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 2024-03-28 18:33:43.195920+00:00,2024-03-28 18:42:26.589929+00:00,Tennessee reporter arrested while covering student protest against Israel-Gaza war,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/tennessee-reporter-arrested-while-covering-student-protest-against-israel-gaza-war/,2024-03-28 18:42:26.463761+00:00,trespassing: criminal trespass (charges dropped as of 2024-03-26),,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Eli Motycka (Nashville Scene),,2024-03-26,False,Nashville,Tennessee (TN),36.16589,-86.78444,"
Eli Motycka, a reporter for the alternative newsweekly Nashville Scene, was arrested while covering a student protest at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee March 26, 2024. The trespassing charge against the journalist was dropped after a few hours.
Motycka told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he arrived on campus around noon to report on an ongoing sit-in student protesters were holding at the Kirkland Hall administrative building in opposition to the Israel-Gaza war.
The Vanderbilt Hustler, the university’s student-run newspaper, reported that the demonstrators were calling on the administration to allow the student government to vote on participating in the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.
After calling and texting his press contacts at the university for comment, Motycka told the Tracker he went to one of the doors of the hall and spoke with a Vanderbilt University Police Department officer standing guard there.
“I asked if I could go inside, after identifying myself as a journalist. He told me that he was under orders not to let anyone in and that he wished he could let me in but he couldn’t,” Motycka said. “I went to other doors and talked to at least four officers and each of them told me different things: Some told me there was construction going on, some told me that the building was closed, some told me that they might be able to let me in later.”
After his colleague, photographer Matt Masters, arrived on campus, Motycka said he spoke to a final VUPD officer through a door and asked who he should contact for comment or about being granted access to the building. He said that at no point was he told to leave.
At approximately 1:30 p.m., two officers approached the journalists, ordered Motycka to put his hands behind his back and told him he was under arrest for criminal trespassing.
In footage of the arrest captured by Masters, an officer can be heard telling Motycka that he had previously been told to leave under threat of arrest, which Motycka disputed.
Scene reporter Eli Motycka (@ejmotycka) was arrested by Vanderbilt police while reporting on student protests. pic.twitter.com/5HPcRHtI7H
— Nashville Scene (@NashvilleScene) March 26, 2024
“No, I haven’t been warned,” Motycka says. “I am here doing my job and I will happily leave, if someone warns me that I’m in danger of trespassing, to avoid all of this.”
The officers allowed Masters to take all of Motycka’s belongings before escorting him to a VUPD vehicle.
“I’m a credentialed member of the media. I’m a reporter for the Nashville Scene. I wasn’t warned today that I’d be taken off of this campus in handcuffs,” Motycka says in Masters’ footage. “I was here interviewing students. I was here witnessing a protest. And now it’s about me, I guess.”
Motycka told the Tracker that he was taken to the Downtown Detention Center, where he was processed and fingerprinted. He was released shortly after 4 p.m. after a public defender informed him that Judicial Magistrate Timothy Lee had determined there was no probable cause and dropped the charges.
In a statement to the Scene, Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk said, “This office will not prosecute a journalist for peacefully doing his or her job.”
Motycka’s arresting officer drove him back to campus soon after, Motycka said. The officer said he believed the arrest was justified and told Motycka that he would risk further arrest if he returned to campus without a legitimate purpose and authorization from the administration.
A different VUPD officer began following Motycka once he was returned to campus, he told the Tracker. Unclear whether Motycka could be rearrested, his editor advised him to leave.
In a written statement to the Tracker, a Vanderbilt University spokesperson said that Kirkland Hall was on lockdown and police were on “high alert” when Motycka repeatedly attempted to enter the building.
“It has long been the practice of Vanderbilt University to grant access to members of the media who request and receive clearance to be on campus,” the statement said. “In yesterday’s case, though the reporter made his presence known, he did not have permission to access locked administrative buildings, which are on private property.”
