00:00,"In 'pandemonium,' photojournalist arrested, held overnight in NYC",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/pandemonium-photojournalist-arrested-held-over-night-amid-new-york-city-protests/,2024-02-21 21:15:05.168492+00:00,rioting: unlawful assembly (charges dropped as of 2020-06-05),,"(2024-02-07 00:00:00+00:00) Judge accepts journalists’ settlement with NYPD, (2021-08-05 16:40:00+00:00) British photographer sues NYPD for unlawful arrest, police brutality, (2023-09-05 16:54:00+00:00) Journalists reach ‘historic’ settlement with NYPD in First Amendment suit, (2023-09-08 00:00:00+00:00) Judge voids First Amendment settlement with NYPD","Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Damage",,,camera lens: count of 1,Adam Gray (South West News Service),,2020-05-30,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"Adam Gray, chief photojournalist for UK-based South West News Service, was pushed to the ground and arrested while covering protests in New York, New York, on May 30, 2020.
Protests that began in Minnesota on May 26 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.
Gray told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he had been documenting protests all day, and was photographing demonstrations in and around Union Square in Manhattan at around 10:40 p.m.
When Gray reached the front of a crowd of protesters on 13th Street, he said officers started charging the crowd and arresting protesters in what he described as “pandemonium.”
“I’m photographing this happening and I turn and I see this big guy, this cop coming at me,” Gray said. As the officer pushed him to the ground, two of the three cameras he was carrying “smashed” to the ground off his shoulders. Gray noted that luckily the only damage to the equipment was a broken UV lens filter.
Two additional officers then came up and assisted the first in restraining Gray and arresting him, he said.
I now have more images of my arrest whilst photographing protests on Saturday from a NYC colleague. Three cameras hanging off me and a press card in a lanyard around my neck (clear and visible on the other side) @SWNS @TheSun @GreensladeR @KateEMcCann pic.twitter.com/uvoil0DdNT
— Adam Gray (@agrayphoto) June 5, 2020
“I have a lanyard that has my foreign press card in it around my neck,” Gray said. “They stood me up and another guy in white came up — I think he was a more senior officer — and I’m shouting at him as well that I’m foreign press, that I’m a photographer.”
Gray said they asked him whether his press pass was issued by the NYPD, and that he responded no, that it was a foreign press card issued by the US State Department. Gray told the Tracker that the officer said something to the effect of, “Alright, no no no, I’ll take him away.”
Officers then took Gray down the street and passed him off to another officer who was designated his arresting officer and was eventually listed on all of Gray’s arrest reports.
After being stripped of his equipment and re-cuffed, Gray waited on a prison transport bus with 50 to 60 others for half an hour until the rest of the seats were filled. He said he then waited an additional hour outside One Police Plaza due to the volume of arrestees that night.
“At this point, I feel like I’m just in the system and we’re going through with it, I’m being booked and that’s what’s happening. There’s nobody else there that I can speak to or remonstrate with,” Gray said.
After being processed, he was placed in a holding cell with 50-70 people crammed in shoulder-to-shoulder. Gray said that he still had a face mask in order to combat the spread of coronavirus, but most others did not.
Gray was released at around 9:30 a.m. — nearly 11 hours after his arrest — with a desk appearance ticket for unlawful assembly, a misdemeanor punishable by up to three months in jail and a $500 fine.
When asked for comment, an NYPD spokesperson directed the Tracker to the “30 minute mark” of a press briefing held by New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Dermot Shea on June 3.
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.”
The Manhattan district attorney announced in a press release on June 5 that his office would not prosecute unlawful assembly or disorderly conduct arrests.
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 who had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country related to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Find all of these cases here.
British photojournalist Adam Gray is arrested near Union Square in New York City on May 30, 2020.
",arrested and released,New York Police Department,2020-05-31,None,True,1:21-cv-06610,['SETTLED'],Civil,None,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,unknown,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, protest",,, 2020-06-10 23:15:33.622563+00:00,2023-11-02 15:28:53.519004+00:00,Unidentified man attacks Reuters photographer with crowbar during Minneapolis protests,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/unidentified-man-attacks-reuters-photographer-crowbar-during-minneapolis-protests/,2023-11-02 15:28:53.431238+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,camera: count of 1,Lucas Jackson (Reuters),,2020-05-30,False,Minneapolis,Minnesota (MN),44.97997,-93.26384,"An unidentified man wearing body armor broke Reuters photographer Lucas Jackson’s camera with a crowbar while he was covering protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 30, 2020.
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.
Jackson described his attacker and posted a photo of his broken camera on Twitter:
Photo of the camera that a man with a crowbar hit when he attacked me while working in Minneapolis today. A man dressed as a “Medic” with body armor, keep your eyes out. pic.twitter.com/H4d6YXtK0K
— Lucas Jackson (@Lucas_Jackson_) May 31, 2020
In a statement given to the Committee to Protect Journalists through Reuters’ press office, Jackson said that the assailant was “a young white man wearing body armor emblazoned with a red medic cross.”
In the statement, Jackson said that the young man screamed “Get out of here!” before smashing Jackson’s camera with the crowbar. The statement did not say that Jackson was injured in the attack.
An unidentified man attacked Reuters photographer Lucas Jackson with a crowbar during protests in Minneapolis on May 30, damaging his camera.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,unknown,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, protest",,, 2020-06-11 15:22:09.774608+00:00,2023-11-02 15:29:22.441377+00:00,"Photojournalist, colleague, robbed at gunpoint after documenting Oakland protests",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-colleague-robbed-gunpoint-after-documenting-oakland-protests/,2023-11-02 15:29:22.342992+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,"camera: count of 1, camera lens: count of 1",Stephen Lam (Freelance),,2020-05-30,False,Oakland,California (CA),37.80437,-122.2708,"Freelance photojournalist Stephen Lam was assaulted and robbed at gunpoint by two men while covering protests in Oakland, California, in the early hours of May 30, 2020.
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.
Lam and Getty photojournalist Justin Sullivan were walking back to their cars in downtown Oakland at around 12:30 a.m. after documenting the night’s protests.
Lam told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that they had just reached their cars when they were confronted by two men. One man focused on Lam, the other Sullivan.
“I turned around and there was another individual on me,” Lam said. “He had a hard time getting his gun out … He seemed to get impatient, and I told him to just give me a second, because all my cameras are clipped to my vest.”
At that moment, Sullivan’s assailant forced him to open the trunk of his car and Lam’s assailant tried to shove Lam inside the open trunk, Lam said.
Amid the chaos, one of Lam’s cameras fell into the trunk and out of clear view, which he believes is why the man forgot about it and only got away with one camera and lens.
Sullivan’s assailant took his two cameras with their lenses, as well as his backpack containing a laptop and his passport, Sullivan told the Tracker.
Lam added that earlier that night someone else had tried to steal his gear, but that man didn’t succeed.
“We were really lucky,” Lam said. “Obviously it sucks to lose the pictures but it could have been a lot worse for us.”
Sullivan said that they had alerted the police but had not been able to file a police report in the days following the robbery as police were occupied with a backlog of emergency calls.
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 these cases here.
Photojournalist Stephen Lam was documenting Minneapolis protests late on May 29, 2020 — including the looting of this Target store — when he was robbed at gunpoint.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, protest, robbery",,, 2020-06-11 15:28:09.508079+00:00,2023-11-02 15:29:55.790773+00:00,Getty photojournalist and colleague robbed at gunpoint after documenting Oakland protests,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/getty-photojournalist-and-colleague-robbed-gunpoint-after-documenting-oakland-protests/,2023-11-02 15:29:55.618234+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,"camera: count of 2, camera lens: count of 2, computer: count of 1",Justin Sullivan (Getty Images),,2020-05-30,False,Oakland,California (CA),37.80437,-122.2708,"Getty photojournalist Justin Sullivan was robbed at gunpoint while covering protests in Oakland, California, in the early hours of May 30, 2020.
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.
Sullivan told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he and his colleague, freelance photojournalist Stephen Lam, were walking back to their cars in downtown Oakland at around 12:30 a.m. after documenting the night’s protests and some looting at a nearby Target when two men approached them.
“We got to our cars — I got in my car, my other colleague was going to his car — and the one guy came around, blocked my door, put a gun to my chest, said, ‘Give me your cameras,’” Sullivan said.
He handed over his two cameras with their lenses to one of the men, who also took his backpack containing his laptop and passport.
The other man pushed Lam into the trunk of Sullivan’s car. He got out unharmed, but was robbed of his camera and lens.
“The big takeaway for both of us was that we were unharmed,” Sullivan said. “The thing that we were most upset about, to be honest, was that we had been shooting for a couple of hours and we had a lot of pictures that we lost. Just gone.”
Sullivan said that they had alerted the police but had not been able to file a police report in the days following the robbery as police were occupied with a backlog of emergency calls.
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 these cases here.
Photojournalist Justin Sullivan — and a colleague who took this photograph — had been documenting the looting of this Target store and other protests in Minneapolis late on May 29, 2020, when they were robbed at gunpoint.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, protest, robbery",,, 2020-06-16 04:47:12.253121+00:00,2023-11-03 13:55:11.807195+00:00,French videographer arrested with colleague for curfew violation in Minneapolis,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/french-videographer-arrested-colleague-curfew-violation-minneapolis/,2023-11-03 13:55:11.690799+00:00,curfew violation: breaking curfew order (charges dropped as of 2020-07-22),,(2020-08-13 17:55:00+00:00) Update: Charges dismissed against French videographer arrested while covering May protests,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Damage",,,vehicle: count of 1,Mathieu Derrien (TF1),,2020-05-30,False,Minneapolis,Minnesota (MN),44.97997,-93.26384,"A French videographer was arrested for curfew violations in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 30, 2020, after police fired rubber projectiles at the car he was driving, damaging the windshield and sending small shards of glass inside the vehicle. The correspondent from his team was also arrested.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents all arrests separately.
Multiple days of protests in Minneapolis and across the nation were sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, during an arrest on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
Mathieu Derrien, videographer for TF1, a major French television station, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an interview that he was driving a rental car with his colleague, TF1 correspondent Amandine Atalaya, around Minneapolis just after 11:15 p.m. looking for people to interview when he made a turn off Lake Street.
A few seconds after making the turn, a foam projectile hit his windshield, damaging it and sending small shards of glass flying inside the car, he told the Tracker. The glass did not injure either journalist. Derrien quickly brought the car to a stop, as a few smaller projectiles—perhaps pepper balls—hit the windshield, leaving behind a white powder.
Officers then approached the car shouting for Derrien and Atalaya to get out and put their hands up, and they complied. “We immediately told them we were French journalists,” Derrien said. “They replied that they didn’t care and that there was a curfew in place.” The officers pointed their weapons toward the journalists, who showed them their press credentials issued by the U.S. Senate, but the officers were unmoved.
After securing their hands behind their backs using zip ties, the officers took them to a law enforcement facility across town, Derrien said, where they were fingerprinted and briefly placed in metal handcuffs. He received a citation for misdemeanor curfew violation, which is punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 or up to 90 days in jail.
Derrien said that he was unsure which agency the officers who arrested them were from. Emails sent to the Minnesota State Patrol and the Minneapolis Police Department inquiring about this matter were not returned as of press time.
Jeremy Zoss, a spokesperson for the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, wrote in an email to the Tracker that Derrien was cited at the Hennepin County jail but the sheriff’s office was not the arresting agency. Upon review of the citation, Zoss said that the arresting agency was not listed, something he termed “unusual” and was likely a result of this being a mass arrest.
The arrest occurred despite the fact that members of the media were specifically exempt from Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s executive order implementing the curfew.
Derrien and Atalaya were released around 2 a.m. and had to find their way back to their car without their cellphones, which were locked inside their vehicle with their gear. A protester who was released at the same time gave them a ride back to the general area where their car was. When they returned to the car, they discovered that one of the tires had been deflated.
In France, Derrien and Atalaya’s colleagues were “worried sick” when they were unavailable for the live shot they were supposed to do at midnight. “They called our phones many times, so when we got to the car, we had 15 or 20 missed calls each,” Derrien said. “They were starting to imagine the worst.”
Derrien later recounted what transpired to French daily newspaper Libération and tweeted out a photo of the car’s damaged windshield, writing that the situation had left them with “more fear than harm.”
A Minneapolis hier soir, à proximité d’un barrage, la police a tiré une balle en caoutchouc sur notre véhicule en marche côté conducteur, puis nous a arrêtés avec @AmandineAtalaya . Relâchés rapidement heureusement, plus de peur que de mal pic.twitter.com/hEZtkxyDDF
— Mathieu Derrien (@MatDerrien) May 31, 2020
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 these cases here.
While covering protests in Minneapolis for French publication TF1, Mathieu Derrien's rental car was hit with a rubber bullet shot by police. Derrien and a colleague were also arrested and charged with violating curfew.
",arrested and released,None,2020-05-31,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, chemical irritant, protest, shot / shot at",,, 2020-06-17 13:14:39.863005+00:00,2023-11-03 13:55:46.704690+00:00,Camera equipment stolen from Chicago Tribune photographer during protests,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/camera-equipment-stolen-chicago-tribune-photographer-during-protests/,2023-11-03 13:55:46.593321+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,"camera: count of 2, camera lens: count of 2",Erin Hooley (Chicago Tribune),,2020-05-30,False,Chicago,Illinois (IL),41.85003,-87.65005,"A photographer for the Chicago Tribune was shoved and had her cameras stolen by two unidentified men while covering protests in downtown Chicago, Illinois, on the night of May 30, 2020.
The protests were sparked by a video showing a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, during an arrest on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Tribune photographer Erin Hooley said she had been photographing protests and altercations between demonstrators and the police when looting broke out. While photographing the looting of a CVS at the intersection of South Wabash and East Monroe Street around 9 p.m., she said she overheard a woman yell, “Get that bitch’s cameras!” Suddenly, she said, two men shoved her to the sidewalk, grabbed the cameras she had strung around her neck and shoulder, and ran off. Hooley said she was bruised but otherwise uninjured in the attack.
Looters in #Chicago shoved me on the sidewalk and took my cameras tonight. Thanks guys. #ChicagoProtests #GeorgeFloyd #ChicagoScanner #riots2020 @chicagotribune
— Erin Hooley (@erinhooley) May 31, 2020
After picking up both herself and her press badge, Hooley said she walked down the street to see if the men had dropped the cameras but they were gone. She called her editor to report what had happened and then went home. Hooley said she saw police officers around the corner from where she was attacked but that they didn’t appear to be intervening to stop the looting.
Hooley said her cameras were owned by the Tribune company, which did not ask her to file a police report. The photographer said a Canon representative sent her loaner gear and that she returned to cover the protests in the following days.
According to the photojournalist, what bothered her most was the loss not of physical equipment, but rather several hours’ worth of photographs she had taken prior to the assault. Hooley said she had transferred about eight images to her editor while still in the streets, but that the rest were gone. “I was pretty angry about losing that stuff because it’s very historical,” she said. “It robbed me of being able to share this crazy time we are living in, and that’s very frustrating.”
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred total incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country related to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Find all of these cases here.
Keith Boykin, a freelance journalist and CNN political commentator, was arrested while covering a protest in Manhattan on May 30, 2020, despite identifying himself as a member of the press.
The protest was one of many demonstrations sparked by the May 26 release of a video showing a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, during an arrest the prior day. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
Boykin, who was an aide to Bill Clinton during his presidency, was documenting the protest for his own Twitter feed, as he has done for past protests. On this afternoon, Black Lives Matter demonstrators had gathered at the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building in Harlem and marched west, eventually making their way up an exit ramp and onto the West Side Highway. Boykin, who was on his bike, had moved ahead of the protesters in order to photograph them when he encountered a phalanx of New York Police Department officers heading toward the group. They said something to the effect of “Get out of the way,” Boykin told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. He identified himself as a member of the media, and the officers walked by him, then turned around and arrested him.
“I said, ‘Why? I’m with the press.’ They said it doesn’t matter,” Boykin said, adding that he had a press ID with him but never got the chance to show it to the officers.
So here’s what happened today. The NYPD arrested me at 96th Street and West Side Highway while I was taking photos and video to post to Twitter. I told the police I was with the Press, they walked by me and then turned around and arrested me.
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) May 31, 2020
According to Boykin, officers placed zip ties tightly around his wrists and dropped his phone on the ground, cracking its screen. He was carried back to a police van, where they removed his face mask to photograph him, then placed him in the back of the vehicle, which was so hot that Boykin said he worried he would pass out, something he has a history of doing in high temperatures.
“Even being in the back of the van was traumatizing, because I thought of Freddie Gray and how he died,” said Boykin, who is black, referencing a black man who died in Baltimore police custody in 2015. “The whole experience was totally outrageous.”
After an hour in the van, Boykin said he was placed on a prisoner transport bus with other arrestees and brought to NYPD headquarters in lower Manhattan, where he was processed and placed in a cell with 34 other prisoners for several hours. Very few of them had face masks, Boykin said, and he worried that these conditions risked exposing them to the coronavirus.
“I was in that cell for four hours, never told what was going on, never given an opportunity to make a phone call,” Boykin told the Tracker, adding that he also wasn’t read his Miranda rights during the arrest. He was released at 9:30 p.m., six hours after his arrest, and given a summons to appear in court in September on misdemeanour charges of disorderly conduct and obstructing traffic.
“Mind you, I wasn’t blocking the highway—the police and the protesters were blocking the highway,” Boykin later told CNN’s Don Lemon. “I was in between the two of them, documenting what was happening.”
After that CNN appearance, Boykin told the Tracker that he was contacted by the New York City mayor’s office, which apologized to him for his treatment. He has also filed a complaint with the attorney general’s office. But to date, the charges have not been dropped, and he is prepared to fight them in court. He said the NYPD also failed to give him his ID back with the rest of his possessions following his release, and he needs to figure out a way to retrieve that.
The NYPD did not immediately return a request for comment.
“I thought it was completely unbelievable and unacceptable,” said Boykin of the experience. “This was a clear violation of my First Amendment rights.”
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred total incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country related to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Find all of these cases here.
New York Police Department officers are photographed by Keith Boykin shortly before he was taken into custody.
",arrested and released,New York Police Department,None,None,True,1:21-cv-01362,['DISMISSED'],Civil,None,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, protest",,, 2020-06-26 12:03:53.631938+00:00,2023-11-03 13:57:07.034129+00:00,Journalist’s camera hit by pepper ball in Louisville,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalists-camera-hit-by-pepper-ball-in-louisville/,2023-11-03 13:57:06.927335+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,camera lens: count of 1,Juanita Ceballos (VICE News),,2020-05-30,False,Louisville,Kentucky (KY),38.25424,-85.75941,"Journalist Juanita Ceballos’ camera was hit by a pepper ball while she covered protests against police violence in Louisville, Kentucky, on May 30, 2020.
Ceballos, a producer and cameraperson for VICE News, was filming with a colleague near Jefferson Square in downtown Louisville for several hours when police officers declared the demonstration an unlawful assembly and ordered protesters to disperse, she told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. Crowds of protesters were marching in response to the March 13 killing by Louisville police of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, and the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police on Memorial Day.
At 8:25 p.m., while filming a line of police officers advancing toward a protester, Ceballos’ camera was hit by a pepper ball, she said, adding she was filming from the corner at a removed distance. After reviewing the footage of the hit to her camera — which wasn’t permanently damaged — she said she couldn’t be sure whether or not she had been targeted.
“I always make an intentional effort to look officers in the eye. If I have to move I will move,” she said. This time she hadn’t done so, she said, because she felt she was “far enough away that I was not in their way.”
Ceballos said she expected that her equipment and the press identification she was wearing made her clearly identifiable as a journalist. The night before, a reporter and photojournalist from Louisville TV station WAVE 3 were hit by pepper balls fired by police.
The Louisville Metro Police Department didn’t respond to a call and email from the Tracker requesting comment. Following the WAVE 3 incident, an LMPD official said officers have orders to not shoot pepper balls at members of the media.
Ceballos said that after the hit she felt threatened, not knowing whether the attack had been directed toward her or not. The journalist said she stopped filming for nearly half an hour, until she had cleaned the pepper powder off her lens, changed her N95 and gas masks and stopped coughing.
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 these incidents here.
A vehicle used by FOX 9, the Minneapolis-St. Paul Fox affiliate, was hit with two rubber bullets, which cracked its windshield, on May 30, 2020, in Minneapolis, according to tweets from two network reporters, Dawn Mitchell and Amy Hockert.
The incident occurred as the crew was reporting about ongoing protests in Minneapolis relating to the May 25 death of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis police custody.
Hockert tweeted around 9:30 p.m. that two rubber bullets hit the car and that everyone was OK.
Please go home, they mean business, our crew just got two rubber bullets to the car. They are OK. And they are allowed to be there. pic.twitter.com/1lAPlp3XWC
— Amy Hockert (@AmyHockert) May 31, 2020
Mitchell tweeted that the Minneapolis Police Department fired the bullets. The two reporters appeared not to be with the crew at the scene.
Hockert could not be reached for comment via email. Christina Palladino, a FOX 9 reporter who was part of the crew in the car, according to Mitchell’s tweet, could not be reached via email. In a tweet about the incident, Palladino wrote “we are all good!”
FOX 9 did not return CPJ’s voicemail requesting comment.
The MPD did not return CPJ’s emailed request for comment.
Unknown individuals damaged two vehicles belonging to ABC affiliate KOLO as the channel’s journalists reported on protests in Reno, Nevada, on May 30, 2020, the channel’s news director told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
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.
Hundreds of Black Lives Matter protesters marched through downtown Reno, according to the Reno Gazette Journal. But police intervened with tear gas after a splinter group began to damage City Hall shortly after 7 p.m. Officials declared the gathering an unlawful assembly and imposed a curfew.
KOLO News Director Stanton Tang told the Tracker that unknown individuals attempted but failed to overturn one of the station’s news vehicles. The vehicle’s windshield and rear window were shattered.
Videos submitted to KOLO’s user content page show the vehicle parked a couple blocks from City Hall. One video shows someone repeatedly hit the side of the car before another person body-slams the front of it amid cheers. Another shows someone jump on the hood and repeatedly stomp on the windshield. A third shows a group of people attempt, but fail, to tip the car over.
Tang said another vehicle suffered multiple dents and a shattered side window. He said a rock was found inside the car.
Tang said he believed both vehicles were targeted because they were news vehicles.
A photo provided to the Tracker by photojournalist Ty O’Neil, who was on assignment for This Is Reno, shows a white vehicle with large KOLO branding on the side with a shattered front left window. O’Neil told the Tracker he took the photo a few blocks from City Hall on Mill Street.
The station filed a police report about the incidents, but no suspects had been identified, Tang said.
The Reno Police Department did not respond to requests for comment.
Police chief and acting city manager Jason Soto said that the department was reviewing video and media reports to make arrests for crimes committed during the protests, according to This Is Reno.
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 these incidents here.