Motycka told the Tracker that he had never been told he needed clearance to be on campus. He added that while there are no pending charges, he is concerned about his ability to continue reporting on the university and the broader chilling effect of his arrest.
“I definitely feel intimidated to go back to campus, because I’m not sure of whether and where I can and can’t be to do my job,” he told the Tracker. “I think it functions as an act of intimidation against the press and has a cooling effect on all reporters in Nashville who may want to report on Vanderbilt, who now feel that they could be arrested without warning.”
D. Patrick Rodgers, the editor-in-chief of the Scene, expressed his dismay over Motycka’s arrest and his support for Motycka, Masters and Scene reporter Kelsey Beyeler for their coverage of the protests.
“It's alarming and disappointing that Vanderbilt University — with so many eyes on them as a result of ongoing student protests — would arrest a reporter in the process of doing his job,” Rodgers said. “We’ll have more coverage in the days to come.”
Nashville Scene reporter Eli Motycka was arrested by Vanderbilt University Police while reporting on a student sit-in at the Tennessee campus March 26, 2024. The trespassing charge against him was dropped later that day.
",arrested and released,Vanderbilt University Police Department,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"Israel-Gaza war, protest",,, 2024-03-25 21:17:02.052277+00:00,2024-03-25 22:04:24.934994+00:00,Sacramento Bee columnist detained at pro-Palestinian protest at City Hall,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/sacramento-bee-columnist-detained-at-pro-palestinian-protest-at-city-hall/,2024-03-25 22:04:24.802470+00:00,,,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Robin Epley (The Sacramento Bee),,2024-03-19,False,Sacramento,California (CA),38.58157,-121.4944,"Robin Epley, an opinion columnist for The Sacramento Bee, was briefly detained while documenting a protest that disrupted a Sacramento City Council meeting on March 19, 2024.
In an account of the incident published by the Bee, Epley wrote that a pro-Palestinian protest in the City Council chambers began after Mayor Darrell Steinberg introduced a resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. Steinberg recessed the meeting and ordered the chambers to be cleared, but many people initially refused to leave.
After about 90 minutes, by 10:37 p.m., Epley wrote, only a few dozen people remained and she noticed that she was the only journalist still observing the protest. “From experience, I know that’s a rare and potentially important position; I’d never relinquish it unless absolutely necessary,” Epley wrote.
Epley told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that more than 50 police officers then entered the chambers, gave a final warning and began arresting the last 12 stragglers. Shortly after 10:50 p.m., Epley saw the officer who was overseeing the arrests point at her.
“Surely, I thought, he was motioning to someone behind me?” Epley wrote. “By the time I realized no one was there, a couple of officers had already descended on my back, ripping my cellphone from my hand and locking me in a pair of black metal cuffs.”
Sac PD just tried to arrest me pic.twitter.com/GvzRQi6fmw
— Robin Epley (@ByRobinEpley) March 20, 2024
In footage Epley shared on social media, she can be heard asking the officers, “Are you really arresting me right now?”
Epley told the Tracker that she was wearing press credentials issued by the Bee and that she repeatedly identified herself as a journalist. After approximately 25 seconds, the officers uncuffed her and checked her press pass before allowing her to resume documenting the other arrests.
“There is no reason, no action I took, nothing I said nor did that provoked these officers of the Sacramento Police Department to handcuff me,” Epley wrote. “Their actions alone resulted in the illegal detainment of a working and visibly credentialed journalist, no matter how short the duration of my time in their custody.”
David Loy, legal director of the First Amendment Coalition, told the Bee that police have no business arresting members of the press, even if only for a few seconds.
“There is a disturbing trend around the country of journalists being arrested and prosecuted simply for being journalists,” Loy said. “Whether the arrest just happened for just a few minutes or someone is prosecuted, these are clear threats to press freedom and the First Amendment.”
Epley told the Tracker that she is undaunted by the experience.
“I feel fired up,” Epley said. “I try to remind myself that when informed of their mistake they let me out of the cuffs pretty immediately. Ultimately I’m fine, but it’s the meaning of it that is making me upset, what it means to have handcuffed a journalist.”
She said that the Sacramento Police Department has reached out to the Bee to set up a meeting with editors.
The Sacramento Police Department said in an emailed statement that when the chambers were cleared they advised members of the press to stage in the lobby and that officers were instructed to look for city-issued press credentials, which it asserts Epley was not wearing.
Epley said that she wasn’t told the credentials were mandatory and that, when the lightweight pass broke, she stopped wearing it. She also refuted the police’s assertion that media were told to stage in the lobby, saying that no officers spoke with her after the meeting was recessed.
In a statement shared with the Tracker, Mayor Steinberg said that there was “some confusion” concerning Epley’s credentials and that she was immediately released once it was cleared up.
“I do not support the arrest of journalists in chambers,” Steinberg said. “It is essential that we uphold and protect the important role that the press plays in our society.”
Sacramento Bee columnist Robin Epley was briefly detained while documenting a pro-Palestinian protest that shut down a City Council meeting at Sacramento City Hall on March 19, 2024.
",detained and released without being processed,Sacramento Police Department,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"Israel-Gaza war, protest",,, 2024-03-01 18:16:56.949951+00:00,2024-03-26 21:07:12.848236+00:00,Former Fox News reporter held in contempt for refusing to comply with subpoena,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/former-fox-news-reporter-held-in-contempt-for-refusing-to-comply-with-subpoena/,2024-03-26 21:07:12.754539+00:00,contempt of court (convicted as of 2024-02-29),,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Catherine Herridge (Fox News),,2024-02-29,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"Journalist Catherine Herridge was held in civil contempt on Feb. 29, 2024, for refusing to comply with a subpoena compelling her to reveal a confidential source, according to court documents reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
The ruling stemmed from a series of Fox News investigative online articles and broadcast reports by then-correspondent Herridge published in early 2017 about a federal investigation into the possible foreign military ties of a Chinese American scientist, Yanping Chen.
The articles cited, and included excerpts of, materials from the investigation, such as FBI interviews, Chen’s immigration forms and photos of her in a Chinese military uniform. The six-year investigation was concluded in 2016.
No charges were brought against Chen, and in December 2018 she sued the FBI and the departments of Justice, Defense and Homeland Security, arguing that investigators violated her rights under the Privacy Act when her personal information was leaked to Herridge.
Chen subpoenaed Herridge in June 2022, seeking documents, communications and testimony concerning the federal investigation as well as sufficient information to identify her source. Fox News and producers Pamela K. Browne and Cyd Upson — who were also bylined on the articles — received similar subpoenas for documents and testimony. The Tracker has documented each of the subpoenas here.
While U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper quashed the requests for documents, he ruled in August 2023 that the identity of the confidential source was central to the lawsuit’s claim and ordered Herridge to testify about her reporting and any sources. “Chen’s need for the requested evidence overcomes Herridge’s qualified First Amendment privilege,” he wrote.
Herridge sat for a deposition in September, but refused to answer any questions about the identity or intent of her sources, according to court filings.
Herridge attempted to appeal the ruling, but was instructed by the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals that the proper procedure required her to refuse to comply and then appeal the resulting contempt order. In November 2023, Chen asked the court to hold Herridge in contempt and proposed a graduated fine of $500 a day for the first seven days, $1,000 a day the following week and $5,000 for each day after.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed an amicus brief in support of Herridge, arguing that holding her in contempt would have a significant chilling effect on national security reporting.
“The ability of journalists to assure sources that their identities will remain confidential is central to preserving the press’s structural role as a check on government, particularly in the national security sphere,” RCFP wrote. “When sources stop talking to journalists because they fear that their identities cannot be protected, that loss impairs the electorate’s ability to make informed political, social, and economic decisions, and to hold elected officials and others in power accountable.”