The window of a KOLO news vehicle was shattered in Reno, Nevada, on May 30, 2020.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,KOLO-TV,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, protest",,, 2020-07-28 03:49:23.978600+00:00,2023-11-03 13:59:26.228274+00:00,Two Live 5 News news vehicles damaged in one night in Charleston,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/two-live-5-news-news-vehicles-damaged-one-night-charleston/,2023-11-03 13:59:26.136825+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,vehicle: count of 2,Abbey O'Brien (WCSC-TV),,2020-05-30,False,Charleston,South Carolina (SC),32.77657,-79.93092,"A group of people hit and threw a rock into a stopped Live 5 News car carrying three journalists covering a demonstration against police violence in Charleston, South Carolina, on May 30, 2020.
The protest was held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the United States since the end of May.
The car carrying reporter Abbey O’Brien, reporter Rob Way and producer Allyson Cook was driving through a crowd to get to safety because downtown Charleston was becoming violent, O’Brien said.
“We were in a Live 5 News car obviously designated as our station,” O’Brien told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. “People started banging on our windows and flicking us off.”
Demonstrations had started peacefully but turned violent as the night wore on, she said.
“Once it got dark, it turned into rioting; that was definitely not as many people,” O’Brien said. “I truly believe that it was just two different groups of people.”
While they were stopped at an intersection, members of the crowd began to bang on the windows of the car and then a rock was thrown through the back window. No one was injured.
At the time, the journalists weren’t sure whether it was a rock, tear-gas canister or an explosive, so once they got to safety, they all exited the car.
“We all jumped out and realized it was just a brick,” O’Brien said. “So, no one was hurt, which is good, but it was really scary.”
Now that we’re safe... here’s a look at what just happened to our @Live5News car. Someone threw this large rock while we were driving down King St. Very scary #chsnews #scnews pic.twitter.com/0r1Fq77nZ7
— Abbey O'Brien (@abbeyobrien) May 31, 2020
They continued to report throughout the night and made sure they didn’t leave anything valuable in the car. O’Brien said that, in a separate incident, people smashed out the front, driver’s side window of a different, unoccupied Live 5 truck. Both the car and the truck were out of commission for a few days, she said.
The windows in our @Live5News car busted in as #protesters move up king street. They are using bricks dug up to also smash windows #Charleston pic.twitter.com/zyrXyU1omv
— Lillian Donahue (@LillianDonahue) May 31, 2020
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 these incidents here.
Matthew Rodier, a freelance photojournalist who was covering protests in Washington, D.C., had his National Press Photographers Association credentials stolen on May 30, 2020 by an individual who said that his photos were “getting people killed.”
The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the United States since the end of May.
Rodier, who frequently contributes to the Sipa USA agency, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he’d been covering events near the White House on the evening of May 30, when he was approached by a woman who asked him to stop taking photos.
“She said, ‘Your pictures are getting people killed,’” Rodier recounted. “I asked how and she responded, ‘Look what happened in Ferguson,’” seemingly a reference to speculation that a number of individuals connected to 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri, had died suspiciously.
During current protests, calls for photojournalists to blur the faces of people they photograph at demonstrations, or to not publish images that show identifying features, has inspired a debate among journalists.
Rodier said he told the woman “that it’s both my First Amendment right and my job to take the pictures.” He said that she responded violently: “She ripped the press pass from the lanyard around my neck and threw it into the crowd.”
Rodier, who continued to document that evening without his NPPA lanyard, was also the subject of multiple assaults while covering protests the following day in D.C. The Tracker captured those incidents here and here. Several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country are documented by the Tracker here.
Jonathan Mayorca, a journalist and co-owner of video news outlet The Convo Couch, was arrested by Los Angeles police while filming a demonstration on May 30, 2020.
The protest was part of Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality demonstrations across the country. The protests were sparked by the release of a video showing a white Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest. Floyd was later pronounced dead in a hospital.
Mayorca told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he arrived at the protest in the Fairfax area of Beverly Boulevard at around 3:30 p.m. along with two crew members, including his sister, Fiorella. Mayorca immediately began to livestream the demonstration. Video shows protesters gathering, holding signs, facing off with a line of police officers and then walking with their hands up and chanting.
The protesters moved west down Beverly Boulevard, and Mayorca and his crew followed. At around 4 p.m the protesters went down an alley near Beverly Boulevard and North Fairfax Avenue because the police had blocked off all other streets, Mayorca said. Officers with the Los Angeles Police Department then blocked all exits, or kettled the protesters in the alley. Mayorca and his crew were prevented from leaving.
Mayorca said he told the police he was a member of the press, but they ignored him. Mayorca was wearing a press badge on a lanyard hanging from his neck.
“We told them multiple times, ‘we’re press, we’re press’,” he said.
Protesters and Mayorca and his crew knelt on the ground in the alley as police officers watched them from a “line in front and behind us,” he said.
“One protester was crying hysterically,” Mayorca told the Tracker. “She threw up.”
Soon after being kettled, LAPD officers moved into the alley. Mayorca did not hear a dispersal order and was not given an opportunity to leave before he was arrested, according to a class-action lawsuit Mayorca joined against the LAPD for alleged federal and state constitutional rights violations. Mayorca’s video of the incident does not appear to pick up an audible warning from police.
Officers grabbed Mayorca, pushed him to the ground, and arrested him, he said. The officers’ actions broke the microphone attachment for his camera.
“It was the height of aggressiveness,” Mayorca said.
According to Mayorca, an officer said his camera equipment was broken before his interaction with police.
The police used zip-tie handcuffs to detain him.
Here’s the quick clip of us getting arrested as the cops lied and kettled the people into an alley. People were asking where to go & the cops led them to more cops. They refused to let us go even though we had badges and told them. pic.twitter.com/nfYvTl561J
— Fiorella Isabel🌹🔥 (@Fiorella_im) June 1, 2020
“The police put me against a wall and searched me,” Mayorca said.
The police brought Mayorca to the Van Nuys police station, where he was held for about two hours and then released, he said. Mayorca said he repeatedly complained about the tightness of his zip-tie handcuffs, but the police ignored him.
“It cut off my circulation a bit,” Mayorca said. “It was uncomfortably tight.”
He was issued a citation for failure to obey a lawful order, a misdemeanor.
Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer said in June that he would use a “non-punitive approach” to resolve the cases of peaceful protesters outside the court system.
Jorge Gonzalez, a civil rights lawyer who's part of the team representing protesters, said the city has tentatively agreed to dismiss the charges if protesters complete an online course on the First Amendment. Gonzalez told the Tracker Aug. 3 that he is rejecting the city’s condition and awaiting the city’s response.
However, Rob Wilcox, a spokesman for City Attorney Feuer, said protesters will be invited to a voluntary, virtual conversation about policing, bias, and inequity organized with the help of local cultural, academic and criminal justice institutions.
Mayorca is a plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit against the LAPD for allegedly violating protesters’ constitutional rights to peacefully assemble and protest, using excessive force, and holding protesters in unlawful conditions of confinement. When reached for comment, LAPD spokesperson Officer Norma Eisenman said the “department does not comment on pending complaints.”
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country related to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Find all of these cases here.
Radio journalist Sean Greene was punched in the eye by an unknown individual who also stole a smartphone the reporter was using to cover a demonstration in Wilmington, Delaware, on May 30, 2020.
The protest was held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since late May.
Greene told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that protests he has covered in Wilmington and Dover, Delaware, for radio station WDEL were mostly free of violence and destruction of property, but some individuals took advantage of the May 30 demonstration in Wilmington to break into retail stores and steal merchandise.
Greene used his company-issued iPhone to broadcast the scene to Facebook Live. He was wearing a construction vest and had press credentials attached to a lanyard hanging from his neck.
At about 6 p.m. Greene was filming a person trying to break a storefront window when an unknown individual punched him in the eye.
“I hear someone scream ‘snitch!’ and the next thing I know someone has punched me,” Greene said. The individual also stole the iPhone and fled.
Greene said he didn’t get a good look at the assailant.
Greene said three Wilmington police officers standing nearby saw the assault but took no action. He didn’t seek medical attention and reported the incident to the police.
A Wilmington police spokesman didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Greene said some protesters saw the incident and helped him.
“To the protesters who made sure I was OK and offered me water, thank you,” Greene tweeted following the incident. “To the police officers who saw me take a punch and did nothing, I'm disappointed.”
Greene said he has since covered two additional protests from WDEL without incident.
Mike Phillips, a colleague of Greene’s at WDEL, also had a company-issued iPhone stolen while covering the May 30 protest but wasn’t otherwise harmed. Phillips reported the theft of the two iPhones to the Wilmington Police Department.
A police spokesman declined to comment on Phillips’ report.
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 these incidents here.
Radio journalist Mike Phillips had his employer-issued iPhone stolen by an unknown person while covering protests in Wilmington, Delaware, on May 30, 2020.
Protesters took to the streets of Wilmington and cities across the United States following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who died after a Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officer kneeled on his neck for almost nine minutes during a May 25 arrest.
Phillips had been reporting on demonstrations on May 30 for radio station WDEL alongside fellow correspondent Sean Greene.
Phillips told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the protests had been mostly peaceful throughout the day but that during the evening hours he observed some individuals smashing storefront windows and stealing merchandise.
Phillips said that Greene had been broadcasting via Facebook Live with an iPhone at around 6 p.m. when an unknown individual punched him and stole the device.
Phillips said that at the time of Greene’s assault, which the Tracker is documenting here, he had also been broadcasting to Facebook Live. In Phillips’ video, individuals can be seen removing items from a building, which Phillips can be heard describing as “the looting of a store” in downtown Wilmington.
During Phillips’ broadcast, an unknown individual wrenched the phone from his hands and made off with the device. Phillips’ phone continued to record video after it was taken from him, and an individual can be heard laughing as they run away from the scene.
“It was disheartening that I couldn’t keep doing my job that night,” Phillips said.
Phillips later reported the theft of the phones to Wilmington police on behalf of WDEL. As of press time, Phillips said that neither his nor Greene’s phone had been recovered and no arrests had been made in connection with the alleged thefts.
Aside from incidents on May 30, Phillips said WDEL reporters haven’t faced altercations during subsequent coverage of the demonstrations.
“We have covered plenty of stuff since then and have had no incidents whatsoever,” Phillips said.
Though Greene was injured in the field, Phillips said he hasn’t feared for his safety while covering the Wilmington protests.
“Despite what happened to Sean, I didn’t feel unsafe,” Phillips said. “It was more of a crime of opportunity, if you want to call it that.”
A spokesperson for the Wilmington Police Department declined to comment on the incident or confirm whether there was a continuing investigation into Phillips’ report, citing restrictions on releasing such information under Delaware’s Victims’ Bill of Rights.
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 these incidents here.
A van for television network WGN News was vandalized by unidentified individuals during protests in Chicago, Illinois, on May 30, 2020.
The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.
A spokesperson for WGN said the van was in Chicago’s downtown near the Wrigley Building when the incident occurred. “Our truck was parked seemingly out of harm’s way—but then the protests spread to that area,” spokesperson Gary Weitman told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an email. “No specific groups were involved—one person started spray-painting, and then others joined in."
Weitman said no crew member was hurt in the incident, but declined to elaborate on details of the incident’s timing or location.
Mark Guarino, the Chicago correspondent for the Washington Post, told the Tracker that he saw the van, which had been covered in graffiti and crude language, driving north on Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago at around 6:30 p.m. on May 30. A few minutes later he posted an image of the van to Twitter.
Chicago's very own @WGNNews pic.twitter.com/AUrfsju2LR
— Mark Guarino (@markguarino) May 30, 2020
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 these incidents here.
The WGN news van as seen on Michigan Avenue in Chicago on May 30, 2020.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,WGN-TV,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, protest",,, 2020-08-27 14:44:11.998249+00:00,2023-11-03 14:02:40.067318+00:00,"Syracuse police shove photojournalist to ground, damaging his camera equipment",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/syracuse-police-shove-photojournalist-ground-damaging-his-camera-equipment/,2023-11-03 14:02:39.945801+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,camera lens: count of 2,Dennis Nett (Syracuse Post-Standard),,2020-05-30,False,Syracuse,New York (NY),43.04812,-76.14742,"A photojournalist with Syracuse.com and the Post-Standard newspaper was shoved to the ground by a police officer while covering protests in Syracuse, New York, on May 30, 2020, video of the incident shows. The journalist suffered scrapes and bruises and two of his camera lenses were broken.
The protest was held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis 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.
News photographer Dennis Nett was covering the protests in downtown Syracuse on the night of May 30 with two other photographers and two reporters. John Lammers, senior director of content at Advance Media New York, the parent company for the news outlets, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. At 9:37 p.m., a group of riot police moved to clear the area in front of the Public Safety Building on South State Street of protesters who had broken windows at police headquarters and the nearby criminal courts building, syracuse.com reported.
In a video of the incident recorded by Nett’s camera, the line of officers are seen advancing yelling “move back, get back.” One officer is seen gesturing at Nett and then breaking away from the line of officers, charging towards the journalist, and knocking him to the ground. In a separate video of the incident, Nett can be seen stumbling and then falling over from the assault. The photographer suffered cuts and bruises to his elbow and hip, syracuse.com reported. Lammers told the Tracker that two of Nett’s lenses were damaged from the fall, but that “Dennis kept working with a busted lens and a skinned up elbow and hip.” One of the lenses has been repaired and another isn’t yet repaired due to a Nikon parts shortage, a representative from syracuse.com/The Post-Standard told the Tracker on Aug. 26.
Nett was wearing a press identification card around his neck and had cameras slung from both shoulders, syracuse.com reported. A witness to the incident, Clifford Ryans, told the outlet that he was clearly identifiable as a journalist. “They couldn’t say they didn’t know he was a reporter because he had all the cameras on his person and he was taking a picture as they did it,” Ryans told syracuse.com.
Nett didn’t respond to emails seeking comment.
After conducting a review of the incident, Syracuse Police Chief Kenton Buckner said the officer, whom he identified as Sgt. Todd Cramer, had acted with “reasonable and necessary” force and wouldn’t be disciplined, syracuse.com reported on June 12.
In a video of a press conference posted by syracuse.com, Buckner is shown saying that Nett “didn’t comply with the instructions that we clearly gave him and that put him in harm’s way.” According to the report by syracuse.com, Nett told police in an interview about the incident that he “recalled hearing commands from officers a few seconds before he was shoved…[and] was preparing to move.” Buckner said Cramer “did not know, at that moment, that Nett was a journalist,” according to the website’s report.
Tim Kennedy, president of Advance Media New York, said in a statement that the company was disappointed with the announcement. “Dennis Nett was working in the public service and posed no threat to police. He didn’t deserve to get shoved to the ground, in a way that was neither necessary nor reasonable.”
Lammers told the Tracker there have been no further developments related to the incident.
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 these incidents here.
The offices of INDY Week, The News & Observer, and ABC11 in downtown Raleigh, N.C. were damaged during protests in the city on May 30, 2020.
Alternative weekly newspaper INDY Week reported extensive damage to its newsroom, while ABC11 and The News & Observer newspaper both had windows smashed as protests stretched late into the night.
The protests in Raleigh echoed demonstrations across the country sparked by a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
The newsrooms in Raleigh were damaged late in the first major day of protesting in the city. Demonstrations had been peaceful through the day, but late in the evening, after police began using tear gas to disperse crowds, a small group of people began destroying property in the city’s downtown.
INDY Week Raleigh news editor Leigh Tauss told U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she had returned to the office while covering the protests to wash her face off and get some water, after she had been caught up in tear gas. She was in the back of the ground-floor office near the water cooler, shortly before 10 p.m., when she heard the window shatter, she said.
She sank down to the floor and called her editor, before she moved out toward the front of the office and saw a brick had been thrown through the window, she said. She posted about the damage on Twitter.
Tauss said she tried to leave the office then, but when she stepped outside, there was more tear gas in the street so she came back inside. She was in the hallway when she heard someone enter the office and ducked into the basement to hide. After waiting for a few minutes, she got a text from another journalist who was outside and who told her it was clear for her to leave. She posted on Twitter at that point that it appeared that someone had tried to take water, but no computers were missing.
Later that night, according to Tauss, somebody entered the office and caused more extensive damage. Large windows were entirely smashed. Couches in the office were set on fire, setting off the sprinkler system. While other equipment was damaged by the water, her desktop computer went missing, she said.
I’m devastated. We are a progressive newspaper. Last night I was inside when the first brick was thrown #Raleigh pic.twitter.com/MJvPdscyqf
— Leigh Tauss (@LeighTauss) May 31, 2020
The three offices were just some of many businesses damaged in the city. According to an article in the News & Observer, “nearly every” business in Raleigh’s downtown area was damaged overnight.
A spokesperson for the Raleigh Police Department said police were aware of damage to INDY Week and the News & Observer. There haven’t been any arrests related to the incidents, according to the department.
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 here.
INDY Week Raleigh news editor Leigh Tauss was washing off tear gas in the North Carolina newsroom when the vandalizing began. “I’m devastated,” she said the next day posting the damage — burned furniture, water damage and stolen equipment.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,INDY Week,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, protest",,, 2020-10-08 14:49:57.353605+00:00,2023-11-03 16:13:27.250502+00:00,"North Carolina reporter assaulted, knocked out while covering mall looting",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/north-carolina-reporter-assaulted-knocked-out-while-covering-mall-looting/,2023-11-03 16:13:27.102517+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,equipment bag: count of 1,Paul Woolverton (Fayetteville Observer),,2020-05-30,False,Fayetteville,North Carolina (NC),35.05266,-78.87836,"A reporter for the Fayetteville Observer said he was hit, knocked unconscious and kicked while he and a colleague livestreamed the looting of stores in a North Carolina shopping mall on the night of May 30, 2020.
A group of people broke into the Cross Creek Mall about six miles west of downtown Fayetteville following protests earlier that day against police violence in the city’s downtown. Demonstrations had erupted nationwide days before, following the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, while he was in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25.
Paul Woolverton, a senior state reporter for the Observer, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he headed downtown to start reporting on the protests at around 7 p.m. This was shortly after people had set fire to the Market House, a historic downtown Fayetteville building that was once the site of a market for enslaved people.
Woolverton said the Market House was still burning when he arrived downtown, where he saw people acting aggressively toward TV camera people nearby. He said he wore press credentials in full view on a lanyard around his neck, and that he was carrying a notebook, pens, cellphone and selfie stick. While downtown, he ran into colleague Melody Brown-Peyton, and the two decided to stick together. Downtown Fayetteville would later be closed to all traffic, so the pair drove in Brown-Peyton’s car to the Cross Creek Mall, where they heard that looting was taking place. They stopped at Woolverton’s home on the way to get his camera.
Woolverton and Brown-Peyton parked across the street from the mall and walked over to it. They saw a group of white men with pickup trucks and long guns, and saw people running out of a J.C. Penney store with dresses and other merchandise.
“It was kind of ‘Mad Max’-looking,” Woolverton said.
Woolverton was struck and knocked unconscious just after 11 p.m.. by an unknown male assailant, Brown-Peyton told the Fayetteville Observer. He was livestreaming on Facebook at the time and video from the scene cuts off a few seconds before he was hit. Woolverton said he was trying to be careful about raising the phone because he was aware that it would attract attention. He remembers hearing the man who attacked him say “Don’t be taking no pictures,” before he grabbed Woolverton’s selfie stick and phone.
“My memory is him grabbing at my cellphone, me yelling at him, struggling with him upright,” Woolverton said. “My next memory is waking up and a police officer next to me.”
Brown-Peyton told him the attacker got into a pickup truck and drove away. She also told Woolverton that he was lying down with his eyes rolling back.
“I have no memory of the conversation,” Woolverton said. “I didn’t know my phone number, I didn't know why I was at the mall or how I got there.”
Brown-Peyton contacted Woolverton’s editor and his girlfriend, and they went to the hospital. Brown-Peyton told Woolverton the assailant was struggling to get hold of Woolverton’s camera, but he couldn’t because of the strap. The attacker also kicked Woolverton when he was unconscious on the ground. Woolverton’s camera bag was ripped and his camera was slightly scuffed.
On the morning of May 31, 2020, Woolverton tweeted: “Got a knot on my head, scrapes, bruises from head to foot and a concussion. The looters at Cross Creek Mall didn’t like that I was shooting video (see their activities on the @fayobserver Facebook page). I am told I was kicked and punched but don’t remember that.”
Woolverton filed a police report after the incident, but police didn’t identify the suspect. The Fayetteville Police Department didn’t respond to a request for updates on the case.
Woolverton said he didn’t know whether he had been targeted for being a journalist. “I think he just saw a guy with a camera.”
He told the Observer that this was the first time anyone had attacked him while he was doing his job in 30 years as a journalist, and that he felt lucky his colleague was by his side.
“I was trying to be situationally aware, but it came really fast out of the blue. A big lesson is don't go alone,” Woolverton said. “Thank God Melody was there.”
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 these incidents here.
In North Carolina, Fayetteville Observer senior reporter Paul Woolverton was knocked unconscious while livestreaming looters on May 30, 2020. He was treated for a concussion and other injuries.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,unknown,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, protest",,, 2020-10-12 18:41:05.582367+00:00,2023-11-03 16:19:09.156720+00:00,NBC10 journalists attacked during live coverage of protests — earpiece stolen,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/nbc10-journalists-attacked-during-live-coverage-of-protests-earpiece-stolen/,2023-11-03 16:19:09.060470+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,miscellaneous equipment: count of 1,Andrew Hyman (WHEC-TV),,2020-05-30,False,Rochester,New York (NY),43.15478,-77.61556,"A TV reporter and photojournalist with the Rochester, New York, NBC affiliate were assaulted by unknown men while covering a protest on May 30, 2020.
Reporter Andrew Hyman told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was covering the protests for News10NBC in Rochester alongside station photographer Jack Diamond when the incident occurred.
Hyman said that a man approached him, took out a phone and began recording while asking the reporter questions about his support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
Hyman said he declined to provide direct answers to the queries, which appeared to agitate the individual.
“I was just trying to be an unbiased journalist,” he said.
At that point, several other individuals approached Hyman. One of the individuals grabbed an earpiece that Hyman had plugged into a smartphone to broadcast coverage of the demonstrations to Facebook Live, Hyman said. He said he didn’t get a good look at the person who took the earpiece.
Hyman said five or six men — all wearing masks — spotted the exchange and approached his location. A scuffle ensued. Hyman said the men pushed him a few times but he managed to flee the area without injury.
The reporter said he looked back and noticed that Diamond was not with him. Diamond had been tackled to the ground. Other individuals at the scene helped the cameraman to his feet, Hyman said. The Tracker has documented Diamond’s assault here.
After regrouping with Diamond, the two NBC10 journalists continued coverage of the protest and broadcast their reporting to Facebook Live.
Neither sought medical attention. Hyman did not report the loss of his equipment to police. He said that police reached out to him after NBC10 posted video of the incident online and told him they “wanted to look into” the attack.