Cooper held Herridge in contempt in February 2024. “The Court does not reach this result lightly,” Cooper wrote in his decision. “Herridge and many of her colleagues in the journalism community may disagree with that decision and prefer that a different balance be struck, but she is not permitted to flout a federal court’s order with impunity.”
He ordered that Herridge be fined $800 a day until she complies with the subpoena, but stayed the fine for 30 days or until an appeal of the ruling is completed, whichever comes later.
Neither Herridge nor her attorney were immediately available to comment.
A portion of the order holding former Fox News reporter Catherine Herridge in civil contempt on Feb. 29, 2024, for her refusal to comply with a subpoena seeking testimony about a confidential source.
",charged without arrest,U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,,,, 2024-03-26 14:30:14.786465+00:00,2024-03-26 14:30:14.786465+00:00,Independent journalist arrested at Wall Street protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalist-arrested-at-wall-street-protest/,2024-03-26 14:25:54.505667+00:00,"obstruction: disorderly conduct (charges pending as of 2024-03-20), blocking traffic: pedestrians on roadways (charges dropped as of 2024-03-20)",,,"Assault, Arrest/Criminal Charge",,,,Ashoka Jegroo (Independent),,2024-02-29,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"Independent journalist Ashoka Jegroo was shoved to the ground and arrested by police officers while documenting a pro-Palestinian protest in New York City on Feb. 29, 2024.
Jegroo told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that demonstrators initially gathered at Union Square in Manhattan before taking the subway downtown en masse to the Financial District to attempt to disrupt Gov. Kathy Hochul’s planned remarks at a Wall Street restaurant. An organizer with the protest group Within Our Lifetime told The New York Times that they targeted Hochul over statements she made that month about the Israel-Gaza war.
Police closed down the block around the restaurant, Jegroo said, and protesters tried to march around the block before ultimately making their way up to the intersection of Broadway and Vesey Street. As he crossed the street and neared the sidewalk, Jegroo said a bicycle officer suddenly grabbed him and pulled him into the street.
Pro-Palestine protesters in NYC gave NYPD the slip, got on a train to Wall Street where NY Governor Kathy Hochul was speaking at an event, & then marched in Lower Manhattan last nite. NYPD repressed the protest & made multiple arrests (including me). Here’s my video of my arrest: pic.twitter.com/Es0Iy0UMTc
— Ash J (@AshAgony) March 1, 2024
“When they grabbed me there were people and other journalists yelling, ‘He’s press! He’s press!’” he told the Tracker. “Even though I wasn’t resisting at all, they pulled both of my arms behind my back aggressively and almost pushed me face-first onto the ground where they'd thrown their bikes.”
Jegroo said that he was able to position himself so he landed on the bicycles on his knees, which caused a gash across his shin. Three or four other people at the demonstration were also arrested, at least two of whom were also injured.
Upon arriving at One Police Plaza, Jegroo said he was the last of the arrestees to be processed because of confusion over who his arresting officer was. He was released later that night and charged with disorderly conduct and walking in a roadway when a sidewalk was available. It was his second arrest in recent months while documenting a pro-Palestinian protest in New York City.
The New York Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Gideon Oliver, an attorney representing Jegroo, told the Tracker that a judge dismissed the walking on the roadway charge during a preliminary hearing on March 20. For the disorderly conduct charge, Jegroo accepted an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal, under which proceedings are put on hold for six months. After that, the charge is dismissed if there have been no further arrests.
“Obviously I have to be a little bit more cautious now: I can’t take as many risks,” Jegroo told the Tracker. “I can’t get as close to the action as I’d like to, but I’m not going to stop. I’m still going to go out there. That’s the only ‘chill’ there will be on my reporting.”
When reached via email, a press officer for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said they could not provide further information because the case was sealed, but noted that accepting an ACD is one of the reasons a case may be sealed.
Independent journalist Ashoka Jegroo was arrested while reporting on a pro-Palestinian demonstration in New York City on Feb. 29, 2024. He was charged with disorderly conduct and walking in a roadway.
",arrested and released,New York Police Department,None,2024-02-29,True,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"Israel-Gaza war, protest",,, 2024-02-22 22:14:33.633823+00:00,2024-02-22 22:17:50.549030+00:00,"Florida journalist indicted on allegations of conspiracy, computer fraud, wiretapping",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/florida-journalist-indicted-on-allegations-of-conspiracy-computer-fraud-wiretapping/,2024-02-22 22:17:50.336689+00:00,"conspiracy (charges pending as of 2024-02-15), computer fraud: accessing protected computer without authorization (charges pending as of 2024-02-15), computer fraud: accessing protected computer without authorization (charges pending as of 2024-02-15), computer fraud: accessing protected computer without authorization (charges pending as of 2024-02-15), computer fraud: accessing protected computer without authorization (charges pending as of 2024-02-15), computer fraud: accessing protected computer without authorization (charges pending as of 2024-02-15), computer fraud: accessing protected computer without authorization (charges pending as of 2024-02-15), wiretapping: interception of wire, oral or electronic communications (charges pending as of 2024-02-15), wiretapping: interception of wire, oral or electronic communications (charges pending as of 2024-02-15), wiretapping: interception of wire, oral or electronic communications (charges pending as of 2024-02-15), wiretapping: interception of wire, oral or electronic communications (charges pending as of 2024-02-15), wiretapping: interception of wire, oral or electronic communications (charges pending as of 2024-02-15), wiretapping: disclosing illegally intercepted wire, oral, or electronic communication (charges pending as of 2024-02-15), wiretapping: disclosing illegally intercepted wire, oral, or electronic communication (charges pending as of 2024-02-15)",,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Tim Burke (Independent),,2024-02-21,False,Tampa,Florida (FL),27.94752,-82.45843,"Florida-based independent journalist Tim Burke was charged by the Justice Department with 14 felony counts alleging conspiracy, wiretapping and violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, in an indictment unsealed on Feb. 21, 2024.
FBI agents raided Burke’s home and office in May 2023 in connection to a criminal probe into “alleged computer intrusions and intercepted communications at the Fox News Network,” according to reports at the time.
In total, federal agents seized nine computers, seven hard drives, four cellphones and four notebooks from Burke’s home and the guesthouse that serves as his office. More than nine months after the raid, only a small portion of the electronic devices and files seized by law enforcement has been returned.
The indictment, which was filed on Feb. 15 but unsealed just under a week later, alleges that Burke and an unnamed co-conspirator used “compromised credentials” to gain access to websites with the live feeds of two New York City-based media companies, and to download files and disseminate them.
Burke is charged with:
Attorney Mark Rasch, who is representing Burke and who created the Justice Department’s Computer Crime Unit, denied any criminal behavior by Burke and warned that the charges could set a precedent that could make routine investigative journalism techniques a felony.
“Timothy Burke committed the crime of journalism, and that’s it. He didn’t hack anything, he didn’t steal anything, he simply reported,” Rasch told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. “The analogies that the government uses about breaking in fundamentally misunderstand how the internet works and what the norms of behavior are on the internet.”
Rasch said that Burke appeared at a courthouse in Tampa on Feb. 22 for an initial hearing on the charges, and that first the raid and now the indictment have had a serious impact on the journalist.
“He’s financially ruined and professionally devastated, and it has taken an emotional toll as well,” Rasch said.
Burke did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A portion of the indictment charging Florida-based independent journalist Tim Burke on Feb. 21, 2024, with 14 counts for allegedly violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, wiretapping and conspiracy.
",charged without arrest,U.S. Department of Justice,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,Department of Justice,,, 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",,, 2024-01-02 20:31:05.320441+00:00,2024-03-14 16:11:31.832311+00:00,"Reporter arrested, held overnight while covering NYC pro-Palestinian protest",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-arrested-held-overnight-while-covering-nyc-pro-palestinian-protest/,2024-03-14 16:11:31.736523+00:00,"obstruction: obstructing government administration (charges dropped as of 2024-01-01), obstruction: disorderly conduct (charges dropped as of 2024-01-01)",,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Roni Jacobson (New York Daily News),,2023-12-31,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"Freelance reporter Roni Jacobson was arrested by police while documenting a pro-Palestinian protest in New York City on Dec. 31, 2023. She was held overnight and released the following afternoon after the Manhattan district attorney’s office dropped the charges.