Hyman said he gave police raw footage that shows the person who made the initial contact with him, but he had not received any updates from authorities as of press time.
The Rochester Police Department did not respond to a request for comment on Hyman’s case.
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 these incidents here.
A window on the door of the Indianapolis Star was shattered during protests against police violence in Indianapolis, Indiana, on May 30, 2020.
At 10:23 p.m., Indianapolis Star investigative reporter Ryan Martin posted on Twitter that the front door of the Star’s newsroom had been broken. The damage to the newspaper’s office in downtown Indianapolis came as violence and damage to other city businesses was reported.
— Ryan Martin (@ryanmartin) May 31, 2020
The protests, sparked by the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis on May 25, had been peaceful during the day, but tension grew in the evening, the Star reported. At around 9 p.m., police declared the remaining protest an unlawful assembly and told demonstrators to disperse. Soon after, the Star reported, police began using tear gas.
In a tweet at 9:49 p.m., Martin wrote that it was “getting really tense down here,” and mentioned broken glass and shouting.
Less than an hour later, he posted that the door window had been broken. “Chaotic stuff happening outside,” he wrote. A photo he shared on Twitter showed that the pane of glass had been smashed, scattering shards throughout the entryway.
Martin told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an email that someone had spray-painted the wall outside near the damaged door. He didn’t know how the window had been broken.
The intent of the damage was unclear. “To the average person, that door and wall could be mistaken for an entrance to Circle Centre Mall; not a newsroom entrance,” Martin wrote.
Indianapolis Star Senior News Director Ginger Rough didn’t respond to requests for additional comment. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department didn’t respond to an inquiry about the damage.
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.
The 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 these incidents here.
A photojournalist for Fox 13 News was attacked while covering protests in Salt Lake City, Utah, on May 30, 2020.
Fox 13 correspondent Sydney Glenn wrote on Twitter that she, her unnamed colleague and a photojournalist from another station were assessing damage to the Fox 13 news vehicle when a crowd attacked the two photojournalists. She also shared an image of her colleague, who appeared to have abrasions on his right arm and calf.
This. Is. Unacceptable. Tonight a group of protestors attacked my co-worker.. a very talented photojournalist as we were assessing the damage to our @fox13 news car after it was smashed. A kind photojournalist from another station was helping and attacked as well. pic.twitter.com/ic3bDOOBle
— Sydney Glenn (@SydneyGlennTV) May 31, 2020
In the image posted by Glenn, the van appears to have a shattered windshield. It is unclear what, if any, injuries the second photojournalist sustained, which the Tracker has documented here.
Glenn did not respond to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s calls or emails requesting comment. When emailed for comment, Fox 13 News Director Marc Sternfield said, “At the request of those involved, we are not releasing additional information about the incident.”
The Salt Lake Tribune reported that the group Utah Against Police Brutality had organized a car caravan protest, but individuals took to the streets when there were not enough vehicles to fit all the demonstrators.
Following looting and vandalism, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall announced an 8 p.m. curfew. Salt Lake City Police Department (SLCPD) officers were joined by police from 13 cities and up to 200 National Guardsmen.
Detective Greg Wilking of the Salt Lake City Police Department confirmed to the Tracker that the two photojournalists were “roughed up.”
“There were so many things happening that day that we didn’t even break the incident with the journalists down into a separate report,” he added.
The SLCPD did not respond to the Tracker’s requests for additional information about the incident or whether arrests were made in connection with the assault or vehicle damage.
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 these incidents here.
Photojournalist Ringo Chiu, a member of the National Press Photographers Association, was struck with a rubber bullet and had his camera damaged while documenting protests in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles, California, on May 30, 2020.
The protests in Los Angeles were sparked by a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Demonstrations against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the United States since the end of May.
In a post initially to Facebook and later shared with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, Chiu wrote that officers fired a rubber bullet that would have struck him in the upper body had it not been for his camera, which took the brunt of the hit. The lens hood of his Leica Q camera was damaged, as seen in photos posted to his social media accounts.
My Leica Q was hit by a rubber bullet fired by LAPD in a protest last month. Not working anymore 😭😭😭 #leicaq #leica #leicala #leicaphotojournalism #leicalove #protest #blacklivesmatters
— Ringo Chiu (@ringochiu) June 21, 2020
📸 https://t.co/5G5YvhfQad via https://t.co/tFiRvDN0df pic.twitter.com/0TtnqwOSXm
Chiu told the Tracker that he was also struck on his inner left thigh with a second rubber bullet fired by law enforcement.
CBSLA reported that both Los Angeles Police Department officers and L.A. County Sheriff’s deputies were at the scene in tactical gear. Neither agency responded to requests for comment as of press time.
Chiu was also assaulted by individuals while documenting the protest, which the Tracker has documented here.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented hundreds of 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 in 2020. Find these incidents here.
Los Angeles Times photographer Luis Sinco said his camera was struck by a rubber bullet, which also bruised his arm, while he was covering a protest in Los Angeles on May 30, 2020.
Sinco was covering one of hundreds of protests against racial injustice and police brutality that were held across the country in response to the killing of George Floyd during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25.
Peaceful protests were held across the city earlier in the day on May 30, but by afternoon, people began looting and vandalizing property in some parts of the city, the LAist reported. Later that day, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency, and a curfew was imposed from 8 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. the following morning in LA and the surrounding area.
Sinco told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an email that he was covering a protest that night in downtown Los Angeles. Demonstrators were confronting police, and some people threw objects toward law enforcement, according to Sinco. Police began moving in a line formation toward the group of protesters, where Sinco was positioned, and two officers shot less-lethal projectiles, a category that includes rubber bullets, toward the demonstrators.
Sinco said that he was lowering his camera from his eye, holding it near his stomach, when a rubber bullet hit it. He said he could feel the impact of the projectile on the camera. The rubber bullet then ricocheted off and hit him near his elbow on the inner bicep of his left arm, he said.
The projectile ripped through metal alloys of the body of the Canon 1DX camera, according to Sinco. A photograph he posted on Twitter shows a hole on the top of the camera exposing the interior of the device.
Check this out. Rubber bullet fired by #LAPD gashes by camera instead of my face during #GeorgeFloydprotest in LA. pic.twitter.com/aTh46j2DZa
— luis sinco (@luissinco) May 30, 2020
Sinco said he tried to use the camera after it was hit, but it no longer worked.
Sinco believes he was likely hit because he was with the group of demonstrators that police were firing on. He said he does not think he was targeted because he was a journalist.
Sinco said he was wearing a press credential around his neck. The situation was chaotic, he said, and he did not identify himself verbally to police or protesters as a journalist.
The camera was substantially damaged and needed to be repaired, Sinco said. He said he had a bruise for several days where the rubber bullet ricocheted into his arm, but it was not very painful.
“The camera took most of the force, I think,” he said.
The damage to Sinco’s camera was referenced in a resolution the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors adopted on June 9 affirming the rights of journalists to report without interference from law enforcement.
Los Angeles Police Department did not respond to a request for comment
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting damage of equipment and multiple journalists arrested or struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas while covering related protests across the country. Find all of these cases here.
A KMTV 3 News Now car was found vandalized in the early morning hours of May 30, 2020, while the reporter was covering protests against police violence in Omaha, Nebraska.
Reporters from KMTV 3 News Now, a CBS-affiliate station, were documenting protests that began across the U.S. in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25.
According to the Omaha World-Herald, thousands of protesters gathered at 72nd and Dodge, one of Omaha’s busiest intersections on May 29th. Deputy Chief Ken Kanger said that there was generally no violence and harm, according to the World-Herald, but as of 10:30 p.m. Lt. Sherie Thomas said the demonstration was no longer peaceful.
KMTV-TV 3 News Now News Director Geoffrey Roth told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the news vehicle was parked about 3 blocks away from the protests as a safety precaution. Roth said a reporter returned to the car shortly after midnight on the 30th to find it spray painted with profanity and what appeared to be gang symbols, but there was no other damage.
“The vandalizing of our news vehicle was only a small part of what happened to our reporters in the field that evening,” he said. “Two were shoved to the ground by police officers while covering the protest that night and another was threatened with arrest.”
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
A group of individuals chased a Baltimore, Maryland, news crew away from a protest outside City Hall on the evening of May 30, 2020. Later that evening, the journalists were assaulted and robbed.
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.
J. Thomas Fisher, a cameraman for Fox45 WBFF, and reporter Dan Lampariello were standing in front of the police line outside Baltimore City Hall around 10 p.m. when a group of individuals on the other side of the line demanded they move back. “Some in the crowd began getting angry with us,” Lampariello says in a voice-over of tape filmed at the scene.
A few minutes later, the situation devolved further, and Lampariello and Fisher were forced to retreat a few blocks from City Hall. “Do not touch the camera,” Lampariello said on the video as individuals push him and Fisher.
Ray Strickland, a reporter for WMAR 2 News, Baltimore’s ABC affiliate, captured the incident on video and posted it to Twitter.
Protesters in #Baltimore just chased a camera crew away from city hall #BaltimoreProtest #GeorgeFloydProtest. It’s tense out here for sure. @WMAR2News pic.twitter.com/Rei7hL8nLP
— Ray Strickland (@realraystrick) May 31, 2020
About an hour later, the crew was chased again, and someone punched Fisher in the face, according to the WBFF report. A live unit was stolen out of his backpack, along with a microphone. Lampariello’s assault is documented here.
Early the next morning, Lampariello tweeted about the experience:
TWICE tonight myself and photojournalist @jthomasfisher were chased and assaulted by a group of people while covering the protest outside of #Baltimore City Hall. We had equipment stolen & destroyed. Scary and tense moments. I’m just thankful we’re both OK. https://t.co/fp7JbQu8ke
— Dan Lampariello (@DanFox45) May 31, 2020
Lampariello, Fisher and the WBFF newsroom did not respond to requests for comment.
“Last night, a FOX45 news crew reporting from the Baltimore demonstrations outside of City Hall was attacked and chased away by a group of protesters who resorted to violence,” Scott Livingston, senior vice president of news for the Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station’s parent company, wrote the Baltimore Sun in an email. “Despite this incident, we remain undeterred, and our incredible journalists will continue to fulfill their duties and report live from the protests.”
On June 8, a Baltimore pastor was arrested in connection with the incident and charged with five counts, including second-degree assault, robbery and theft under $25,000, according to the Baltimore Sun.
According to a police report the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker obtained from the Baltimore Police Department, the station was able to recover the live unit using its GPS tracker.
“Our station will always support the Constitutional right to protest, a fundamental pillar of our democracy. At the same time, we also recognize the necessity of a free press, something that is more important now than ever before,” Bill Fanshawe, senior vice president of WBFF, told the Sun in a statement. “We ask that protesters recognize the important service that journalists everywhere provide, and should not be targets of anger and frustration.”
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests here.
The offices of ABC11, INDY Week and The News & Observer in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, were damaged during protests in the city on May 30, 2020.
Alternative weekly newspaper INDY Week reported extensive damage to its newsroom, while ABC11 and The News & Observer newspaper both had windows smashed as protests stretched late into the night.
The protests in Raleigh echoed demonstrations across the country sparked by a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
The newsrooms in Raleigh were damaged late in the first major day of protesting in the city. Demonstrations had been peaceful through the day, but late in the evening, after police began using tear gas to disperse crowds, a small group of people began destroying property in the city’s downtown.
A reporter for ABC11, Bridget Condon, posted videos on Twitter showing windows smashed out on the station’s street-level studio. Fragments of glass littered the sidewalk outside.
— Bridget Condon (@BridgetABC11) May 31, 2020
ABC11 didn’t respond to requests for comment about the damage.
The three offices were just some of many businesses damaged in the city. According to an article in the News & Observer, “nearly every” business in Raleigh’s downtown area was damaged overnight.
A spokesperson for the Raleigh Police Department said police were aware of damage to INDY Week and the News & Observer. There haven’t been any arrests related to the incidents, according to the department.
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 here.
The offices of The News & Observer, INDY Week and ABC11 in downtown Raleigh, N.C. were damaged during protests in the city on May 30, 2020.
Alternative weekly newspaper INDY Week reported extensive damage to its newsroom, while ABC11 and The News & Observer newspaper both had windows smashed as protests stretched late into the night.
The protests in Raleigh echoed demonstrations across the country sparked by a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
The newsrooms in Raleigh were damaged late in the first major day of protesting in the city. Demonstrations had been peaceful through the day, but late in the evening, after police began using tear gas to disperse crowds, a small group of people began destroying property in the city’s downtown.
At The News & Observer, business reporter Aaron Sánchez-Guerra saw windows at the entrance to the offices being smashed by a small group of people who broke off from a larger group that had been destroying property and looting in the area.
Sánchez-Guerra told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he recognized one of the individuals as a protester whom he had interviewed a short time earlier. He said that he shouted at the group to stop, that they were journalists. The protester appeared to recognize him, and they left.
The newspaper didn’t appear to be targeted, but was just one of many businesses that were impacted that night, according to members of the publication’s staff. Many nearby restaurants sustained damage and were looted, Sánchez-Guerra said. “We were just another open target.”
Two windows at The News & Observer were damaged during the protest, according to Betsy Womble, executive assistant to the publisher and president of the paper. The damage was reported to police, but there have been no developments with the report, she said.
The three offices were just some of many businesses damaged in the city. According to an article in the News & Observer, “nearly every” business in Raleigh’s downtown area was damaged overnight.
A spokesperson for the Raleigh Police Department said police were aware of damage to INDY Week and the News & Observer. There haven’t been any arrests related to the incidents, according to the department.
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 here.
A news vehicle belonging to local broadcast station WAVE3 News was vandalized on May 29, 2020, during protests in Louisville, Kentucky, according to the station.
The Associated Press reported that protests in Louisville have centered around the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, both of whom were Black. Taylor was shot eight times in her Louisville home in mid-March by narcotics police who broke down her door. Floyd died on May 25, after a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, knelt on his neck for eight minutes during an arrest. Video of Floyd’s death has sparked protests across the country.
WAVE 3 reported that amid the protests on May 29, one of the station’s news vehicles was found vandalized in the downtown area as the crowd intensified.
The station did not immediately respond to requests for additional information or comment.
During the protests that night, two WAVE 3 journalists, a reporter and cameraman, were also deliberately shot at with pepper balls by a Louisville Metro Police Department officer.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests here.
Kentucky State Troopers and protesters face off in Louisville on May 29, 2020.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,WAVE,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, protest",,, 2020-05-31 03:32:23.183559+00:00,2023-11-03 16:33:46.324487+00:00,Photojournalist covering Denver protests hit by multiple pepper balls,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-covering-denver-protests-hit-multiple-pepper-balls/,2023-11-03 16:33:46.223876+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,camera lens: count of 1,Jan Czernik (KMGH-TV),,2020-05-29,False,Denver,Colorado (CO),39.73915,-104.9847,"Jan Czernik, a photojournalist for Denver 7 News, was struck four times by pepper balls fired by police while covering protests in Denver, Colorado, on May 29, 2020. The reporter accompanying him, Adi Guajardo, said she avoided being hit.
The camera Czernik was holding was also hit, damaging the lens.
Guajardo tweeted about the experience, initially identifying the projectiles as paintballs:
Police just fired off paintballs and tear gas.
— adigtv (@AdiGTV) May 30, 2020
Our photographer got hit four time and our camera got hit.
Luckily, I ducked and avoided getting struck.#denverprotests @DenverChannel pic.twitter.com/8KstNp39HS
This incident occurred during the second night of protests in Denver over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a Minneapolis Police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes on May 25. Related protests have spread to cities across the nation.
According to a Denver 7 News story about the protests, police fired pepper balls and pepper spray into a crowd of protesters gathered near where Guajardo and Czernik were standing.
"Earlier today one of our photographers got hit by paintballs four times, including on the camera,” Guajardo later said on air. “We believe it might have been either tear gas or pepper spray balls but at one point my entire face was burning so I know what some of these people are experiencing.”
Later in the evening, Guajardo was filming a live shot, answering the anchor’s questions about Czernik being hit by pepper balls, a group of officers wielding pepper ball guns approached her, forcing her and her crew to retreat. “Where do you guys want us to go? Why are you pushing us back right now? Can we get some answers as to why you’re pushing us back at this moment?” she asks the officers, camera still rolling. “Where are the crowds supposed to go? You keep pushing them back. Where do people protest peacefully?” One of the officers shouted “move back” in reply.
Adi then tells the anchor, “So they’re asking us to move back but they’re not giving us answers. If people want to protest, where do you protest?”
Guajardo declined comment to the Tracker, citing guidance from Denver 7 management.
A request for comment sent to the Denver Police Department was not returned as of press time.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting damage of equipment and multiple journalists arrested or struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas while covering related protests across the country. Find all of these cases here.
Freelance writer and photographer Linda Tirado was struck with multiple crowd-control munitions while covering the fourth night of protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 29, 2020.
Protests in Minneapolis and across the nation were sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, during an arrest on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
Tirado told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she was reporting near the Third Precinct around midnight on the 29th when she was struck by a tracker round, judging from the green residue on her backpack.
A second round that she believes was a rubber bullet then struck the side of her head and her left eye.
“I got hit. My goggles broke, and I felt the blood and there was gas so I just closed my eyes, held up my hands and started yelling, ‘I’m press, I’m press!’” Tirado said.
Tirado said that a group of protesters took her to a nearby van and transported her to the hospital.
Hey folks, took a tracer found to the face (I think, given my backpack) and am headed into surgery to see if we can save my left eye
— Linda Tirado (@KillerMartinis) May 30, 2020
Am wisely not gonna be on Twitter while I’m on morphine
Stay safe folks pic.twitter.com/apZOyGrcBO
Tirado later tweeted that she is permanently blind in her left eye.
The Minneapolis Police Department did not respond to an email requesting comment.
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 here.
A Minneapolis Police Department officer fires a less-lethal round during continued demonstrations on May 29, 2020, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
",None,None,None,None,False,0:20-cv-01338,['SETTLED'],Civil,None,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, protest, shot / shot at",,, 2020-06-01 00:18:34.848353+00:00,2023-11-03 17:27:01.104073+00:00,News vehicle reported vandalized in Los Angeles amid protests,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/news-vehicle-reported-vandalized-los-angeles-amid-protests/,2023-11-03 17:27:01.023082+00:00,,,,Equipment Damage,,,vehicle: count of 1,,,2020-05-29,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"An ABC7 News vehicle was reported vandalized by protesters on May 29, 2020, during protests in Los Angeles, California.
Protests that began in Minnesota on May 26 have spread across the country, sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, during an arrest on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
An ABC7 news vehicle was found vandalized at around 6:30 p.m. on May 29, according to a tweet posted by FOX 11 Los Angeles reporter Bill Melugin.
Our colleague’s vehicle at @ABC7 just got tagged by protesters. pic.twitter.com/89VfOrcrp0
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) May 30, 2020
ABC7 could not immediately be reached for comment.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting damage of equipment and multiple journalists arrested or struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas while covering related protests across the country. Find all of these cases here.
A WSB-TV news vehicle was vandalized on May 29, 2020, during protests in Atlanta, Georgia.
Protests that began in Minnesota on May 26 have spread across the country, sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, during an arrest on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
WSB reporter Matt Johnson tweeted around midnight on May 29 that someone had just thrown a rock through the back window of the news vehicle.
Someone just threw a rock through a @wsbtv vehicle. pic.twitter.com/U64XQxiL4T
— Matt Johnson (@MattWSB) May 30, 2020
Johnson told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the vehicle was unmarked, but had a satellite dish on top that may have made it a target.
“A photographer and I were next to the car when someone threw a rock at it from behind,” Johnson said. “We heard some people saying, ‘No, don’t do that, they’re just trying to make a living’ after the first rock was thrown.”
Shortly after, another rock was thrown at the front window of the vehicle.
Johnson told the Tracker that soon after, a separate group of people made a semi-circle around the news crew and began cursing and threatening them for reporting fake news. He tweeted a video of the group of at least a dozen individuals.
In the video, multiple individuals can be heard harassing the journalists, calling them “fake-ass news,” flipping them off and telling them to “keep it real” and tell the people what is really going on.
“Eventually they cleared out when we just stood there and took it,” Johnson said.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting damage of equipment and multiple journalists arrested or struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas while covering related protests across the country. Find all of these cases here.
This article has been updated to reflect comment from Matt Johnson.
NYPD officers injured freelance journalist Sue Brisk and allegedly seized her camera while she was covering protests in New York City on May 29, 2020.
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.
Brisk told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was photographing demonstrations at 42nd Street in Times Square in the evening of May 29 with her NYPD-issued press pass clearly displayed.
“I watched the police beat people with billy clubs and then they threw a woman up against a pole right in front of me,” Brisk said. “After that it’s a blur, kind of.”
Brisk said that, before she knew what was happening, her head was slammed to the ground and she found herself pinned under at least three NYPD officers, and said her camera strap had wrapped around a bicycle handle and was choking her.
“Protesters were pleading with the police to please let go of me because they said I was an old lady and that I guess it looked very violent, what had happened,” Brisk said. She noted that she is short, lightweight and has silver-gray hair. Protesters pleaded with the NYPD riot officers to let her up and out of the way, Brisk told the Tracker.
She said a protester intervened and pulled her to the opposite sidewalk. Brisk then realized that one of her cameras was missing.
Brisk said she believes police took possession of the camera, and said everyone who had been in the vicinity was soon arrested.
“I’ve lost camera equipment which is essential to the job that I do,” she added. “I did nothing wrong.”
Brisk told the Tracker that she did not go to a hospital out of concern over potential exposure to the coronavirus. Instead, she said she worked through the night documenting the protests in order to stay awake in case she had a concussion.
When asked for comment, an NYPD spokesperson directed the Tracker to the “30 minute mark” of a press briefing held by New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Dermot Shea on June 3.
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.”
Brisk told the Tracker that she is still trying to figure out how to retrieve her camera.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred total incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country related to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Find all of these cases here.
Individuals assaulted a freelance video journalist at a protest that devolved into violence in downtown Tucson, Arizona, on the evening of May 29, 2020.
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.
Eric Rosenwald was capturing footage of police and protesters outside the main police station in downtown Tucson around 10:30 p.m. when individuals in the crowd began to criticize him for filming them, claiming he was “with the police,” he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an interview.
Rosenwald, who was wearing a yellow safety vest adorned with a reflective patch that read “PRESS” and carrying a still camera, was clearly identifiable as a member of the media.
Rosenwald was first attacked by a young man in a blue baseball cap, who began to throw punches at him. The police line was about 20 yards away, and when officers noticed what was happening, they fired pepper balls at the ground near the attacker’s feet, affording Rosenwald the opportunity to escape, according to Rosenwald and video he furnished the Tracker of the encounter. He was not hit by any of the pepper balls nor did he inhale any of the powder they give off on impact.
Less than a minute later, an individual came up to Rosenwald and started screaming at him.