Jacobson told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was on assignment for the New York Daily News to cover a protest near Times Square and attempted to pass by a police barricade shortly before 7 p.m. to reach the demonstration. Police allowed other pedestrians to pass, but asked Jacobson to provide identification.
According to the Daily News, Jacobson identified herself to the New York Police Department officers as a reporter but told them that her request for city-issued press credentials was still pending. The police said she couldn’t pass without a credential and ordered her to back up, Jacobson said, but as she did so another officer arrested her.
“I was taking a step back and to the side to be fully out of the way. In fact, I was a moment away from just leaving and going to find another way around because I could tell I wasn’t getting anywhere with these guys,” Jacobson said. “As I was stepping back I bumped into the rookie cop who was behind me and then he had the cuffs on me.”
The Daily News reported that Jacobson contacted a night editor for the outlet who confirmed to police that Jacobson was on assignment.
Police alleged in a statement to the Daily News that Jacobson “attempted to physically push past the officers in an attempt to gain entry and was then placed under arrest without further incident.” Jacobson denied that version of events. The NYPD did not respond to a request for further information.
Jacobson told the Tracker she was held overnight at the Midtown South Precinct and charged with obstructing governmental administration and disorderly conduct. She was released around 4 p.m. on Jan. 1, 2024, when the district attorney declined to prosecute the case.
A spokesperson for the DA’s office told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker said he was unable to comment on the case as it has been sealed, noting that a dismissal is a common reason for sealing a case.
In its report, the Daily News praised the decision to drop the charges, but said it is still seeking answers on why Jacobson was detained in the first place.
“Freedom of the press to operate freely and unimpeded in coverage of protests is critical for informing the public through our news coverage,” Daily News Executive Editor Andrew Julien said. “We plan on following up with the NYPD to understand what conduct could have justified the arrest.”
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include comment from reporter Roni Jacobson.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators march in front of the New York Stock Exchange on Dec. 28, 2023, one in a series of such protests in New York City during the holiday season. Freelance reporter Roni Jacobson was arrested during a similar protest on Dec. 31.
",arrested and released,New York Police Department,2024-01-01,2023-12-31,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"Israel-Gaza war, protest",,, 2023-11-30 22:23:12.620924+00:00,2024-03-14 16:11:17.418790+00:00,Arizona radio reporter arrested at pro-Palestinian protest in Tucson,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/arizona-radio-reporter-arrested-at-pro-palestinian-protest-in-tucson/,2024-03-14 16:11:17.314007+00:00,trespassing: criminal trespass (charges dropped as of 2023-12-21),,(2023-12-21 15:09:00+00:00) Charges dropped against radio reporter arrested at Tucson protest,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Alisa Reznick (KJZZ),,2023-11-30,False,Tucson,Arizona (AZ),32.22174,-110.92648,"KJZZ radio reporter Alisa Reznick was arrested and charged with criminal trespass while reporting on a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Tucson, Arizona, on the morning of Nov. 30, 2023.
The Arizona Republic reported that Reznick was among 26 arrested as demonstrators gathered at a University of Arizona satellite campus where weapons manufacturer Raytheon is housed. Approximately 60 protesters blockaded the entrance to the facility, according to Unicorn Riot.
In footage captured by Unicorn Riot, Reznick, who is a senior field correspondent for KJZZ’s Fronteras Desk and the NPR network, can be heard identifying herself as a journalist and telling a Pima County Sheriff’s deputy that she was walking to her vehicle nearby.