“You’re fucking antagonizing us right now. You’re fucking antagonizing us right now. This is a protest and we’re protesting you, motherfucker,” that individual said, according to video footage.
As this verbal attack continued, Rosenwald said he was pushed to the ground by a scrum of five people, who kicked him in the head, legs and torso before he was able to find his footing again.
Rosenwald’s iPhone, attached to a recording rig, slipped out of his hand during this attack, and someone stole the microphone that had been attached to it, he said. He recovered his phone and continued to film as he walked backward away from his attackers. The Arizona Daily Star posted video on its website of that attack in progress, captured from another angle by a journalist standing across the street.
About 30 minutes later, Rosenwald was attacked and pushed over again. During the course of the evening, he estimated he was punched or kicked 10 times, including three blows to the head that left him with large bruises and two black eyes. “I never left. I kept covering it,” Rosenwald said. “I think they realized I wasn’t going to go anywhere.”
One of his attackers later found him in the crowd and gloated about the newly forming bruises on his face. “Look at his dumbass face. Yeah, you got fucked up. Guess who hit you? Me, you punk-ass bitch,” one attacker gloated. Rosenwald posted video of that encounter to his Instagram feed.
Rosenwald said that the attacks were unexpected, given that he was on a well-lit street next to the police station and near plenty of other journalists. He said that his attackers seemed to range in age from 18 to 25.
“What really scared me, in some ways worse than the physical part, was the complete ignorance as to what the First Amendment means,” Rosenwald said. “That was frightening to me as a journalist.”
Rosenwald’s bruises lingered for more than two weeks, but he did not suffer any long-term injuries from the attacks. He filed a report with the Tucson Police Department on June 6 but said he has yet to hear back. A request for comment emailed to the department was not immediately returned.
One of the individuals who attacked Rosenwald also accosted a reporter for the Arizona Daily Star, Caitlin Schmidt, and threw her cellphone. That incident is documented here.
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 Black Lives Matter protests across the country. Find these incidents here.
Joel Marklund, a photojournalist with the Scandanavian photo agency Bildbyrån, was hit by pepper spray and involved in an altercation with New York City Police that damaged his camera and left him bruised while covering protests in the borough of Brooklyn on May 29, 2020.
The protest at Barclays Center was one of many demonstrations sparked across the country by the May 26 release of a video showing a white Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd during an arrest the prior day. Floyd, a Black man, was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
Marklund, who has been covering the protests since they began, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that this particularly large gathering numbered in the hundreds or thousands. Police contained the protest by using portable fencing. Around 7:15 p.m., as tensions between protesters and police intensified, officers picked up the fencing and used it to push the crowd back. They also began to “go wild” with the pepper spray, Marklund said, and some of it landed on him.
Goggles and a facemask protected Marklund from the worst effects of the spray. But he said the spray also hit his exposed neck and arms, leaving him with a burning sensation that lasted for five or six hours. Marklund was wearing press credentials around his neck, but said that he wasn’t targeted for being a journalist. “They didn't look to see if it was press or someone else,” he said of the officers.
Around 8:30 p.m. during the same protest, a police officer swung his baton near Marklund to force the crowd back. In the scrum, the photographer was struck by something — probably the baton, but he could not say for sure — that left a bruise the size of his hand on his stomach, he told the Tracker. Something also made contact with the lens and body of his camera. Marklund anticipated costly repairs to his camera but expected his insurance to cover most of the expense.
“The police were very, very aggressive,” Marklund told the Tracker. “They’ve been shoving me and other media every single night. It's been very intense, but we haven't been close to what I see other photographers and media have experienced in other cities where they’ve been shot at [with projectiles]. But it's definitely been an aggressive atmosphere where it doesn't really matter if you're press or not.”
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 these incidents here.
Photojournalist Joel Marklund, who captured this image, said he was pepper sprayed, hit with a baton and had his camera broken while documenting protests in the Brooklyn borough of New York City on May 29, 2020.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,no,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, chemical irritant, protest",,, 2020-08-04 13:27:05.745128+00:00,2023-11-03 17:29:54.434493+00:00,CNN headquarters in Atlanta vandalized during protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cnn-headquarters-atlanta-vandalized-during-protest/,2023-11-03 17:29:54.336306+00:00,,,,Equipment Damage,,,building: count of 1,,,2020-05-29,False,Atlanta,Georgia (GA),33.749,-84.38798,"On May 29, 2020, CNN’s headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, was targeted by individuals who threw objects, broke windows and graffitied the large “CNN” logo out front.
The crowd had gathered in Centennial Park earlier in the day, CNN reported, but by about 7 p.m. individuals were damaging the news organization’s headquarters.
The protests in Atlanta were part of a national response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.
As the crowd became rowdier on May 29, they set an Atlanta Police Department vehicle on fire and a SWAT team was called in, CNN reported. As police faced off with protesters, someone threw either a firework or a flash-bang grenade over a line of officers. It detonated in front of CNN correspondent Nick Valencia and his crew as they reported from the scene.
Despite that dramatic incident, no CNN employees were harmed, according to a CNN spokesperson.
“The protests were not directed at CNN and they were not protesting us/CNN, but our office in downtown Atlanta is a landmark location,” Bridget Leininger, CNN senior director of communications said.
A CNN report did note that some protesters were “chanting anti-media rhetoric.” In one social media video someone can be clearly heard yelling, “Fuck CNN!”
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 these incidents here.
Protesters stand in front of a vandalized CNN logo at the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 29, 2020.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,CNN,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, protest",,, 2020-08-25 21:32:55.366401+00:00,2023-11-03 17:30:11.054647+00:00,"TV station evacuated, windows smashed amid protests in Louisville",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/tv-station-evacuated-windows-smashed-amid-protests-louisville/,2023-11-03 17:30:10.969348+00:00,,,,Equipment Damage,,,building: count of 1,,,2020-05-29,False,Louisville,Kentucky (KY),38.25424,-85.75941,"The staff of television station WHAS 11 was forced to briefly evacuate the station’s offices in Louisville, Kentucky, after the building’s windows were smashed during a protest on May 29, 2020.
The protest was held in response to the killing of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman who was shot dead by police on March 13, as well as the May 25 police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis. Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since late May.
Shortly after 11 p.m. on May 29, a WHAS producer posted on Twitter that he and other staff members were back on the air after having to evacuate the downtown building for 25 minutes when unidentified people started smashing windows.
#BreakingNews @WHAS11 crew forced to evacuate building for about 25 minutes after protesters starting smashing our windows. We're back on air now. We are SAFE and we are SECURE. #Louisville #BreonnaTaylor
— Stephen A. Ostrosky (@producer_steve) May 30, 2020
A news reporter from the station also described having to evacuate the building and said everyone returned safe and unharmed.
Our @WHAS11 crew was forced to evacuate the building after some protesters smashed our windows. Thankfully everyone is safe and all is well. Please stay safe #Louisville
— Senait Gebregiorgis (@SenaitTV) May 30, 2020
At around 11:30 p.m., a journalist from the nearby Courier-Jourier saw broken window panes and graffiti spray painted on the network’s building, the newspaper reported.
Doug Proffitt, an anchor on WHAS 11, reported on air later that night that a group of protesters had come down Chestnut Street towards the station’s building and that “it was a frightening situation.” He also said WHAS staff had suffered effects from tear gas that entered the building, but didn’t elaborate.
The network didn’t respond to emails seeking comment.
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 these incidents here.
Two news vehicles belonging to local broadcast station WLKY News were vandalized on May 29, 2020, during protests in Louisville, Kentucky, according to the station.
The Associated Press reported that protests in Louisville have centered around the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, both of whom were black. Taylor was shot eight times in her Louisville home in mid-March by narcotics police who broke down her door. Floyd died on May 25, after a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, knelt on his neck for eight minutes during an arrest. Video of Floyd’s death has sparked protests across the country.
Two separate vehicles belonging to WLKY News were vandalized that night. In a video broadcast by the station, individuals can be seen jumping on one news vehicle and kicking out its windows.
On live TV: Protesters attack #WLKY news vehicle, kick out windows during downtown protests. pic.twitter.com/7tLW8Ltftu
— WLKY (@WLKY) May 30, 2020
A second WLKY vehicle was kicked and dented by rioters while they were in the vehicle filming looting at a liquor store, according to a tweet from station anchor Julie Dolan.
Another WLKY reporter and photographer team was getting drive-by video of a liquor store looting when the rioters spotted them and attacked the station vehicle kicking dents in it. They drove away before it got too bad. @WLKYDrew
— Julie Dolan (@WLKYJulie) May 30, 2020
The station did not immediately respond to requests for additional information or comment. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests here.
A photojournalist for The Denver Post was struck with pepper balls multiple times while documenting protests in Denver, Colorado, on May 28, 2020.
Protests that began in Minnesota on May 26 have spread across the country, sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, during an arrest on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
Photographer Hyoung Chang was covering a protest in downtown Denver when police began firing tear gas and pepper balls at the crowd, the Post reported.
Chang, who had been taking photos near the officers and had not been told to move, told the Post that the officer fired directly at him.
“If it was one shot, I can say it was an accident,” Chang said. “I’m very sure it was the same guy twice. I’m very sure he pointed at me.”
The first shot struck Chang in the chest, shattering the press credential he was wearing around his neck. As he held his camera to his chest, the second shot struck his forearm, tearing through his coat and cutting a gash near his elbow.
Chang told the Post that he moved south to escape the pepper and tear gas, continuing to take photos as he went. Some protesters aided him, pouring milk over his face to alleviate the burning.
According to the Post, Chang did not seek medical attention but is resting at home. He told the newspaper that the situation made him feel weird, particularly as it appears members of the media are being targeted.
So far, the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented four other journalists struck by crowd control ammunition on two separate nights of protests and a CNN news crew of three arrested while covering the George Floyd protests in Minneapolis.
A second Post journalist, reporter Elise Schmelzer, also reported being shot at by a police officer while covering the protest. The Post reported that at least one pepper ball was fired at her feet, despite the fact that she was wearing a reflective “PRESS” vest.
The Colorado Press Association and the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition reiterated the importance of journalists covering public demonstrations without interference, the Post reported.
Press Association CEO Jill Farschman told the Post, “There seems to be a frightening trend of restraining and targeting reporters during public protests and other civil unrest even when clearly displaying press credentials.”
“Let me stay with clarity that any infringement on our First Amendment right to a free press not only undermines the safety of reporters, but oppresses the public’s access to live news coverage which is completely unacceptable,” Farshman added.
Neither the Denver Police Department nor the Post journalists immediately responded to requests for comment.
In Denver, Colorado, protestors gather on May 28, 2020, following the death of a black man in police custody in Minnesota. At least one journalist was hit with pepper balls while documenting the downtown Denver protest.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, chemical irritant, protest, shot / shot at",,, 2020-08-06 20:45:46.917006+00:00,2023-11-03 17:32:51.058618+00:00,Minnesota photographer retrieves camera from fire after looters burn his equipment,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/minnesota-photographer-retrieves-camera-fire-after-looters-burn-his-equipment/,2023-11-03 17:32:50.966160+00:00,,,,Equipment Damage,,,camera: count of 1,Richard Tsong-Taatarii (Minneapolis Star Tribune),,2020-05-28,False,Minneapolis,Minnesota (MN),44.97997,-93.26384,"Richard Tsong-Taatarii, a photographer for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, was taking photos of looters inside an Arby’s fast food restaurant when they took his camera and threw it into a fire, he told the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Tsong-Taatarii was photographing protests following the death of George Floyd, a Black man, at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25, 2020. Protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement are continuing to take place across the country.
Tsong-Tataarii was covering protests in St. Paul, Minnesota, on May 28 when he was sent to the Third Precinct in Minneapolis. In the days prior, the Third Precinct and the surrounding area had been the site of major protests and multiple incidents of violence perpetrated against the press by police and members of the public.
When Tsong-Tataarii arrived, he said he covered the main scene of protests before he spotted a group of people plotting to loot and burn the Arby’s restaurant across the street from the Third Precinct police station. He described this group as “violent anarchists” in a phone interview with CPJ.
“One of the efforts I tried to make was to cover the diversity of violence,” Tsong-Taatarii said. “There’s a stereotypical perception of, ‘why are these people ‘burning down their own community?’ I saw that the group was diverse; majority white, but a couple of black gentlemen, a couple of people of mixed backgrounds. I photographed them outside the Arby’s and followed them into the Arby’s hoping to mix in there and document it.”
He later uploaded his images to Facebook.
Tsong-Taatarii was taking photos of a man tagging a wall with “BLM,” short for Black Lives Matter, when the man turned and asked Tsong-Taatarii, “Why are you photographing a crime?”
Tsong-Taatarii said he started negotiating with the man and offered to give him one of his two cameras — the camera he did not use to photograph him. Instead, the man wanted his small Leica, the camera Tsong-Taatarii used to take his photo. While they were talking, Tsong-Taatarii slipped the Leica lens and card into his pocket, preserving his photos.
Tsong-Taatarii said that he was wearing his press badge but refrained from identifying himself as press.
“I just said, ‘I love photography and I love documenting history and this is history,’ which is all true,” he said. “I knew that if I said I was a member of the press, that would be the end of the negotiating. I felt like I had the right not to tell him.”
“At some point the negotiating stopped and one of the fellas said, ‘It’s not worth losing your life over your gear,’” Tsong-Taatarii continued. “I understood what they meant, because they were going to burn this place down and if they knocked me unconscious, I’d be laying down there. People might never find me.”
Tsong-Taatarii gave the man his Leica, which the man threw into a fire next to a street barricade. Shortly after, Tsong-Taatarii ran into the fire and retrieved his camera. While the camera was damaged, the leather case it was stored in took most of the heat, he said.
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 these incidents here.
Onlookers watch as an Arby's fast food restaurant burns near the Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Precinct on May 28, 2020.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, protest",,, 2020-05-11 17:56:50.147288+00:00,2023-11-03 17:37:01.686925+00:00,Photojournalist assaulted and camera destroyed by passerby,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-assaulted-and-camera-destroyed-passerby/,2023-11-03 17:37:01.558053+00:00,,,"(2020-08-25 11:03:00+00:00) Man who smashed Illinois photojournalist’s camera is fined, sentenced to anger management classes","Assault, Equipment Damage",,,camera: count of 1,Unidentified photojournalist 2 (WQAD-TV),,2020-05-01,False,Rock Island,Illinois (IL),41.50948,-90.57875,"A WQAD News 8 photojournalist was assaulted and his camera destroyed while on assignment in Rock Island, Illinois, on May 1, 2020.
The photojournalist — who was not identified in the station’s article about the incident — was gathering footage of local business in the area from a sidewalk at approximately 5 p.m, WQAD reported.
A man driving by the area, later identified as 45-year-old Brett Laermans, was reportedly angry that he may have been filmed. Laermans stopped his car and grabbed the photographer’s hat. He then repeatedly smashed the WQAD broadcast camera on the ground, destroying it.
Police were called to the scene shortly after.
WQAD reported that the outlet’s photographer was uninjured and had filed a police report.
Rock Island Deputy Chief of Police Jason Foy told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that Laermans was not arrested at the time. However, Foy said that the Rock Island County State’s Attorney’s Office charged Laermans with battery and criminal damage to property on May 5.
The State’s Attorney’s Office also issued Laermans a court summons for July 13, according to WQAD.
WQAD News Director Alan Baker could not be reached for comment.
A woman was arrested in Atlanta, Georgia, and charged with kidnapping after police said she hijacked a news van on April 14, 2020, with a reporter inside.
Atlanta police spokesperson Officer Anthony Grant told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that at approximately 5:30 a.m. police were called to the scene of a crashed Toyota involving a pregnant woman, later identified as 38-year-old Seniqua Lunsford.
A CBS46 news crew was nearby to cover the crash, the outlet reported, and had just finished a live shot. Reporter Iyani Hughes had started the news van to power her computer as she sat in the back editing footage, while the photojournalist with her stood outside.
Grant told the Tracker that, unbeknownst to the officers approaching the scene of the crash, Lunsford exited the vehicle. She then jumped behind the wheel of the news van and sped away.
Grant said that officers heard reporter Hughes’s screams, attempted to stop the van and then gave chase.
Police spokesman Officer Steve Avery told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Hughes attempted to make Lunsford pull over.
“The suspect wouldn’t do that, so [Hughes] did the smart thing: She got into her seat and put her seat belt on,” Avery said.
The chase ended when Lunsford crashed the news van into a traffic circle approximately a mile away, deploying the airbags. Police quickly arrived at the scene and arrested Lunsford, Officer Grant told the Tracker.
Hughes was not injured in the crash, Grant said, but was taken to the hospital as a precaution. During the course of their investigation, police learned that both Hughes and Lunsford are pregnant.
CBS46 Station Manager Jeff Holub told the Tracker, “This was obviously a very dangerous and frightening situation and we are happy that Iyani is OK.”
Lunsford is being held on charges of kidnapping, which is punishable by 10 to 20 years in prison under Georgia law.
An Associated Press photographer covering Liberty University’s decision to remain partially open during the onset of the coronavirus pandemic was ordered to delete photos and leave the campus in Lynchburg, Virginia, by a security officer on March 24, 2020.
According to the AP, its photographer was approached by a campus security officer who told him to delete all of the photos he had taken while on campus and leave. The photojournalist, who was not identified by the news organization, consulted with his supervisor about the images after being forced off-campus. The photos were deleted, which the AP said was a mistake in retrospect.
“We don’t delete photos or any other material at the request of an individual law enforcement officer,” said Sally Buzbee, then the AP’s executive editor and senior vice president. “We try to fight such orders legally.”
The president of Liberty University, Jerry Falwell, sought trespassing charges against a ProPublica reporter and a freelance photographer hired by The New York Times who had pursued similar stories about Liberty’s pandemic responses. Charges against the journalists were eventually dropped.
Neither the AP nor Liberty University responded to requests for comment from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
A former employee of Comstock’s Magazine has been accused of deleting the publication’s YouTube channel on Feb. 10, 2020, less than a month after quitting his job at the magazine.
Federal prosecutors allege that Matthew Keys deleted the YouTube channel while on federal probation for a previous hacking offense. In 2015, Keys was convicted of three counts of conspiracy and violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act after he, prosecutors said, gave a member of Anonymous login credentials to access the backend of the Los Angeles Times’ site in 2010. (The Los Angeles Times was then owned by the Tribune Company, and Keys was a former employee of a Tribune-owned television station, Sacramento’s KTXL FOX 40. Keys denied the allegations at the time.)
Keys was released from federal prison in March 2018 and placed on two years supervised release that was slated to end in April 2020.
Keys joined Comstock’s Magazine, a Sacramento-based business periodical, as digital editor in May 2019, according to his LinkedIn page. He quit his job “abruptly” on Jan. 23, 2020, according to a federal court filing by Keys' probation officer.
On Feb. 14, an editor at Comstock’s discovered that the magazine’s YouTube account had been deleted, along with its videos. Tom Couzens, the magazine’s executive editor, suspected Keys’ involvement in the deletion, and called the U.S. Attorney's Office, according to the filing.
As a condition of his probation, Keys’ computer and other electronic devices could be searched with reasonable suspicion, without obtaining a warrant.
In March, probation officers conducted a search of Keys’ home, seizing 18 electronic devices, including Keys’ iPhone X and Mac laptop, according to the filing.
A digital forensic analysis found that in the early morning of Feb. 10, someone using Keys’ devices performed a Google search for “how to delete YouTube channel.” Then, “approximately 20 seconds later, the user was once again signed into [Comstock’s] YouTube account, accessed the, ‘Manage your YouTube content.’”
Analyzing the forensic evidence, the probation officer concluded “it appears Matthew Keys has exhibited similar conduct to that of the underlying offense by deleting Comstock's Magazine YouTube content,” the filing states.
Keys was asked, in the presence of his attorney, about these allegations on April 23, and denied them, according to the filing. “Mr. Keys indicated he believes Couzens’ accusations stem from a complaint he filed against Comstock’s Magazine with the California Employment Development Department for a hostile work environment,” the filing reads. An email sent to Keys’ attorney for comment was not returned.
Couzens, reached via email, declined to comment, citing a legal matter.
In the court filing dated April 27, the probation officer asked that due to the coronavirus pandemic, Keys remain out of custody pending a hearing. The judge agreed and set a hearing for June 8.
A portion of the filing requesting a summons for Matthew Keys
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],Comstock’s Magazine,,,, 2020-02-13 17:08:17.680704+00:00,2023-11-03 17:34:54.756201+00:00,NotiCentro vehicle vandalized during Puerto Rico protests,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/noticentro-vehicle-vandalized-during-puerto-rico-protests/,2023-11-03 17:34:54.665265+00:00,,,,Equipment Damage,,,vehicle: count of 1,,,2020-01-23,False,San Juan,Puerto Rico (PR),None,None,"A NotiCentro WAPA-TV news vehicle was vandalized while the news crew covered protests in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Jan. 23, 2020.
According to translations made available to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, reporter Kefrén Velázquez and photojournalist Luis Ojeda were covering protests against Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced and her administration in Old San Juan.
Shortly after police fired a canister of tear gas towards the crowd around 11 p.m., the station’s news vehicle was attacked by protesters, according to an editorial by NotiCentro News Director Rafael Lenín López. A photo published by the outlet shows damage to the side mirrors and windshield, as well as spray painted messages on the hood and side door.
Newspaper Primera Hora reported that Velázquez interceded when protesters attempted to set the car on fire. Though Velázquez was able to stop the vandals, individuals then attacked both journalists. It was not immediately clear how extensive the damage to the vehicle was.
A La Mesa, California, business owner was arrested after altercations with several news crews on Jan. 20, 2020. The man also threw a Univision reporter’s video camera to the ground, causing thousands of dollars of damage.
Reporters and photographers had gathered outside of a men’s apparel store to speak with owner Peter Carzis concerning allegations that he had engaged in lewd and inappropriate behavior in front of his shop.
Claudia Buccio, a multimedia journalist for Univision, posted on Instagram that she was capturing footage in front of the store for her piece and did not see Carzis approach her.
“He yanked my shoulder, pushed me and then he grabbed my camera and threw it to the sidewalk,” she wrote. “Thank God there were fellow journalists in the area who jumped out at my defense.”
Buccio wrote in a subsequent comment that several other news crews were in the area to report on the accusations against Carzis, but were in their vehicles and did not film the attack.
Journalists from independent San Diego station KUSI News were among those who came to Buccio’s defense.
Reporter Dan Plante recounted the incident in a live broadcast that evening.
“The first person he went after when he came out blazing was a young woman from Univision, and he pushed her up against the wall and he took her camera and he threw it in the street and broke it into a hundred pieces,” he said.
Carzis then turned on Plante and KUSI cameraman Michael Saucedo.
Media assaulted, camera broken, women groped in public and Peter Carzis is finally tracked down and arrested in downtown San Diego. After “years of abuse” the people in the Village of La Mesa are breathing easier now that police are taking action. KUSI Tonight pic.twitter.com/a7ZgMqNP2d
— Dan Plante (@DanPlanteKUSI) January 22, 2020
Other journalists, including ABC 10News reporter Mimi Elkalla and photographer Virginia Creighton, witnessed the assaults but were not targeted by Carzis.
Plante called 911 and Carzis retreated to his store, locking the door behind him. Carzis was gone by the time police arrived, according to a press release from the La Mesa Police Department.
Police said that after canvassing the area, they located Carzis in nearby San Diego and arrested him on Jan. 21 on charges of misdemeanor battery and felony vandalism.
“Carzis is accused of battering multiple reporters and causing irreparable damage to a video camera reported to be worth approximately $7,000.00,” the press release states.
The owner of a men’s clothing store in La Mesa, California, was arrested and charged with assault of several journalists and damage to this Univision video camera.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,,,, 2019-12-20 17:08:25.838234+00:00,2023-10-27 21:26:58.448084+00:00,"Wife of Georgia county commissioner dumps drink on reporter’s head, soaking her and her equipment",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/wife-of-georgia-county-commissioner-dumps-drink-on-reporters-head-soaking-her-and-her-equipment/,2023-10-27 21:26:58.323267+00:00,,,(2023-07-10 13:59:00+00:00) Case against commissioner’s wife who doused reporter is closed,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,computer: count of 1,Casie Bryant (AllOnGeorgia),,2019-12-13,False,Chattooga County,Georgia (GA),None,None,"AllOnGeorgia reporter Casie Bryant was set up to report on a county budget meeting in Chattooga County in the state’s northwest corner on Dec. 13, 2019, when the county commissioner’s wife dumped a soda on her.
According to a Summerville police incident report published by AllOnGeorgia, Bryant was sitting at the conference table when Abbey Winters, wife of Sole Commissioner Jason Winters, poured a drink over her head, soaking her hair, clothes, belongings and equipment. In photos of the incident published by The Summerville News, it appears that Bryant’s tablet was covered in the beverage.
The wife of Chattooga County's sole commissioner poured a soda on a reporter's head this morning. The Summerville PD is charging Abbey Winters with simple battery and disorderly conduct. The reporter is Casie Bryant of All On Georgia. Photos courtesy of the Summerville News pic.twitter.com/V3pz6UbWY8
— Patrick Filbin (@PatrickFilbin) December 13, 2019
The incident was witnessed by representatives from the local newspaper and radio station, as well as four others. Several of these witnesses told police that the attack appeared to be completely unprovoked and that they heard Abbey Winters say twice after dumping the drink that Bryant “deserved” it.
In a video of the incident taken by Bryant and posted on AllOnGeorgia’s YouTube channel, Jason Winters is seen and heard saying, “Every bit of this has been brought on,” while pointing toward Bryant.
According to the incident report, neither of the Winters’ spoke with police at the scene, but after seeking legal counsel Abbey Winters told police that she had tripped and spilled the drink accidentally.
AllOnGeorgia reported that following an investigation, police applied for warrants on Abbey Winters for simple battery and disorderly conduct, turning the matter over to the Chattooga County Sheriff’s Office.
“What happened at the budget meeting today was completely inappropriate and I’m disappointed to see not only the behavior of those involved, but the excuses made for the behavior after the fact,” AllOnGeorgia owner Delvis Dutton said in the outlet’s report of the incident. “The media plays an integral role in ensuring transparency and these types of antics are dangerous to open government and a disservice to the people it serves.”
The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported that Winters turned herself in at the Chattooga County Jail that afternoon and was released on a $1,520 bond on both counts.
Reporter Casie Bryant sits drenched in liquid after a drink was poured on her head at a Chattooga County, Georgia, budget meeting. The wife of the county commissioner has been charged with simple battery and disorderly conduct for the dousing.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,,,, 2019-12-19 15:02:07.930585+00:00,2023-11-02 19:08:19.086834+00:00,Restauranteur steals reporter’s cellphones during interview,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/restauranteur-steals-reporters-cellphones-during-interview/,2023-11-02 19:08:18.942973+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,cellphone: count of 2,Priscilla Totiyapungprasert (The Arizona Republic),,2019-12-05,False,Phoenix,Arizona (AZ),33.44838,-112.07404,"An Arizona Republic reporter had two cellphones stolen by a restaurant operator during an interview on Dec. 5, 2019.
Food and dining reporter Priscilla Totiyapungprasert had arranged to interview Tawny Costa, the operator of a new Italian restaurant in Phoenix. Costa had agreed to the interview being recorded, the Republic reported.
Totiyapungprasert’s personal and work phones were placed on the table during the interview, which ended abruptly when the reporter asked questions about Costa’s past businesses and her connection to Frank Capri, the father of Costa's two children. Capri, also a restauranteur, had multiple locations fail to open or abruptly close amid allegations of fraud and theft, according to the Republic.
In a statement to the police, Totiyapungprasert said Costa abruptly grabbed her phones, elbowing and pushing her when she attempted to grab them back, the Republic reported. Totiyapungprasert also told police that her knee was injured as she reached for her phones.
Costa left the restaurant with the phones and, as of publication, they have not been recovered. The incident remains under investigation by Phoenix police, the Republic reported.
“We’re thankful for Phoenix police’s response and their concern for Priscilla,” Republic Executive Editor Greg Burton said in the newspaper's report of the incident. “A free press is a courageous press, and her actions are an inspiration.”
Totiyapungprasert declined to comment to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
Police are investigating the theft of two phones from Arizona Republic reporter Priscilla Totiyapungprasert, which she says were stolen during an interview with a Phoenix restaurant operator.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,public figure,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,robbery,,, 2019-12-05 21:38:11.105135+00:00,2023-10-27 21:27:38.798376+00:00,"Broadcast reporter attacked, camera damaged while reporting in Florida",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/broadcast-reporter-attacked-camera-damaged-while-reporting-southwest-florida/,2023-10-27 21:27:38.650421+00:00,,,(2021-10-26 11:07:00+00:00) Charges dropped against man who attacked Florida NBC2 reporter,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,camera: count of 1,Delia D’Ambra (WBBH-TV),,2019-11-28,False,North Fort Myers,Florida (FL),26.66729,-81.88009,"Delia D’Ambra, a broadcast reporter for NBC2 News in Southwest Florida, was assaulted and her camera damaged while working on a story alone in North Fort Myers on Nov. 28, 2019.
D’Ambra was wrapping up her shoot when a man wearing work gloves approached her, NBC2 reported. She hit the record button on her camera right as the man lunged for her.
“He comes and grabs everything, shakes me and pushes me back,” D’Ambra told NBC2. “And as we’re going down, he holds onto the viewfinder and pulls that down and breaks it.”
In the video posted by NBC2, D’Ambra can be heard screaming multiple times, “Leave me alone!” As the man walks away from her D’Ambra drags herself and the camera across the pavement, warning the man that she is calling the police.
“I knew immediately that I was alone, I needed to get away from this person,” D’Ambra said. “He went back to his car. I had no idea whether he was going to get a weapon, take the car and come get me. You don’t know what’s going to happen.”
When deputies arrived at the scene, they arrested 79-year-old Hollis Creach.
D’Ambra tweeted later that day that the experience was frightening and exhausting, but that she was feeling better. “God spared me great harm today & I’m grateful. I also forgive the man who attacked me & know God loves him too,” D’Ambra wrote.
Today was a frightening & exhaustive day. Thankful for the loving messages & support from my family, husband ,coworkers & @NBC2 viewers. I’m happy to be feeling better. God spared me great harm today & I’m grateful. I also forgive the man who attacked me & know God loves him too.
— DeliaDAmbraTV (@DeliaDAmbraTV) November 29, 2019
The incident will affect how she approaches reporting in the future, D’Ambra told NBC2.
“I will be extremely cautious with individuals approaching me, yelling at me, even more so now,” D’Ambra said.
D’Ambra did not respond to request for comment by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
Creach has been charged with battery, damaging property and criminal mischief, and made his first appearance in court on Nov. 29, according to NBC2.
A Florida man attacked broadcast reporter Delia D’Ambra, pushing her to the ground and damaging the camera.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,,,, 2019-12-09 17:27:02.840840+00:00,2023-10-27 21:28:13.276615+00:00,"Photographer knocked to ground, camera damaged at football game",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-knocked-ground-camera-damaged-football-game/,2023-10-27 21:28:13.162694+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,camera lens: count of 1,Jamm Aquino (Honolulu Star-Advertiser),,2019-11-23,False,Honolulu,Hawaii (HI),21.30694,-157.85833,"A photographer for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser says that he was assaulted during a University of Hawaii football game on Nov. 23, 2019, resulting in injuries and damage to his camera.
USA Today reported that photographer Jamm Aquino was standing on the sidelines when Hawaii coaches and players rushed the field after the opposing team missed a field goal, sealing the university’s victory. Aquino followed the team onto the field to photograph the celebration.
According to the Star-Advertiser, seconds remained on the game clock and therefore the game was not officially over. It was while the team rushed back off the field to avoid a penalty that Aquino says Hawaii coach Nick Rolovich charged at him while swearing and “made contact” with him. The outlet also reported that an Associated Press photographer next to Aquino was shoved.
Aquino told the Star-Advertiser that an unnamed university employee then shoved him to the ground, leaving him with a concussion and various other injuries and damaging his camera lens.
As Rolovich made his way off the field at the end of the game, he saw Aquino, pointed in his direction and again began swearing at him.
Star-Advertiser editor Frank Bridgewater said in the article, “Our photographers are representing our readers and deserve to be treated as professionals.”
“Swearing at and, worse, physically assaulting them, will not be tolerated,” Bridgewater said. “We will take whatever steps are needed to protect our photographers’ rights and to ensure that those who abuse them are called out.”
The university said in a statement that Aquino violated sideline protocol and that Rolovich came into contact with Aquino while attempting to clear the field.
“Coach Rolovich regrets the situation occurred. He contacted the photographer late Saturday night and apologized,” the university said.
Aquino did not respond to request for comment by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
University of Hawaii coach Nick Rolovich charges the camera of Honolulu Star-Advertiser photographer Jamm Aquino during a football game. Aquino says Rolovich and another university employee assaulted him, causing injuries and equipment damage.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,public figure,None,None,False,False,None,None,public figure,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,,,, 2019-12-05 16:56:29.806903+00:00,2023-12-11 20:43:34.635710+00:00,"NYC building owner assaults reporter, breaks station camera equipment",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/nyc-building-owner-assaults-reporter-breaks-station-camera-equipment/,2023-12-11 20:43:34.418951+00:00,,,"(2023-11-07 00:00:00+00:00) Case sealed against NYC landlord who pushed NY1 reporter, broke station’s camera","Assault, Equipment Damage",,,camera: count of 1,Michael Herzenberg (Spectrum News NY1),,2019-11-12,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"Michael Herzenberg, a reporter for Spectrum News NY1, was assaulted and a NY1 camera damaged in an altercation with a New York City landlord on Nov. 12, 2019, after Herzenberg attempted to interview him concerning complaints from his tenants.
Herzenberg was investigating allegations that there had been no heat or gas in two buildings owned by Michael Rose since May, NY1 reported in its write-up of the altercation. Herzenberg entered a business owned by Rose alongside Daniel Bernstein, the founder of a tenants association for the buildings.
After answering a few questions, Rose became hostile. In a video of the incident captured by NY1, Rose answers a question then tries to grab the NY1 microphone out of Herzenberg’s hand and says, “Alright, that’s enough.”
Landlord/owner # didn’t like me @NY1 asking him why his tenants have #noheat He blames @conedison saying he tries to get the 2 buildings fixed everyday, but @nyccouncil @marklevinenyc says utility told him it’s the owner’s fault. @nypd charged owner Mike Rose w/Criminal Mischief pic.twitter.com/xGDz6FAoiS
— Michael Herzenberg (@MHerzenberg) November 13, 2019
Someone can be heard asking Rose what he is doing as he pushes Herzenberg multiple times and appears to attempt to pull away the NY1 camera. In its Facebook post, NY1 said the camera was broken in the altercation.
“I said get the fuck out of here,” Rose says. Rose appears to drag Herzenberg out of the store by his jacket. Once outside, Rose can be seen punching Bernstein in the head.
NYPD Spokesperson Sgt. Jessica McRorie told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that Bernstein sustained injuries but refused medical attention. It is unclear whether Herzenberg, who declined to comment, was injured in the scuffle. McRorie confirmed that Rose “broke a part of the [NY1] camera by smashing it with his hand.”
Rose was arrested and held overnight. McRorie told the Tracker that Rose has been charged with criminal mischief. West Side Rag reported that Rose’s next court date is Dec. 5.
When an interview with a landlord became physical, a Spectrum News NY1 reporter was assaulted and the station camera was damaged.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,,,, 2019-09-19 20:00:33.780626+00:00,2023-10-27 21:28:45.469477+00:00,North Carolina state senator damages reporter’s phone in physical altercation,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/north-carolina-state-senator-damages-reporters-phone-in-physical-altercation/,2023-10-27 21:28:45.364437+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,cellphone: count of 1,Joe Killian (NC Policy Watch),,2019-09-11,False,Raleigh,North Carolina (NC),35.7721,-78.63861,"Investigative reporter for NC Policy Watch, Joe Killian, said North Carolina State Sen. Paul Lowe assaulted him and threw his phone down a hallway of the legislative building on Sept. 11, 2019.
Killian was covering the aftermath of an unscheduled vote to overrule the governor’s veto of the state budget at approximately 10:20 a.m. when he heard screaming from behind a closed door and a shout for police assistance, Policy Watch reported. Killian began filming as Lowe came out of the room alongside two other congressmen.
In Killian’s video of the incident posted to NC Policy Watch’s channel on YouTube, Lowe notices Killian filming and moves toward him asking, “What are you doing with your camera?”
“I’m a journalist,” Killian replies as Lowe grabs at the hand holding the phone. Killian told Policy Watch that after a brief struggle the senator threw Killian’s phone down the hallway and walked away. Killian said that he was not injured in the altercation.
In the outlet’s write-up about the incident, NC Policy Watch Director Rob Schofield offered this statement: “Senator Lowe’s unprovoked actions this morning targeted a working journalist just doing his job. They were outrageous, unacceptable, and sadly indicative of a trend we’ve seen from an alarming number of public officials.”
“I apologize for anything that I’ve done,” Lowe said in the write-up. “It was an unfortunate circumstance. I apologize for that circumstance.”
The Greensboro News & Record reported that both Lowe and Killian had spoken with the N.C. General Assembly Police Department about the incident.
Schofield told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that Killian’s phone was ultimately destroyed. “He has purchased a new one and Senator Lowe has promised to reimburse our organization,” Schofield said.
Schofield told the Tracker that they do not anticipate any further legal proceedings at this point.
An image from NC Policy Watch reporter Joe Killian’s phone as North Carolina State Sen. Paul Lowe moves toward him
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,politician,None,None,False,False,None,None,politician,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,,,, 2019-09-04 16:46:32.624419+00:00,2023-11-14 16:02:19.994536+00:00,Man robs and briefly kidnaps NBC affiliate reporter at gunpoint,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/man-robs-and-briefly-kidnaps-nbc-affiliate-reporter-gunpoint/,2023-11-14 16:02:19.763972+00:00,,,"(2021-07-07 00:00:00+00:00) Man sentenced for kidnapping, robbing Washington state reporter","Assault, Equipment Damage",,,"recording equipment: count of 1, vehicle: count of 1",Unidentified reporter 1 (KNDU),,2019-08-27,False,Kennewick,Washington (WA),46.21125,-119.13723,"A reporter for NBC Right Now in Kennewick, Washington, was robbed and briefly kidnapped at gunpoint while covering a local teachers strike on Aug. 27, 2019.
An undisclosed reporter had set up her video camera in the parking lot of the Kennewick School District ahead of a planned teachers strike, YakTriNews reported. At around 5:45 a.m., as she was sitting in her news vehicle waiting for the rally to begin, a man got into the backseat of her car, pointed a gun at her and told her to drive.
She complied, but after driving a few feet the man “got spooked,” NBC Right Now reported. Kennewick Police Lt. Aaron Clem told the Tri-City Herald that the man told her to stop the car, then got out of it and ran across the street and toward some apartments.
YakTriNews reported that the man took the journalist’s microphone with him when he fled. NBC Right Now reported that she was uninjured.
A 19-year-old identified as Karlo Medina was arrested in connection with the incident later that day, and has been charged with first-degree robbery and second degree kidnapping, in addition to burglary and attempted rape in an unrelated incident the day before.
Charlie Kratovil, founder and editor of New Brunswick Today, filed a police report alleging assault by a private security guard after being forcibly removed from covering an event on Aug. 3, 2019.
The NBT news team was invited to cover an education summit hosted by the non-profit Project Ready. Kratovil was covering the event on behalf of a reporter who could not, he tweeted, and planned to record the gala ceremonies and post the video to the outlet’s YouTube channel without any editing. Kratovil said he was there for the keynote speech, given by White House correspondent and CNN analyst April Ryan.
Kratovil told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that when he checked in and set up his camera at about 6:45 p.m., the public relations officials did not inform him that there would be any limitations or restrictions on filming the proceedings. Kratovil said that he was able to film the first hour and a half of the event without issue.
When Rep. Donald Payne took the stage to introduce Ryan at approximately 8:30 p.m., Kratovil tweeted, he was approached by a man who said he was “with the speaker,” and asked Kratovil to identify himself. He did so and said he had received approval to cover the event. The man left, Kratovil wrote, but returned and threatened to “take down” his camera if Kratovil did not do so himself.
Kratovil refused.
Over the next several minutes, Kratovil debated with the man, later identified as Ryan’s private security guard Joel Morris, and several public relations officials who began to gather around his table, according to his account.
“I maintained a firm position re: video recording, saying I wouldn’t take action until I could get more info on the man who threatened to mess w/ my camera,” Kratovil tweeted. “I told them ‘If he doesn’t give me his name & tell me on the record why I can’t [video], I’m not turning off the camera.’”
In Kratovil’s video, security guard Morris can be seen approaching Ryan onstage, who pauses her speaking, appears to look at Kratovil’s camera and nods. Ryan remains silent as Morris then walks towards Kratovil’s camera, grabs it and walks off.
In the video, which keeps recording, Ryan resumes speaking as Morris grabs the camera and is heard trying to explain the interruption. “When I speak, I don’t have news covering my speech,” Ryan said, adding that she wanted to have an “unfettered conversation with you all.”
However, New Brunswick-based reporter Chuck O’Donnell from TAPInto, a network of local news websites, was allowed to remain in the room.
Kratovil told the Tracker that he quickly gathered up his belongings and followed after Morris.
According to a police report about the incident filed by Kratovil, Morris walked to the front lobby and turned over Kratovil’s camera to the security staff at the hotel’s front desk. The camera was shortly returned to Kratovil.
Kratovil shared with the Tracker a surveillance recording from the lobby that shows Kratovil holding his camera and moving away from Morris. In the video, Kratovil can be heard saying, “This guy is chasing me.” Morris quickly moves around behind him, and appears to grab and twist Kratovil’s left arm behind his back while pushing him out of the frame.
The police report noted the injury.
“According to Kratovil,” Officer Ryan Daughton wrote in the police report, “the privately hired Security Guard utilized some kind of compliance hold and subsequently caused pain to Kratovil’s left wrist. I offered Kratovil medical attention and he refused the same.”
Kratovil told the Tracker that he ended up seeking care at an urgent care a few days after the incident, where they advised him to treat his shoulder injury as a sprain. He said he plans to press charges.
While giving the keynote speech at an event in New Jersey, White House correspondent April Ryan is informed of video recording by a member of her private security (back to the camera). The camera was then confiscated.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private security,None,None,False,False,None,None,private security,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,robbery,,, 2019-07-17 15:26:28.190954+00:00,2023-10-27 21:32:13.304226+00:00,"News crew shot at in Toledo, no injuries but damage to news van",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/news-crew-shot-at-in-toledo-no-injuries-but-damage-to-news-van/,2023-10-27 21:32:13.193769+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,vehicle: count of 1,Unidentified journalist 1 (WTVG),,2019-07-13,False,Toledo,Ohio (OH),41.66394,-83.55521,"While returning from a news event, a WTVG 13abc news crew van was shot at on July 13, 2019 in Toledo, Ohio.
13abc reported that the crew member was heading back to the station at around 8:30 p.m. following an event at the Toledo Museum of Art when multiple shots were fired at the station’s vehicle.
Investigative reporter Shaun Hegarty posted a photo of the damage to the vehicle to Twitter following the incident. Hegarty later told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that there were two members of the WTVG 13abc news crew in the van.
Shot fired at 13abc news vehicle. No members of our news team were injured https://t.co/XeXDwWa5Jx #13abc pic.twitter.com/TicgZSkdoM
— Shaun Hegarty (@Shaun_Hegarty) July 14, 2019
The Toledo Blade, 13abc’s media partner, reported that police at the scene collected multiple shell cases. No members of the 13abc team were injured.
Hegarty later posted to Twitter that the police believe they’ve identified the silver Ford Mustang involved in the shooting.
The Toledo police department was not immediately available for comment. The department’s investigation is ongoing.
Andy Ngo, an independent photojournalist and editor for Quillette, was attacked and had his equipment stolen while documenting an antifa counterprotest in Portland, Oregon, on June 29, 2019.
Ngo is an out-spoken critic of antifa and has covered antifa demonstrations and protests since 2016, primarily publishing the videos taken on his GoPro to Twitter and YouTube. Ngo told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he does not wear press identification or badges while covering protests, but openly films and identifies himself as media to those who ask. He also said that he has become well-known to the antifa community in Portland and has “come to expect” their hostility against him.
The far-right group The Proud Boys originally announced the Portland rally for June 29, almost exactly one year after the “Battle of Portland.” That event was marked with street fights and dueling protesters, and was ultimately classified as a riot by the Portland Police Department.
In planning an opposition rally, local antifa demonstrators called the Proud Boy rally an “attack,” and published a ”call to defend” the city. The post mentioned Ngo in a section labeled “Violent and Racist Proud Boy Propaganda,” and described him as a “local far-right Islamophobic journalist.”
The day before the rally, Ngo tweeted out screenshots from the post, writing, “I am nervous about tomorrow’s Portland antifa rally. They’re promising ‘physical confrontation’ & have singled me out to be assaulted.”
Ngo and the public relations firm he has contracted to handle his media requests following the incident did not respond to requests for comment.
The Guardian reported that early on the day of the protest and counterprotests, Ngo was filming when protesters dumped a milkshake on him. Later video taken by Oregonian journalist Jim Ryan showed Ngo being hit and sprayed with silly string by masked individuals who appeared to be antifa demonstrators at around 1:30 p.m.
First skirmish I’ve seen. Didn’t see how this started, but @MrAndyNgo got roughed up. pic.twitter.com/hDkfQchRhG
— Jim Ryan (@Jimryan015) June 29, 2019
Ngo tweeted that he “was beat on face and head multiple times in downtown in middle of street with fists and weapons” and that he was taken to an emergency room. Ngo also posted photos of his facial abrasions.
In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Ngo said that he was diagnosed with a brain hemorrhage.
A Vox explainer article outlines the history between Ngo, The Proud Boys and antifa, and how Ngo is considered by some to be more of a provocateur than journalist. Some have pointed out that Ngo was the only journalist targeted.
For the purposes of the Tracker, Ngo identifies as a journalist, has a track record of publication and was in the process of documenting when he was attacked. For more about how the Tracker counts incidents, see our frequently asked questions page.
Portland protests have become a dangerous beat over the past year: the Tracker has documented multiple journalists covering the demonstrations and riots being injured by far-right and antifa protesters, as well as by Portland police.
In a video opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal, Andy Ngo shows images and describes being beaten at a protest rally in Portland that involved both right-wing and antifa groups.
",None,None,None,None,False,20CV19618,['DISMISSED'],Civil,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"anti-fascism, protest, robbery, white nationalism",,, 2019-05-28 17:20:32.855572+00:00,2023-10-27 21:33:05.696686+00:00,"Florida man arrested for assaulting journalist, shattering windshield",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/florida-man-arrested-assaulting-journalist-shattering-windshield/,2023-10-27 21:33:05.594020+00:00,,,(2021-02-08 10:02:00+00:00) Florida reporter’s attacker sentenced after assault,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,vehicle: count of 1,Albert “David” Bodden (WOFL),,2019-05-03,False,Altamonte Springs,Florida (FL),28.66111,-81.36562,"A man was arrested in Altamonte Springs, Florida, on May 3, 2019, for assaulting a FOX 35 News journalist and shattering his windshield with a beer bottle.
Reporter and anchor Albert “David” Bodden was covering an armed burglary that had taken place earlier that day when he was confronted by a nearby resident identified as Christopher Davis. Davis, who was not involved in the burglary, accosted Bodden and demanded that he leave the area, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
The Seminole County Sheriff’s Office arrest report states that Davis appeared to be drunk—slurring his words, smelling of alcohol and carrying a bottle of Bud Light—and followed Bodden back to the FOX 35 vehicle while shouting profanities. When Bodden got into the passenger-side seat of the vehicle and closed the door, Davis threw the bottle he was carrying at the car, shattering the driver’s side windshield.
A man was just arrested for throwing a bottle at @Fox35News vehicle, shattering the windshield. #orlando pic.twitter.com/PkFl68Tapk
— Troy Campbell (@TroyLeeCampbell) May 3, 2019
According to the report, Davis then entered the vehicle from the driver’s side of the car. The report quotes Davis telling Bodden, “I’m going to fuck you up,” as he raised a clenched fist toward him. Bodden, fearing for his safety, exited the vehicle on the passenger side to avoid a possible blow.
Approximately $500 of damage was done to the vehicle’s windshield, and Bodden gave deputies a sworn statement and informed them that he wished to pursue charges.
Davis was arrested at the scene on the charges of simple assault, burglary of an occupied conveyance, criminal mischief and disorderly intoxication. His arraignment has been scheduled for June 4.
A man was arrested for damaging the windshield of a news car and assaulting the reporter inside it. The shattered windshield was captured by another reporter also at the scene of an earlier burglary.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,,,, 2019-03-13 16:09:06.811291+00:00,2023-10-27 21:34:29.364734+00:00,"Sacramento photojournalist pushed to the ground by police while covering protest, his camera damaged",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/sacramento-photojournalist-pushed-ground-police-while-covering-protest-his-camera-damaged/,2023-10-27 21:34:29.244484+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,"camera: count of 1, miscellaneous equipment: count of 1",Hector Amezcua (The Sacramento Bee),,2019-03-04,False,Sacramento,California (CA),38.58157,-121.4944,"A Sacramento police officer shoved Sacramento Bee Senior Photographer Hector Amezcua to the ground with his bicycle during a protest on March 4, 2019, breaking his equipment and interrupting his broadcast.
More than 100 people gathered in a Trader Joe’s parking lot around 6:30 p.m. that day to protest the district attorney’s decision not to bring criminal charges against the officers who shot and killed Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old black man, last March. After about two hours, the march circled back to the parking lot where it had begun.
Police spokesperson Sgt. Vance Chandler told NPR that officers gave 10 orders to disperse over a two-hour period. “Shortly after we started monitoring the group at [approximately] 7:30 p.m., we established the group was unlawfully assembling by standing in the street,” Chandler said.
Protest organizers also encouraged people to leave, NPR reported, and many did. Soon after that, a row of officers in riot gear formed a line and began slowly advancing, leaving only one exit for those remaining: Down 51st Street.
Amezcua told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was broadcasting a livestream as officers on bicycles began pushing marchers into a flower bed next to a large Trader Joe’s sign. “As I hugged the corner of the sign with my right shoulder I felt bicycle officers closing in on me. I felt an officer hit me with his bike from my left side,” Amezcua said. “I lost my balance for a second and looked into [the] officer’s face as I turned. He screamed, ‘I told you to get out of the way,’ I assume as motive for hitting me.”
He wasn’t aware that his camera had been damaged in the collision until his colleague Sam Stanton walked up to him to tell them they were no longer broadcasting live. The HDMI port and cable on his Nikon Z-6 camera were broken.
The Bee reported that the assault was witnessed by National Lawyers Guild legal observers at the scene as well as Bee journalists.
Amezcua stayed behind at the shopping center where his company car was parked as officers on bikes and in riot gear began circling the protesters and forcing them on to 51st Street. When he and Stanton switched the live feed to his cellphone they continued reporting, staying around 20 feet behind the officers who continued cordoning the protesters onto the Highway 50 overpass. A line of officers, initially out of view of the protesters, was waiting at the end of the bridge.
Police had received reports that at least five cars had been keyed, according to a tweet from Sacramento Police Department Capt. Norm Leong, and shortly after 10 p.m. officers began arresting those that had not dispersed.
“As we walked closer we observed a large group of people on the overpass at 51st Street and Highway 50 surrounded by police officers on bikes and riot police with nowhere to go,” Amezcua said. “At this point I noticed our colleague Dale Kasler among those in the group.”
The Bee reported that 84 people were arrested over the next four hours. The Tracker documented the arrests of three journalists, including Bee reporter Kasler, Sacramento Business Journal reporter Scott Rodd and student journalist William Coburn.
Amezcua told the Tracker that he believes that he, Stanton, and other journalists from Univision, KCRA, NPA and ABC 10 were not arrested because they had not stayed with the group that was corralled at the end of the overpass.
Kettling — surrounding protesters in order to prevent any exit, often followed by indiscriminate detentions and arrests — is used across the country as a protest response despite the risk it poses to journalists covering the protest.
“I’m very disappointed the protest ended the way it did. I have many questions about what went on that precipitated the order to disperse and the subsequent arrests,” Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg tweeted in the early morning on March 5. “No matter the reason an order to disperse was given, no member of the press should be detained for doing their job.”
Sacramento's police department and public safety accountability office are conducting ongoing internal investigations into the police tactics used during the protest, The Bee reported.
Amezcua told the Tracker that people have asked him why they stayed after orders were given to disperse. “My response has been Section D of California PC 409.5,” Amezcua said.
That section of the penal code allows for any member of the news media to remain after orders to clear an area have been given.
Sacramento police officers watch protesters in March 2018 following the funeral of Stephon Clark, a young black man. Protests broke out in 2019 after the announcement that officers involved in his shooting won’t be charged.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,unknown,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, court verdict, protest",,, 2019-04-10 18:28:07.290262+00:00,2023-10-27 21:35:10.754012+00:00,"Reporter hit in face, has phone stolen while interviewing voters in Los Angeles",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-hit-face-has-phone-stolen-while-interviewing-voters-los-angeles/,2023-10-27 21:35:10.649588+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,cellphone: count of 1,Tina-Desiree Berg (Washington Babylon),,2019-01-26,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"On Jan. 26, 2019, reporter Tina-Desiree Berg was interviewing people outside of a regional meeting of the California Democratic Party when a woman upset by her questions stole her phone and hit her.
Berg is the West Coast correspondent for Washington Babylon, an investigative journalism site founded by veteran reporter Ken Silverstein in 2016.
Berg had gone to East LA Rising, a community center in east Los Angeles, where Democrats from the state’s 51st Assembly District were voting to elect a slate of delegates to represent them at the California Democratic Party’s state convention.
Berg told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she interviewed some of the delegate candidates and then began talking to voters outside East LA Rising. Tensions increased after a woman leading a group of voters into East LA Rising instructed them not to talk to Berg. One of the voters told Berg that they did not live in the district — leading Berg to suspect the possibility of voter fraud.
Berg said that she was asking what part of the district they were from and whether they supported the incumbent representative for the 51st District, when a woman stole her phone.
“This girl just literally comes out of nowhere and grabbed my phone and ran down the street,” Berg said. “Then she just punched me.”
Berg said that she did not see whether the woman struck her with an open or closed fist, but that the attack left a bruise and later a blood blister on her face. The screen of her iPhone was also cracked.
Her phone continued to stream throughout the altercation, and she later published an excerpt of the video on Washington Babylon.
“Hey, give me back my phone, lady!” Berg says in the video. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
“I think you’re being a dick,” the woman says.
“I don’t care, you don’t get to run away with my phone,” Berg says.
Berg then reaches for the phone and the woman strikes her.
“You don’t get to grab my hand like that!” the woman says.
“You don’t get to slap me and steal my phone!” Berg says.
Berg said that a bystander called the police, and she provided a statement to the officers but did not seek to press charges against the woman.
Berg’s suspicions about voter fraud proved to be correct. A subsequent investigation by the California Democratic Party’s Compliance Review Commission found that nearly 100 votes had been cast by people who were either not registered as Democrats or not registered in the 51st Assembly District. On March 27, the California Democratic Party vacated results of the disputed Jan. 26 election and ordered that a new election be held on April 27.
Reporter Tina-Desiree Berg shows the blood blister left after a woman took Berg's iPhone and then hit her while she was interviewing at a regional meeting of the California Democratic Party.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"election, robbery",,, 2018-11-21 23:20:11.971518+00:00,2024-01-05 16:25:15.182072+00:00,Local TV station's news van set on fire,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/local-tv-stations-news-van-set-fire/,2024-01-05 16:25:15.099672+00:00,,,,Equipment Damage,,,vehicle: count of 1,,,2018-10-26,False,Salinas,California (CA),36.67774,-121.6555,"A KSBW TV Action News 8 production van was set on fire in the station’s parking lot on Oct. 26, 2018, in Salinas, California.
The van was set on fire sometime between 9 and 10 pm on Friday night while the van was parked on Front Street. Firefighters are investigating the incident as arson, and some staff at KSBW are concerned that this could be part of the country-wide increase of attacks on the press.
KSBW covered the incident on air, showing footage of the van, with a badly burnt door and passenger side.
“They know it's arson but nothing more than that, so we can't draw the conclusion but certainly makes you think today that it was an intentional act based on something we've reported,” KSBW President and General Manager Joseph W. Heston said on Oct. 29.
Heston told Freedom of the Press Foundation that there were no witnesses of the incident, and that the Salinas police department had closed the case without identifying any suspects.
This article was re-categorized with the creation of a specific Equipment Damage category.
On Oct. 22, 2018, an unarmed man was shot while attempting to break into the WTTG Fox 5 building in Washington, D.C.
The man was recorded by building surveillance cameras kicking and breaking two glass doors leading to the Fox 5 lobby. After entering the lobby, he was shot once by an armed security guard.
Reporters working in the Fox 5 building tweeted that everyone in the newsroom was safe.
VIDEO: Surveillance footage shows man kicking down glass door to get into FOX 5 building before he was shot by armed security guard https://t.co/HkgXJJmBRH #fox5dc pic.twitter.com/7AuxNB70Hw
— FOX 5 DC (@fox5dc) October 22, 2018
Fox 5 reports that the man had leveled threats against police and Fox 5 executives in the past.
Police said that the man survived the shooting and was taken to George Washington University Hospital for treatment. He has been charged with second degree burglary.
A screengrab from a surveillance video shows a man smashing glass doors to break in to the lobby of the local TV station Fox 5, in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 22, 2018.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],WTTG,,,, 2018-10-05 18:05:48.743600+00:00,2023-11-14 21:18:01.056170+00:00,"Man intentionally crashes truck into local TV station in Dallas, Texas",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/man-intentionally-crashes-truck-local-tv-station-dallas-texas/,2023-11-14 21:18:00.845277+00:00,,,(2021-11-18 00:00:00+00:00) Man who drove pickup into Texas TV station put on probation,Equipment Damage,,,building: count of 1,,,2018-09-05,False,Dallas,Texas (TX),32.78306,-96.80667,"On Sept. 5, 2018, a man repeatedly crashed his pickup truck into the side of the KDFW/FOX 4 television studio in downtown Dallas, Texas.
Just before 7 a.m. that morning, the man rammed into the floor-to-ceiling windows of the local news station, FOX 4 reported. The man then exited the vehicle, began yelling, and placed numerous boxes full of stacks of paper near the building, throwing some of the papers around the street. He was later detained by police.
One of the station’s reporters tweeted a photo of the man holding a piece of paper against a window, and said that the man was yelling something about "high treason."
This was the man who smashed his truck into our station this morning..throwing papers around while yelling "high treason". @FOX4 pic.twitter.com/k7PsosDQIk
— Brandon Todd (@BrandonToddFOX4) September 5, 2018
FOX 4 also reported that the man left behind a "suspicious package," later identified as a bag. A bomb squad was quickly dispatched to the station, and journalists were quickly moved to a "secure location."
A man crashed a truck into the side of our building this morning. He jumped out and started ranting. He’s in custody now but the bomb squad is on its way. He left behind a suspicious bag. Most have been evacuated & a few are working to keep the news on air from a secure location. pic.twitter.com/X3UpLbYk85
— FOX 4 NEWS (@FOX4) September 5, 2018
The bag was ultimately determined to pose no threat. No one was injured as a result of the incident, and staff were allowed to re-enter the building after several hours.
The man involved was arrested, and Dallas police later identified him as Michael Chadwick Fry.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article misstated the first name of Michael Chadwick Fry as Matthew.
Gary Cooper, a journalist with North Carolina TV station WTVD, was filming a crowd of demonstrators on Aug. 12, 2018, in Charlottesville, Virginia, when some of the demonstrators cut his camera's audio cable.
Cooper and journalist DeJuan Hoggard were in Charlottesville to cover anti-fascist demonstrations marking the one-year anniversary of the murder of Heather Heyer, who was killed by a white nationalist at the "Unite the Right" rally in 2017.
A group of demonstrators, apparently unhappy with being filmed, got into an altercation with Cooper and Hoggard, during which the demonstrators cut the audio cable connecting Cooper's external microphone to his camera.
Hoggard later tweeted a photo of Cooper holding the broken camera, and Cooper tweeted that he had a spare cable. Hoggard also tweeted a video of an altercation that he had with demonstrators before the cable was cut.
Protestors didn’t want to be filmed and cut my photographer’s audio cable cord. pic.twitter.com/GBLryCjWZs
— DeJuan Hoggard (@DeJuanABC11) August 12, 2018
Thankfully, I have a spare cable.
— Gary Cooper (@GaryCooperWTVD) August 12, 2018
...And a GoPro mounted to the rig that was on the whole time.
:-) https://t.co/sRVcNiUdfD
This is the moment protestors and members of Antifa tried to stop us from filming and then cut our audio cable. pic.twitter.com/yJc4Z77nvS
— DeJuan Hoggard (@DeJuanABC11) August 12, 2018
“Get that out of my face,” one protester says in the video, before blocking the camera with a sign.
On Aug. 5, 2018, Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service reporter Edgar Mendez photographed Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) squad cars outside a police station. MPD officers then arrested him and took him to an interrogation room, where Mendez said detectives pressured him to answer questions without an attorney present and to delete three of his photographs.
In an interview with Freedom of the Press Foundation, Mendez said he was preparing for the publication of a big piece on the local police department’s emergency response times. When Mendez’s editor asked him to get a photo to accompany the piece, he decided to stop by a police station near his house and take some pictures of MPD squad cars lined up in the parking lot.
Mendez drove into the parking lot and started taking photos of the MPD cars in the parking lot. When he spotted a police officer in civilian clothes with a badge around his neck, he said he waved and explained that he was a reporter taking photos for a story. The officer waved back as he walked to his car.
Mendez said he also noticed a uniformed MPD officer walking through the parking lot toward a police wagon. The uniformed officer did not wave back to Mendez.
After Mendez finished taking photos and left the lot, he saw that the police wagon was following him.
“I drove about two blocks away,” he told Freedom of the Press Foundation. “I noticed in my rearview that there was a paddy wagon. It followed me for about four more blocks and then pulled me over. He came up to my window and asked me what I was doing in the lot.”
When Mendez identified himself as a journalist and explained that he was taking photographs for a news story, the officer asked him if he had seen the “no trespassing” sign next the police station parking lot. Mendez said that he had not, but he would have obeyed it if he had seen it. According to Mendez, the officer took Mendez’s ID and returned to the police van to run it. In the meantime, Mendez texted his editor to let her know that he had been pulled over.
As Mendez waited for the officer to return his ID, an MPD squad car pulled up next to the police van. Once the officer from the squad car spoke with the officer from the police van, both officers approached Mendez and told him to exit his vehicle.
“They said, ‘well I’m going to have to give you a ticket for trespassing, and I’m going to need to cuff you and take you back to the station,’” Mendez recalled, adding that the officers insisted on placing him under arrest instead of just writing him a ticket on the spot.
“I just told them that I was a reporter and they could verify that, and I didn’t know that there was a no trespassing sign.”
At the police station, Mendez said he was asked about his medical and criminal history before being led into an interrogation room for further questioning.
Although Mendez said that he felt that he perhaps needed a lawyer, he said a detective made him feel that he was being overly defensive.
“They made it seem that if I had requested a lawyer, I wasn’t going to get to leave and they would probably transfer me to county jail,” he said.
The detective, according to Mendez, asked him about his family, including details about his parents’ ages and addresses, and accused him of defying an order. Mendez said that he continued to repeat that he was a reporter, and had written about the Milwaukee police department multiple times.
“He asked me kind of casually: ‘what’s your story about?’ I said, I don’t feel comfortable telling you that.”
Mendez said that the detective asked to see the photographs he took, and threatened to confiscate his camera as evidence if he did not comply.
“By then, I was just giving up.”
Going through the photographs, Mendez recalled, the detective pointed out three that were “not fine” and ordered Mendez to erase them. He complied, and was later released.
On Dec. 3, Mendez was found not guilty of trespassing charges. A judge did find that he had parked in violation of the law, and he must pay a $50 fine.
“I wondered afterwards if what happened to me was because of my brown skin, or because I was a reporter writing about the MPD,” Mendez wrote in a first-person account of the incident for the Neighborhood News Service. “You have to remember that my arrest occurred at a time when President Trump had attacked people of Hispanic descent, repeatedly declared that all the news he didn’t agree with was “fake news,” and begun to call the press the “enemy of the people,” a sentiment he continues to espouse.”
The Neighborhood News Service is considering filing a complaint with MPD.
"We've been told we couldn't cover a meeting, that kind of thing, but never someone arrested and interrogated" over their work as a reporter,” Neighborhood News Service editor Sharon McGowan told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “It was outrageous the way he was treated.”
Milwaukee Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Aug. 2, 2018, reporter Mike Campbell of Detroit radio station WWJ-AM was reporting from the scene of a fatal car crash when he was attacked by a man wielding a metal baton-like object.
Campbell told WWJ that he was sitting inside his parked car, delivering a report on the crash live on air, when an unknown man carrying a metal baton approached the car and began yelling obscenities and racial insults.
"I had put the windows up because I had started my report and I saw the man, but he seemed to be just walking by in front of the truck," Campbell later told WWJ. "He was saying stuff but I put the windows up because I didn't want our listeners to hear his foul words and then he apparently, just, something angered him, he turned around and attacked the news truck."
While Campbell was in the middle of his live report, the man struck his car's windshield, hood and driver-side window.
"My truck just got hit with a bat, I'm sorry guys, I've got to go," Campbell told WWJ listeners before abruptly ending the live report.
After the man stopped smashing Campbell's car, Campbell got out of his car.
Video recorded by Nia Harden, a reporter at local TV station WXYZ, shows Campbell holding up his phone to try to photograph the man. After taking some photos, Campbell got back into his car and drove away from the man.
The man then ran toward Harden, who was sitting in a WXYZ news truck, and began smashing the truck's windshield.
Police later arrived on the scene and arrested the man.
On-air report of fatal hit-and-run at Dexter-Davison interrupted by man with lead pipe (?) smashing the WWJ News truck windshield, hood, driver’s side window, then hits a TV news truck, nearby parked vehicles. Police arrest the man; still looking for hit-and-run driver. @WWJ950 pic.twitter.com/MBup1HDCSR
— Mike Campbell (@reportermikec) August 2, 2018
WWJ’s Mike Campbell has a scare covering a fatal hit and run in Detroit. Dexter and Davison. While Mike was on the air LIVE- a guy starts smashing Mike’s vehicle. He’s not physically hurt. pic.twitter.com/GXxZ0EKR6H
— Roberta Jasina (@Robertanews) August 2, 2018
The windshield of a car belonging to local radio station WWJ-AM was damaged after a man struck it with a metal baton, on Aug. 2, 2018, in Detroit, Michigan.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,,,, 2018-08-02 21:42:08.401234+00:00,2023-10-27 21:14:33.614070+00:00,"TV photojournalist attacked by man wielding a metal baton, news vehicle damaged",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/tv-photojournalist-attacked-by-man-wielding-a-metal-baton-news-vehicle-damaged/,2023-10-27 21:14:33.497385+00:00,,,"(2019-09-16 09:57:00+00:00) Detroit man sentenced in attack on reporters, news vehicles","Assault, Equipment Damage",,,vehicle: count of 1,Mike Krotche (WXYZ-TV),,2018-08-02,False,Detroit,Michigan (MI),42.33143,-83.04575,"On Aug. 2, 2018, photojournalist Mike Krotche and reporter Nia Harden of Detroit TV station WXYZ were attacked by a man wielding a metal baton. Neither Harden nor Krotche were injured in the attack.
Harden and Krotche were filming a live shot about a fatal car crash on Detroit's West Side when the man first approached them.
"While we were doing our live shot, towards the end of it, a man with a beer bottle and a baton-looking type of piece came over here, started interrupting us," Harden later said in a Facebook Live video about the incident. "I didn't think anything of it because he was kind of walking away after that."
When the live shot finished, Harden and Krotche returned to their WXYZ news truck. As Harden sat in the passenger seat of the truck, Krotche stood outside and waited for the truck's "mast" — the communications array on top of the news truck — to be lowered.
"When the mast is up, it's unsafe, you can't just drive away," Harden explained to her Facebook Live viewers. "You have to wait for the mast to go down. So as he was waiting for the mast to go down, he [stayed] outside of the truck, to make sure nobody was going to touch it or touch the vehicle, because it can be very dangerous."
While Krotche waited outside the truck, the man with the metal baton started to smash a nearby car, which WWJ radio reporter Mike Campbell was sitting in. Then he turned his attention to the WXYZ truck.
"He turns around very quickly, very quickly, and he runs — he looks at me, dead in the eyes — he looks at me, and he runs over to the car, runs over to the live truck, and he does this right here," she said in the Facebook Live video, showing cracks in the truck's windshield. "He starts hitting the front windshield where I'm sitting."
Krotche quickly jumped into the back of the news truck as the man smashed the WXYZ news truck's windshield and driver-side mirror.
Police later arrested the man.
A man uses a metal baton to smash the windshield of a local TV station's news truck, on Aug. 2, 2018, in Detroit, Michigan.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,unknown,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,,,, 2018-07-12 21:34:47.905491+00:00,2023-11-27 22:41:39.808230+00:00,"Movie set crew member steals notes from Daily Beast journalist, rips them up",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/movie-set-crew-member-steals-notes-daily-beast-journalist-rips-them/,2023-11-27 22:41:39.704594+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage","‘Roe v. Wade’ Movie Crew Member Assaulted Reporter (https://www.thedailybeast.com/roe-v-wade-movies-crew-member-assaulted-reporter) via Daily Beast, Inside ‘Roe v. Wade’: A Disturbing Anti-Abortion Film Featuring Milo Yiannopoulos and Tomi Lahren (https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-roe-v-wade-a-disturbing-anti-abortion-film-featuring-milo-yiannopoulos-and-tomi-lahren) via Daily Beast",,work product: count of 1,Will Sommer (The Daily Beast),,2018-07-12,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"While sitting near the set of a controversial anti-abortion movie filming in Washington, D.C., on July 12, 2018, Daily Beast reporter Will Sommer had his notes stolen and then ripped apart by a member of the movie’s crew.
On July 6, the Daily Beast published an article about the controversy over the movie “Roe v. Wade,” an extreme anti-abortion film. On July 12, “Roe v. Wade” was filming in Washington, D.C. and Sommer was sitting nearby taking notes, when he was approached by a crewmember.
“But as the cameras rolled, a man later identified by police as a member of the crew came over to where I was sitting in public space with a group of tourists and grabbed my notepad out of my hand by force,” Sommer wrote in a Daily Beast article about the incident.
The man then hid Sommer’s notes in his pocket and began walking away, refusing to return the notepad. After Sommer followed him, the man ripped out some of the pages and crumpled them, before returning the rest of the notepad to Sommer.
Sommer called the police, and the man handed over the crumpled notes when police searched him. But police declined to arrest the man.
“The officer declined to stop the man, reveal his name, file an incident report, or talk to other members of the crew, insisting that the problem had already been solved,” Sommer wrote in the Daily Beast article.
One of the actors on the "Roe v. Wade" set told Sommer that the theft of his notes was a response to critical media coverage of the film.
"The movie’s been under great attack," Sommer recalled the actor telling him. “Sometimes we grab, sometimes we talk to you."
Sommer told Freedom of the Press Foundation that his notepad had included notes about multiple stories, some of which were not related to the “Roe v. Wade” movie.
A gunman shot his way into the Capital Gazette newsroom on June 28, 2018, ultimately killing five and injuring two in addition to damaging the offices.
Shortly after 2:30 p.m., a man armed with a shotgun appeared at the double-glass doors to the newsroom, The Baltimore Sun reported. He pulled on the doors twice and, finding them locked, shot out the right-hand glass.
Anthony Messenger, a reporting intern at the time, told TODAY that when he heard the first pop he thought it was fireworks.
“I turned and looked over my shoulder toward the front of the room, toward the entrance, and I saw some faces that looked concerned,” he said. “I saw that the glass doors that open into our office were blown out.”
NPR reported that the shooter methodically moved through the reception area and down the main hallway dividing the office, firing again and again.
The gunman called police at 2:38 p.m., saying that he was done shooting and that he would surrender, according to Maryland Matters. Officers entered the Capital Gazette offices at 2:44 p.m.
The Baltimore Sun reported that of the journalists and media workers in the Capital Gazette offices that day, five were killed and two were injured. The five killed:
All journalists killed in or present for the attack on the Capital Gazette newsroom are documented in the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s Assault category.
Messenger told TODAY that when they were leaving the offices it was in “shambles.”
The ground-floor newsroom of the Capital Gazette was home to reporters for both The Capital, a daily newspaper covering Annapolis, and The Maryland Gazette, a twice-weekly paper focused on state news. The shooting was the deadliest single attack on journalists in United States history, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The gunman was convicted on 23 counts in July 2021, the Capital Gazette reported. He was sentenced on Sept. 28, 2021, to six life sentences — five without the possibility of parole — plus 345 years in prison, all to be served consecutively.
In announcing the sentence, Judge Michael Wachs said the defendant was getting what he deserved. “To say the defendant showed a callous and cruel disregard for the sanctity of human life is simply an understatement,” Wachs said.
The Washington Post reported that following the attack, the Capital Gazette was temporarily moved to a former opera house at the University of Maryland. In July 2019, the newsroom relocated to a building with enhanced security and bulletproof walls, but the stay was short-lived. The offices shuttered in early 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, and permanently closed that August.
Editor’s Note: In January 2023 details around two lawsuits became public, at which point the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker updated its documentation of the events to include the newsroom damage and the journalists present during the newsroom shooting as well as those killed.
A police car blocks the road in front of the Capital Gazette newsroom on June 29, 2018, a day after a gunman opened fire at the newspaper, killing five people and injuring several others in Annapolis, Maryland.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,Capital Gazette,,,, 2021-10-22 13:54:40.637527+00:00,2023-10-27 21:17:16.310949+00:00,KGTV photographer attacked while filming in San Diego,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/kgtv-photographer-attacked-while-filming-in-san-diego/,2023-10-27 21:17:16.172315+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,camera: count of 1,Mike Gold (KGTV),,2018-03-12,False,San Diego,California (CA),32.71571,-117.16472,"On March 12, 2018, an unidentified man attacked KGTV 10News San Diego news photographer Mike Gold and reporter Bree Steffen while in the middle of a live shot.
Video of the attack, published on KGTV’s YouTube page, shows Steffen stopping mid-sentence and rushing out of the frame, to avoid a man who lunges toward her. The man, who briefly appears on the video, then knocks the camera to the ground.
At the time of the attack, the news crew was recording a live segment for KGTV’s 11 p.m. newscast about demonstrations ahead of President Donald Trump’s first visit to California since his election. KGTV later said that the attack was not related to the topic of the segment.
“While the man’s motive is unclear, the incident was not related to the content of the story,” the network reported. “Authorities were contacted and are handling the matter.”
Steffen later tweeted about the incident, reporting that her wrist was injured and the camera was broken. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented Steffen’s assault here.
Hi all! To everyone watching @10News at 11pm, my photographer @10newsGold and I are fine! Camera is broken and my wrist hurts, but everyone is ok. Thanks for all your sweet comments and support ♥️
— Bree Steffen (@breesteffen) March 13, 2018
Maria Leal, a reporter for local TV station KAPP-KVEW, was chased and threatened by a knife-wielding man in Yakima, Washington, on Oct. 30, 2017. The man also broke Leal’s camera equipment.
At the time of the attack, Leal and another local TV reporter — Trisha McCauley, of KIMA Action News — were shooting B-roll footage in preparation for an interview with Jason White, a local city council candidate. While filming the footage, the two journalists noticed a man screaming at them from across the street.
“He crossed the street and got in our face, and he told us, ‘Get the fuck out of here, stop filming here,’” Leal said said.
The man left after Leal and McCauley began interviewing White, but later returned.
“The man began yelling again, and he threw a beer bottle at us, which landed near us and broke,” Leal said. “He kept demanding that we leave, and he threatened to kill us.”
She said the man drew a knife from his pocket, lifted it, and then ran towards the reporters and White.
Leal said that the man chased them for half a block and then returned to the interview site, where he threw their video equipment to the ground.
He then barricaded himself in a house, leading to a police stand-off that was resolved a few hours later when SWAT officers took him into custody, arresting him for second-degree assault.
Leal stayed on the scene to report live from the police stand-off.
Leal said that her camera was damaged when the man threw it on the ground and that she will have to film stories with her phone until the camera is fixed.
She still does not know why the man attacked her and McCauley. She said that the man may have mistakenly believed that the two reporters were filming him, but her cameras were nowhere near where he was standing.
“I’ve had other people approach me in that way, but they’ve never threatened me or attacked me like that,” she said.
Trisha McCauley, a reporter for local TV station KIMA, was chased and threatened by a knife-wielding man in Yakima, Washington, on Oct. 30, 2017. The man also broke McCauley's camera equipment.
McCauley and another local TV reporter — Maria Leal of KAPP and KVEW — were preparing for an interview with Jason White, a local city council candidate, when they noticed a man screaming at them from across the street.
“He was yelling, ‘Get the fuck out of here,’ and waving his arms, so I picked my camera up and moved closer to Maria,” McCauley said. “I felt safer in a group.”
McCauley said that when White drove up for the interview, the man approached him, but then suddenly left as they began the interview.
“We mic'd [White] up, and he was spelling his name for a mic check when I heard a bottle break,” McCauley said.
“We looked over, and the man had thrown a glass bottle that shattered on the sidewalk near us,” she said.
According to McCauley, the man continued demanding that she and Leal leave, so the reporters decided to pack up and continue the interview with White somewhere else.
McCauley said that she saw the man lift up his shirt and pull out a knife.
“We just took off running down the street,” she said, adding that the man chased her, Leal, and White for about half a block. The man then returned to the spot where McCauley and Leal had set up for the interview and began breaking their equipment.
“I turned around and saw him chuck my camera to the ground and break it, and there was a lot of cracking," McCauley said.
McCauley said that Leal called the police while the man hid in a nearby house. Police eventually took the man into custody after a police stand-off that lasted for several hours.
McCauley said that her TV station has sent her camera away to be checked for internal damage. In the meantime, she is sharing a camera with another reporter.
According to a lawsuit filed on his behalf, freelance video journalist Demetrius Thomas was assaulted, arrested and his equipment damaged while documenting protests in St. Louis, Missouri, on Sept. 17, 2017.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that more than 1,000 people had gathered in downtown St. Louis to protest the acquittal of Jason Stockley, a white former St. Louis police officer who in 2011 fatally shot Anthony Lamar Smith, a black man.
That night, police officers advanced around the intersection of Washington Avenue and Tucker Boulevard, boxing in approximately 100 people for arrest or detention in a maneuver called kettling.
On Sept. 17, 2018, one year after the kettling arrests, ArchCity Defenders, a legal advocacy organization, and the law firm of Khazaeli Wyrsch filed 12 lawsuits against the St. Louis Metro Police Department on behalf of individuals whom they said were treated illegally by police officers during the protests. Thomas and two freelance filmmakers, Mark Gullet and Fareed Alston, were among those represented.
According to the lawsuit filed on Thomas’ behalf, Thomas drove downtown after receiving a call from a friend telling him about the protests, but by the time he arrived they had all but ended. He parked near Tucker Boulevard, where he saw police officers in “military garb” form a line and begin chanting loudly.
While filming the police, Thomas changed his position to get a better angle. According to the complaint, an officer approached Thomas and told him that he could record as long as he remained on the sidewalk. He complied and rejoined other members of the media on a sidewalk corner.
The lawsuit says that Thomas noticed a change in the officers’ attitudes and that they appeared to be preparing to kettle and arrest all those present, so Thomas attempted to leave the scene via a nearby alley. A police officer blocked his path and directed him back towards the intersection. Thomas complied.
At the intersection, Thomas saw between 100 to 200 officers pounding their batons against their shields and the ground. According to the complaint, Thomas was terrified and attempted to return to his car parked past the intersection. Officers blocked him once again.
“In response to Mr. Thomas’s plea, an SLMPD officer pointed a large can of pepper spray at Mr. Thomas and told him to ‘get out of here’,” the complaint says. Thomas complied, and followed the officer’s directions to return to the intersection. There, the crowd was pushed by police and Thomas was knocked to the ground. Suddenly and without warning, police began indiscriminately pepper spraying the kettled crowd.
According to the complaint, when police advanced into the crowd to arrest those present, several officers held Thomas by the arms and legs while another struck him repeatedly in the ribs with his baton. Another officer confiscated Mr. Thomas’s camera, and in the altercation officers broke Thomas’ drone.
Thomas was zip tied and taken to St. Louis City Justice Center alongside others arrested at the scene, where he was detained for several hours.
“I was strictly there to film and document that night because it’s a part of history. Instead we were kettled, beat, and arrested — there was nowhere to turn, and you couldn’t call the police because they were the ones doing it to you,” Thomas said, according to a press release announcing the lawsuits. Thomas also said that the damage to his camera equipment cost him several job opportunities, making it impossible for him to keep up with house payments.
In a video posted on ArchCity Defenders’ YouTube, Thomas said the events are something he’ll never forget.
“For it to end up the way that it ended up kind of damaged my whole outlook on trying to capture real life events like that, because it could always take a turn for the worse,” he said.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documented 10 journalists detained, arrested, assaulted or had their equipment damaged while covering the protests that night.
Thomas, Gullet, Alston and the other plaintiffs are seeking damages, attorneys fees, expenses and any other relief the court deems appropriate. Thomas’ case is not expected to go to trial until April 2021.
Police corner and detain protesters on the street following the not guilty verdict in the murder trial of a former St. Louis, Missouri, police officer on Sept. 17, 2017. Multiple journalists were arrested in the kettle.
",arrested and released,St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department,2017-09-18,2017-09-17,True,4:19-cv-02590,['SETTLED'],Class Action,None,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,unknown,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, chemical irritant, court verdict, kettle, protest",,, 2020-01-27 17:20:59.306086+00:00,2023-08-28 19:00:05.948939+00:00,"Filmmaker sues St. Louis police for assault, arrest while covering protest",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/filmmaker-sues-st-louis-police-assault-arrest-while-covering-protest/,2023-08-28 19:00:05.410800+00:00,rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2017-10-18),,(2023-08-03 13:31:00+00:00) Filmmaker gets part of $4.9 million class-action settlement,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Damage",,,"camera: count of 1, camera equipment: count of 1, external battery: count of 1",Fareed Alston (Independent),,2017-09-17,False,St. Louis,Missouri (MO),38.62727,-90.19789,"According to a lawsuit filed on his behalf, documentary filmmaker Fareed Alston was assaulted, arrested and his equipment damaged while documenting protests in St. Louis, Missouri, on Sept. 17, 2017.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that more than 1,000 people had gathered in downtown St. Louis to protest the acquittal of Jason Stockley, a white former St. Louis police officer who in 2011 fatally shot Anthony Lamar Smith, a black man.
That night, police officers advanced around the intersection of Washington Avenue and Tucker Boulevard, boxing in approximately 100 people for arrest or detention in a maneuver called kettling.
On Sept. 17, 2018, one year after the kettling arrests, ArchCity Defenders, a legal advocacy organization, and the law firm of Khazaeli Wyrsch filed 12 lawsuits against the St. Louis Metro Police Department on behalf of individuals whom they said were treated illegally by police officers during the protests. Alston and two freelance video journalists, Mark Gullet and Demetrius Thomas, were among those represented.
According to the lawsuit filed on Alston’s behalf, Alston arrived in downtown St. Louis with his assistant between 9 – 10:30 p.m. CST on Sept. 17. Both were carrying official press passes and cameras for the purpose of documenting the protest.
Though many of the protesters had already dispersed, a small group was standing on the side of Washington Avenue. The lawsuit says that Alston also saw approximately 50 to 100 St. Louis police officers dressed in riot gear, so he and his assistant split up and began filming. According to the complaint, officers did not indicate that the filmmakers should not enter the area or that a mass arrest was imminent.
Shortly after, a line of police started advancing toward the demonstrators. According to the complaint, an apartment tenant allowed Alston’s assistant to enter the building and escape the marching line of police, but Alston was unable to do the same. Alston then noticed a second line of police approaching from the opposite direction, beginning to box in all those present while pounding their batons against their shields and the ground.
While continuing to film, Alston and a few other people approached the line of bicycle police who made up one side of the kettle so they could ask to leave. As they neared, the complaint says, the officers started “slamming” their bicycles on the ground. Alston searched for another exit, but finding none he re-approached a bicycle officer to ask to be let out.
“Without warning or any verbal directions, the police officer pushed Mr. Alston back with his baton and his shield and started to fire pepper spray directly at Mr. Alston’s face,” the complaint says. “At the same time, a second officer began to pepper spray Mr. Alston.”
Alston and others around him fell to the ground, and were quickly surrounded by police. According to the complaint, a number of officers began kicking Alston while continuing to douse him in pepper spray for several minutes.
Officers then turned Alston over and cuffed him with three zip ties, causing immediate pain. Another officer roughly pulled the camera from around Alston’s neck, “slammed” it on the ground and powered it off.
The lawsuit says that at one point an officer began to taunt Alston.
“The officer said that this is what Mr. Alston got for wanting to videotape the police. Other officers also told Mr. Alston not to record what was happening. It was clear that Mr. Alston was targeted for documenting the protest,” the complaint says.
Alston was taken to St. Louis City Justice Center alongside others arrested at the scene, where he was incarcerated for nearly 24 hours and received minimal medical attention. His camera was returned to him upon his release, but it had been badly damaged and pieces of his lighting equipment — including a lighting fixture and its power source — were lost when he was roughly cuffed.
According to the complaint, Alston continues to suffer physical and psychological repercussions from his arrest and assault, including persistent numbness in his hand, chronic respiratory issues and nightmares. He also no longer feels comfortable covering protests, which had been the main subject of his work.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documented 10 journalists detained, arrested, assaulted or had their equipment damaged while covering the protests that night.
Alston, Thomas, Gullet and the other plaintiffs are seeking damages, attorneys fees, expenses and any other relief the court deems appropriate. Alston’s case is not expected to go to trial until early 2021.
Around 100 demonstrators and multiple journalists were pepper-sprayed and arrested during protests following a not guilty verdict in the murder trial of a former St. Louis, Missouri, police officer on Sept. 17, 2017.
",arrested and released,St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department,2017-09-18,2017-09-17,True,4:19-cv-02590,['SETTLED'],Class Action,returned in part,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, chemical irritant, court verdict, kettle, protest",,, 2017-10-20 17:46:57.847045+00:00,2023-10-27 21:18:07.000919+00:00,Photojournalist detained at US-Canadian border ordered to delete images on camera,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-detained-us-canadian-border-ordered-delete-images-camera/,2023-10-27 21:18:06.874608+00:00,,,,"Border Stop, Equipment Search or Seizure, Equipment Damage","First person: How a reporter’s photos were deleted at the Vermont border (https://vtdigger.org/2017/09/17/first-person-how-a-reporters-photos-were-deleted-at-the-vermont-border/) via VTDigger, Homeland Security Code of Conduct (https://www.dhs.gov/code-conduct)",camera: count of 1,work product: count of 1,Terry J. Allen (In These Times),,2017-09-04,False,Highgate,Vermont (VT),None,None,"Terry J. Allen, a senior editor for In These Times magazine, was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection while attempting to cross the U.S.-Canadian border on Sept. 4, 2017 and ordered to delete images she had taken of the border crossing.
Allen, who has reported for the Guardian, Boston Globe, Harper’s, and Salon, told Freedom of the Press Foundation that she took photos of buildings and vehicle congestion near the Highgate Springs–St. Armand/Philipsburg Border Crossing connecting Quebec and Vermont. She was traveling with a friend at the time and she stepped out of the car to take photos while stuck in traffic, according to an account she wrote about her experience for the online news site VTDigger.
When Allen arrived at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection checkpoint approximately thirty minutes later, a CBP agent asked Allen if she had been photographing the area. She responded that she had and that she was a journalist who often photographed border patrol stations.
Allen told Freedom of the Press Foundation that the agent, whose name she did not specify, then demanded her phone to delete the images she had taken. She refused to hand over the phone and told the agent that the images were on a camera, not her phone.
Allen wrote in VTDigger that she eventually deleted the images from her camera.
“Look you don’t have the right to demand this, but, here, I’ll delete the SD card in my camera,” she told the agent.
After checking the display of her camera to confirm that the images had been deleted, the CBP agent continued to demand Allen’s phone and after she again refused, he instructed the two of them to park and enter a nearby building.
Allen and her companion were then questioned by a second CBP agent, Supervisor Mayo, who showed the journalist a copy of a provision in the Department of Homeland Security’s Code of Conduct in response to her question about which regulations prohibit photography.
According to the provision, people need permission to photograph space occupied by a federal agency. The text of the provision, however, permits photographs of building entrances and lobbies for news purposes:
Except where security regulations, rules, orders, or directives apply or a Federal court order or rule prohibits it, persons entering in or on Federal property may take photographs of--
(a) Space occupied by a tenant agency for non-commercial purposes only with the permission of the occupying agency concerned;
(b) Space occupied by a tenant agency for commercial purposes only with written permission of an authorized official of the occupying agency concerned; and
(c) Building entrances, lobbies, foyers, corridors, or auditoriums for news purposes.
41 CFR 102-74.420
After showing Supervisor Mayo her camera to prove the photos of the border stop had been deleted, he returned both passports, and Allen and her friend were permitted to depart.
Stephanie Malin, a spokesperson for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, told Freedom of the Press Foundation in an email:
“CBP Privacy policy prohibits us from discussing the details of a specific individual's inspection however while photography of federal facilities from outside is not prohibited for news purposes, all CBP federal inspection stations lend travelers a certain level of privacy protection under U.S. law and we must seek passenger permission to take photos of them if the photos show enough detail to identify someone or their property (vehicle, etc.). Additionally our officers are cognizant of the security risks that can accompany individuals taking photos of the ports, for example to be used to identify smuggling opportunities or to accomplish other nefarious activity. While we understand that was not the intent in this case, these are reasons why our officers may ask individuals not to take photos or ask to see the photos that have been taken.”
Journalist Terry Allen
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,law enforcement,Highgate Springs Port of Entry,U.S. citizen,False,False,yes,no,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,,United States,, 2017-09-05 20:43:53.897109+00:00,2023-10-27 21:18:35.970983+00:00,Reporter Mike Kessler's camera is smashed in Berkeley,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-mike-kesslers-camera-smashed-berkeley/,2023-10-27 21:18:35.859779+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage","Antifa Broke My Camera (https://newrepublic.com/article/144659/antifa-broke-camera) via The New Republic, Photographers: Beware Violent Antifa Protesters (https://petapixel.com/2017/08/29/photographers-beware-violent-antifa-protestors/) via PetaPixel",,"camera: count of 1, cellphone: count of 1",Mike Kessler (Freelance),,2017-08-27,False,Berkeley,California (CA),37.87159,-122.27275,"Mike Kessler was covering a demonstration on Aug. 27, 2017, in Berkeley, California, when a group of protesters stole his camera and phone and attempted to break them. His phone was not damaged, but his camera was completely destroyed.
In an essay for The New Republic, Kessler described what happened:
Suddenly, from behind, someone knocked my camera out of my right hand, then did the same to my phone, which was in my left. I turned around to see a black leather boot stomping my phone (it survived—thanks, Otter case!), while another antifa picked up my camera, hurled it into the air, and got in my face. “No fucking pictures!”
The New Republic
Kessler said in an interview with the Freedom of the Press Foundation that his camera, a Canon G12, was complete destroyed. He also said that he saw three people trying to extract the memory card from his camera.
"After the crowd thinned out and police came, I saw three people attempting to get the SD card out of my camera," he said. "The camera itself was totally mangled. The guts of the camera were hanging out. I saw the battery on the ground later. They had smashed the body of the camera in such a way that prevented the SD card from being removed."
Thomas Hawk, an independent photojournalist who witnessed the incident, confirmed Kessler's account of what happened.
A protester swings Mike Kessler's camera before smashing it on the ground, on Aug. 27, 2017, in Berkeley, California.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"anti-fascism, protest",,, 2017-10-12 00:26:27.957864+00:00,2023-10-27 21:18:59.477807+00:00,Protesters in Berkeley steal local TV reporter's phone and dunk it in water,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/protesters-berkeley-steal-local-tv-reporters-phone-and-dunk-it-water/,2023-10-27 21:18:59.354915+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",Tweet from Thom Jensen (https://twitter.com/ThomNBCBayArea/status/902056981279551488),,cellphone: count of 1,Thom Jensen (KNTV),,2017-08-27,False,Berkeley,California (CA),37.87159,-122.27275,"Thom Jensen, a freelance reporter for NBC affiliate KNTV, had his phone taken by protesters while covering an anti-fascist demonstration on Aug. 27, 2017, in Berkeley, California.
Lizzie Johnson, a reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle, tweeted a video that shows protesters chasing Jensen and yelling, “Take his camera, take his phone!”
"Take his camera, take his phone," they are shouting at a journalist. #berkeley pic.twitter.com/hvsQ5eXalE
— Lizzie Johnson (@lizziejohnsonnn) August 27, 2017
Thomas Hawk, an independent photojournalist who also covered the rally, told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that he saw Jensen arguing with a group of protesters after they took his phone.
Jensen later tweeted that the protesters who took his phone submerged it in a water-filled barricade. He said that he got the phone back and it continued to work.
My phone was taken & submerged in one of the water-filled barricades. Thankfully it had a waterproof case & find my iPhone works under water https://t.co/rOTfQmbeyK
— Thom Jensen (@ThomNBCBayArea) August 28, 2017
Thom Jensen, a freelance journalist for KNTV, argues with protesters after they steal his phone, in Berkeley, California, on Aug. 27, 2017.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"anti-fascism, protest",,, 2017-10-25 20:19:54.224957+00:00,2023-10-27 21:19:30.865060+00:00,Independent journalist Dave Minsky beaten and attacked with pipe by protesters in Berkeley,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-dave-minsky-beaten-and-attacked-pipe-protesters-berkeley/,2023-10-27 21:19:30.723187+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage","Video from KNTV helicopter of protesters chasing and beating Dave Minsky (https://twitter.com/nbcbayarea/status/901975197976289280) via KNTV, Antifa Broke My Camera (https://newrepublic.com/article/144659/antifa-broke-camera) via The New Republic, Photographers: Beware Violent Antifa Protestors (https://petapixel.com/2017/08/29/photographers-beware-violent-antifa-protestors/) via PetaPixel",,"camera lens: count of 1, cellphone: count of 2, camera: count of 1, work product: count of 1",Dave Minsky (Independent),,2017-08-27,False,Berkeley,California (CA),37.87159,-122.27275,"Dave Minsky — an independent journalist and photographer who freelances for Reuters, Vice, the Miami New Times and the Santa Barbara News-Press — was beaten by masked protesters on Aug. 27, 2017, while covering an anti-fascist protest in Berkeley, California.
Minsky told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that he was in Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center Park to cover an aborted white nationalist protest in Berkeley, which turned into a anti-fascist demonstration.
He said that he was carrying two iPhones, a reporter’s notebook in the back pocket and a DSLR camera with a zoom lens around his neck. He was using the iPhone in his left hand to livestream the anti-fascist protest on Instagram, while using the iPhone in his right-hand to take pictures of police officers in riot gear and anti-fascist protesters.
According to Minsky, he was taking photographs of the scene when a masked protester approached him and tried to grab his phone.
“This individual came up to me and tried to swat the phone out of my right hand,” he said. “You know, I moved my hand out of the way as he did that that and apparently that enraged him and so he started kind of like coming after me, and that’s when I started backing up.”
Minsky said that another protester tried to trip him as he moved backward towards the edge of the park, which caused him to lose his balance and fall down. Once he was on the ground, he said, a group of protesters began to beat him.
“Two, three people started tried to grab my phones out of my hands, grab the [camera] off my neck,” he said. “They were hitting me in the face and kicking me in the face and the torso, in the ribs and more people joined in — you know, I think at this point there were four, five, maybe six people.”
Minsky said that he tried to flee the scene, but a group of protesters chased him down. One of the masked protesters swung a pipe at him.
“She came up to me, and she cracked me in the ribs with a pipe … then that’s when two other people kind of tackled me and started hitting me in the head and trying to take my phone and my DSLR, and at one point someone ripped the lens right off my camera.”
Eventually, two Oakland police officers approached Minsky and escorted him away from the protesters. His shirt was ripped in half and he was missing one of his two iPhones, his camera’s 70-200mm zoom lens and his reporter’s notebook.
Minsky said that he was examined by EMTs and put in ambulance, but that he refused to go to the hospital because he did not have health insurance.
“I refused medical attention,” he said. “I don’t have medical insurance. … After the police brought me to the sidewalk and the EMTs looked at me, I was put in the back of the ambulance. I continually told them, you know, ‘I don’t want medical attention, please leave me here, it’s fine.’”
After being let out of the ambulance, Minsky said, he bought a new shirt at Walgreens and then returned to the park to continue covering the protest, only to find that it had already ended.
Minsky later noticed a sharp pain in his chest and had difficulty breathing — a possible sign of a bruised or broken rib.
“I didn’t realize I was hit on the ribs until after I started driving home,” he said. “It became very apparent that it was hard to breathe and there was a sharp pain in my right rib cage and at one particular spot. I was touching it, and it felt really tender and hurt really bad. You know, it was difficult to breathe and it still kind of hurts.”
Minsky said that the pain in his ribs lasted about a week and that he still finds it difficult to breathe, especially when he is lying down or trying to sleep. He said that his wife, a physician’s assistant, believes that his rib is broken, but that he does not know for sure because he has not had a chest X-ray.
https://t.co/DItm9Zkx0J pic.twitter.com/2vCMu40lNE
— NBC Bay Area (@nbcbayarea) August 28, 2017
A masked demonstrator strikes photographer Dave Minsky with a pipe in Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park, in Berkeley, California, on August 27, 2017.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"anti-fascism, protest, white nationalism",,, 2017-09-08 18:39:00.533633+00:00,2023-10-27 21:21:38.299273+00:00,"Protesters attack independent livestreamer in San Francisco, steal his phone",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/protesters-attack-independent-livestreamer-san-francisco-steal-his-phone/,2023-10-27 21:21:38.168282+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage","Video of protesters stealing Nathan Stolman's phone (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX3x2wh-6ys) via Ruptly, Nathan Stolman's livestream of the incident (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl7OoKfxC6U&t=38m45s) via Lift the Veil Too, Livestream of protesters stealing Nathan Stolman's phone (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-zWZ7OL_DY&t=26m30s) via Ruptly, Video of Nathan Stolman asking protesters for his phone back (https://twitter.com/neumannbrian_/status/901527169796513792) via Golden Gate Xpress",,cellphone: count of 1,Nathan Stolpman (Independent),,2017-08-26,False,San Francisco,California (CA),37.77493,-122.41942,"Nathan Stolpman, an independent journalist who runs the YouTube channel Lift the Veil Too, was attacked and had his phone stolen while filming an anti-fascist protest on Aug. 26, 2017, in San Francisco, California.
In an interview with the Freedom of the Press Foundation, Stolpman said that he was livestreaming the protest to his YouTube channel when several protesters attempted to block his camera with an umbrella. Stolpman continued his livestream, telling the protesters, “I’m just a journalist, I have a YouTube channel.”
The livestream posted on the Lift the Veil Too YouTube channel shows one person present at the protest asking Stolpman why he was wearing a polo shirt, stating that “polos are on the other side”. Stolpman asked protesters why they did not want coverage of the event, and a larger group of protesters began to chant “Nazi, go home.”
As Stolpman continued to livestream, the group of protesters — holding a large black banner with “Fascist Scum You Are Done” written on it — followed him and wrapped him in the banner, restricting his ability to move.
Ruptly, a livestreaming service owned by Russian broadcaster RT, captured footage of Stolpman's encounter with the protesters. The video published by Ruptly shows a masked protester quickly approach Stolpman, who is largely covered by the black banner, and then grab Stolpman's phone and run off.
After the altercation, Stolpman was interviewed about what happened by several outlets. As he answered a question, one protester wearing a red nose stroked his hair, while other protesters off camera yelled and denounced the media outlets interviewing him for “giving the fascist a camera.”
A video filmed by Brian Neumann, a student journalist at San Francisco State University, shows Stolpman arguing with protesters and asking for his phone back.
Stolpman told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that he believes he was targeted because he was livestreaming and because of his clothing. He said that his phone was never returned to him.
A screenshot from Ruptly's livestream shows anti-fascist protesters wrapping independent livestreamer Nathan Stolpman in a banner after stealing his phone.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,private individual,None,None,False,False,None,None,private individual,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"anti-fascism, protest, robbery",,, 2017-08-02 07:00:17.146091+00:00,2023-10-27 21:21:55.852071+00:00,"U.S. Capitol Police order journalists to delete photos, videos",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/us-capitol-police-order-journalists-delete-photos-videos/,2023-10-27 21:21:55.762860+00:00,,,,Equipment Damage,Journalist skirmish in the Senate: What you should know (https://www.cjr.org/united_states_project/senate-reporters-video-photo-delete.php) via CJR,,work product: count of 1,Andrew Desiderio (The Daily Beast),,2017-07-25,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"Andrew Desiderio, a Congressional reporter for The Daily Beast, was covering the arrest of protests in a Senate hallway on July 25, 2017, when he was reportedly ordered by a U.S. Capitol Police officer to delete a video that he had filmed.
Other journalists in attendance, such as Gabby Morongiello of the D.C. Examiner, reported that a Senate press gallery staffer told journalists not to take any photos or video of the protesters being arrested.
According to Jonathan Peters, the Columbia Journalism Review's press freedom correspondent, journalists are generally prohibited from taking photos and videos in the Senate's second and third-floor hallways — but that doesn't give the U.S. Capitol Police the right to force journalists to delete photos and videos that have already been captured.
"Journalists have Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures of their persons and equipment, and they have rights under the Privacy Protection Act, a federal law that generally requires law enforcement officers to get a subpoena to search or seize a journalist’s documentary or work-product materials," Peters writes. "That includes photos and videos. Police may not delete footage, photographs, or social media posts from a journalist’s device, nor can police force a journalist to do those things."
Journalists interview Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) before she enters the Senate chamber to vote on a health care bill, on July 25, 2017.
A news van belonging to NBC-affiliate KOB-TV was stolen in downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico, on June 23, 2017, while the news crew was gathering footage for a story on local crime.
KOB News Director Michelle Donaldson told the Albuquerque Journal that the journalists were following up on recent concerns about crime in the area when they watched as a thief drove away in the station’s SUV.
“I have a rule: That you can never be the lead of your own newscast,” Donaldson said. “So this violates that rule.”
According to the Journal, KOB used the GPS tracking device in the van to locate the vehicle within a half hour without police assistance. When they arrived at the location, the thief had already fled and the SUV had sustained damages. The Journal did not detail the extent of the damage done to the vehicle.
“I’m relieved that our people are OK and I’m relieved that we’ve recovered our property, but I’m very angry that somebody can walk up to a parked, locked vehicle in front of you in this city and drive it away,” Donaldson told the Journal. “It’s a helpless feeling to know you can’t do anything about it.”
Preya Samsundar, a reporter for online media startup Alpha News, was livestreaming at rally outside the Minnesota state capitol building on June 10, 2017, when an anti-fascist protester physically attacked her and damaged her recording device.
Samsundar's livestream captured part of the altercation.
Near the end of Preya’s over two-and-a-half hour livestream, she speaks with a group of anti-fascist protesters, one of whom asks what news organization she is with and whether it is a right-wing source. At the time, Samsundar was reporting for Alpha News, an online news organization that covers Minnesota politics.
“I cover the news,” she tells the protesters.
One of the protesters repeatedly tells her to leave. She continues filming — "It's a free country," she says — and then a man in black baseball cap briefly appears on screen before the picture quickly shudders and momentarily cuts out.
Samsundar described what happened in an article on Alpha News, published June 11, 2017.
“He then grabbed my work phone, which was mounted on a portable selfie-stick, shoved me out of the way and threw the phone several feet away, in front of a line of State Patrol Officers," she wrote. "The screen was completely shattered, but still recording.”
Samsundar believes that protesters also stole her personal phone, in addition to grabbing and throwing her work phone.
“I had my second phone in my backpack where I kept all of my equipment," she said. "After I moved away from the group to be a bit safer, I went to look for my personal cellphone to see if I could use it to call my boss. ... That's when I knew it was gone.
After the protest, Samsundar said, some of the anti-fascist protesters followed her to her car after the protest.
“I got into my car and that’s when they surrounded me and my car, started pounding on the windows," she said, adding the protesters threatened to break her windows if she didn't leave.
Mitch Berg, a local conservative radio show host, had planned to interview Samsundar after the rally. He said that Samsundar called him and told him that she had been surrounded by protesters angry with her reporting.
“I sent her a Facebook message asking if she could come on the air with me when she got clear of whatever was going on," Berg told the Freedom of the Press Foundation. "She said she’d try and then she called me when she was going towards her car, and she mentioned she was being followed to her car. I could hear in the background, some yelling and some commotion. ... She mentioned, as I recall, her car was surrounded and people were a little too close for comfort, a little too animated for civil society, and she hung up and called me back about ten or fifteen minutes later.”
After the protest, Samsundar filed a police report with the St. Paul Police Department.
A spokesman for department confirmed the contents of Samsundar’s police report, and told the Freedom of the Press Foundation the case is currently listed as inactive.
“Based on the reports, it looks like the journalist's personal cellphone was stolen and her work phone (and a selfie stick) were grabbed by a suspect and thrown about 25 to 30 feet, causing its face to crack. A group also followed her to her car, pounded on the vehicle and threatened her as she drove away.
An investigator worked to identify the suspect but was unfortunately able to do so.”
When asked for comment, a spokesperson for the Minnesota State Patrol said simply, “The items reported stolen occurred on a city street, which is St. Paul Police's jurisdiction.”
After learning about what happened to Samsundar on June 10, Alpha News hired private security for her.
Samsundar said that a bodyguard accompanied her the next time she reported on a protest, but she was still harassed.
"I was being threatened and people came up to me and said I need to behave myself or else," she said. "The bodyguard with me was like, 'I don’t want you to get hurt. I want you to be safe, so if you please could just do as little as possible in this situation to make it work that’d be great.' I was a little bummed because as a journalist I want to talk to these people, find out why they’re here, and I’m being told I can’t.”
Samsundar said that she continued filming the protest march for ten to fifteen minutes, until the harassment escalated and her security guard pulled her back and advised her to leave the protest.
After that experience, Samsundar left journalism. She is now a communications specialist for the Minnesota GOP.
“These guys targeted me from day one once they knew who I was," she said. "It got to the point where my bosses didn't want me going out to cover stories because they feared for my safety. It was one reason I changed jobs. If I couldn't go out and do my job, there was no point.”
Organizers of the June 10 counterprotest did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Jack Smith IV, a journalist with Mic, was arrested on Feb. 22, 2017, while documenting law enforcement’s efforts to clear protesters from the Oceti Sakowin camp at the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota.
Smith described his arrest in a first-person account published on Mic:
When it came time for police to move in, they slowly marched forward in a line on the road above the camp. They stopped at the head of a camp entrance, flag road, leading many to believe the media could be at a safe distance to film while police entered camp.
But the police didn't veer down the hill along a separate entrance into the camp, as expected. Instead, they sprinted forward on the road toward a handful of protesters and the media covering them, batons waving in full riot gear. Burdened by the weight of luggage, a camera and a hefty portable battery there was no way I was going to continue to retreat quickly enough. They were five feet away. I dropped to my knees, head bowed, hands up. Nine of us were arrested at first — me, an independent journalist and seven water protectors — charged with obstructing a government function (Mic is contesting this charge).
Smith was charged with physical obstruction of government function, a Class A misdemeanor that could result in a year in jail. Police also seized his camera and laptop, which have not been returned to him.
Smith is scheduled to go to trial in June 2018.
Jack Smith IV on the ground at Standing Rock
",arrested and released,Morton County Sheriff's Department,None,None,False,None,[],None,returned in full,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"environmentalism, protest",,, 2018-01-16 09:26:13.926727+00:00,2023-12-06 16:06:54.835393+00:00,DNAinfo reporter Noah Hurowitz accosted by 'Proud Boy' at NYU protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/dnainfo-reporter-noah-hurowitz-accosted-proud-boy-nyu-protest/,2023-12-06 16:06:54.735609+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,press identification: count of 1,Noah Hurowitz (DNAinfo),,2017-02-02,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"DNAinfo reporter Noah Hurowitz was punched in the face by Salvatore Cipolla, a member of the alt-right group "Proud Boys," on Feb. 2, 2017, DNAinfo reported.
Hurowitz was reporting at New York University, where "Proud Boys" founder Gavin McInnes was scheduled to speak and where large groups of protesters and counterprotesters had gathered.
Hurowitz told the Freedom of the Press Foundation in an email that he was attempting to photograph Cipolla, a member of the "Proud Boys" who was yelling at protesters, when Cipolla approached him and physically accosted him.
"As I backed up, verbally identifying myself as press and holding up my NYPD-issued press pass, which was around my neck, Cipolla shoved me, grabbed me by the collar of my coat, and yanked on my press pass, damaging it," Hurowitz said. "He was immediately arrested."
Cipolla was cited for disorderly conduct and second-degree harassment. After pleading guilty, he was sentenced to community service.
Nydia Tisdale, an independent video journalist, was arrested and charged with criminal trespass and obstruction of an officer while filming Republican candidates’ speeches at a rally in Dawsonville, Georgia, on Aug. 23, 2014.
On Dec. 4, 2017, Tisdale was convicted of misdemeanor obstruction of a law enforcement officer but acquitted of felony charges.
Tisdale runs and owns AboutForsyth, an independent news website, and regularly documents and films videos of public meetings.
She told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that, on Aug. 23, 2014, she attended a rally for Republican candidates at Burt’s Farm, a private pumpkin farm in Dawsonville, Georgia.
As she was filming the speeches, she said, she was physically accosted by Dawson County Sheriff’s Office Captain Tony Wooten.
“Fifteen minutes into the rally, I was attacked,” Tisdale said. “I was grabbed out of my chair, twisted up, and one hand was yanked off my tripod. I was pushed and pulled and dragged and spinned in circles, and [Wooten] twisted my arm behind my back, and forced me into the barn, and slammed me against the countertop.”
In video of the altercation recorded by Tisdale, she can be heard repeatedly asking Wooten, “What is your name? What is your name, sir?”
Wooten refuses to give her his name and says, “I’ve been real nice, but now you’re going to jail for resisting arrest.”
“You’ll see [my name] on the warrant when we get to the jail,” he tells her at another point in the video.
Tisdale protests that she has the right to film the public rally — “this was a public event posted on Facebook by [Georgia] governor [Nathan] Deal,” she says — and claims that she received permission to film from Kathy Burt, who owns Burt’s Farm along with her husband.
“I spoke with several candidates, and they didn’t mind,” she says. “Kathy Burt said it was OK. I spoke with her when I first arrived!”
In the video, Johnny Burt says that she does not permission to film the rally: “Listen, I’m the owner and I say no.”
Burt’s Farm did not respond to a request for comment.
The video ends shortly after Wooten forcibly pushes away Tisdale’s camera, at which point Tisdale can be heard screaming off-screen, “Ow, that hurts! You’re hurting me! You are really hurting me!”
Tisdale told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that after the video was shut off, two uniformed Dawson County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived to take her into custody. At this point, she said, Wooten finally revealed his name and formally placed her under arrest, but did not give a reason for the arrest or read Tisdale her Miranda rights.
Tisdale was eventually charged with felony obstruction, felony trespassing, and misdemeanor obstruction of an officer. At trial, prosecutors accused her of elbowing and kicking Wooten.
The Dawson County Sheriff’s Office seized Tisdale’s camera when she was arrested and held it in custody for six days before returning it to her.
Tisdale believes that the police may have edited her video footage of the altercation.
She said that she checked the video footage on her camera once it was returned to her and noticed that her video footage had been split into two separate videos, and the portion of the video in which she could be heard screaming had been inexplicably deleted.
An audio recording of the incident, captured by Brian Pritchard of FetchYourNews, clearly shows that Tisdale screamed for help during the altercation.
Dawson County Sheriff Billy Carlisle told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the department had not edited Tisdale’s video footage.
Tisdale said that she had bruises on her arms, feet, and pelvic region for days after the altercation and had trouble eating and sleeping.
In August 2016, Tisdale filed a sexual assault complaint against Captain Tony Wooten, alleging that he pushed his crotch into her buttocks while he bent her over a countertop. That case was stayed pending the outcome of the criminal charges against Tisdale.
On Aug. 8, 2016, Tony Wooten resigned from the Dawson County Sheriff’s Office.
On Dec. 4, 2017, a Dawsonville jury convicted Tisdale on a misdemeanor charge of obstruction of an officer, but acquitted her of felony charges of obstruction and trespassing.
“This is a partial victory, but not a complete victory, and I maintain my innocence of all charges,” Tisdale told the Freedom of the Press Foundation. “Video recording is not a crime.”
On Dec. 18, 2017, Tisdale was sentenced to 12 months probation, 40 hours of community service, and a $1000 fine.
A screengrab from Nydia Tisdale's video shows Dawsonville County Sheriff's Office deputy Tony Wooten pushing her into a countertop before taking her into custody.
",arrested and released,Dawson County Sheriff’s Office,None,None,True,None,[],None,returned in full,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,,,,