After clearing protesters from blocking UA Tech/Raytheon's entrance road, Pima County Sheriffs also insisted on also arresting @kjzzphoenix journalist @AlisaReznick despite Reznick clearly carrying media equipment and repeatedly identifying herself as press. pic.twitter.com/XJWf6tTCWW
— UNICORN RIOT (@UR_Ninja) November 30, 2023
“I'm a reporter,” Reznick said, with a press credential around her neck, recording equipment in her hand and a camera hanging from her shoulder.
The deputy, while holding her by the arm and wrist, responded, “And you're under arrest.” When she repeated that she was attempting to return to her car and leave, he responded, “You had plenty of time to go to your car and you haven’t.”
The deputy allowed a nearby reporter from Unicorn Riot to take her equipment, saying that he didn’t want to break it.
A public information officer for the Pima County Sheriff’s Department confirmed to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that Reznick was charged with criminal trespass, as were 25 demonstrators.
“That journalist was arrested in the same fashion as the demonstrators,” the officer said. “They were on private property, they were requested to leave and they failed to comply.”
Neither Reznick nor KJZZ was immediately available for comment. Michel Marizco, senior editor of KJZZ's Fronteras Desk, told The Arizona Republic that Reznick was released after several hours and was in “strong spirits.”
“We are continuing to seek clarity from the sheriff’s department on the circumstances of this incident where a clearly identified journalist was in the course of reporting the news," Marizco said.
KJZZ senior field correspondent Alisa Reznick was arrested for criminal trespass on Nov. 30, 2023, while reporting on a pro-Palestinian protest at a University of Arizona satellite campus in Tucson.
",arrested and released,Pima County Sheriff's Department,2023-11-30,2023-11-30,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"Israel-Gaza war, protest",,, 2023-11-22 21:03:11.987506+00:00,2023-11-22 21:03:11.987506+00:00,Freelance journalist detained while reporting on climate activists,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-journalist-detained-while-reporting-on-climate-activists/,2023-11-22 20:30:55.121518+00:00,,,,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault",,,,Will Allen-DuPraw (News2Share),,2023-11-17,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"Freelance journalist Will Allen-DuPraw was detained by security at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., while reporting on climate activists at the museum on Nov. 17, 2023.
Allen-DuPraw told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was on assignment for News2Share, a collective that sells footage to news outlets, to film as two protesters handed out flyers encouraging museum patrons to call on President Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency.
Security officers told the protesters they needed to leave after approximately 20 minutes, Allen-DuPraw said, and he continued to film as one of them refused to immediately leave and was walked out in handcuffs. Shortly after, Allen-DuPraw was handcuffed as well.
In footage posted by News2Share co-founder and Editor-in-Chief Ford Fischer, Allen-DuPraw can be heard asking the detained protester whether he had any statements to make as a security officer led him away in handcuffs. As the man begins to answer, one security guard blocks the journalist’s camera while a second begins to place Allen-DuPraw under arrest.
“All of the sudden I was pushed from behind up against a pillar in the museum,” Allen-DuPraw said. “He seemed to be more of an actual police officer, he was wearing a white shirt and had a badge.”
The National Gallery employs a mix of federal and private security staff and it was unclear which were involved in the detention.
Allen-DuPraw said he identified himself as a journalist and while he wasn’t wearing credentials, he had his National Press Photographers Association identification in his wallet.
“Sir, I’m an independent journalist, you cannot put your hands on me, sir,” Allen-DuPraw said. “You have no reason to detain me, I’m on assignment right now recording and exercising my First Amendment rights.”
VIDEO THREAD: On Friday, as freelance journalist @wallendupraw filmed two climate activists and one bystander be handcuffed and detained over flyering in the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, security handcuffed and detained him as well, apparently for filming. pic.twitter.com/FKBiogCCQD
— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) November 18, 2023
The security officer is heard telling him that he will “come down” with the officers, they’ll identify him and then he can do whatever he wants to do. When Allen-DuPraw asks why he is being detained, the officer does not reply.
The National Gallery of Art did not respond to requests for comment.
Allen-DuPraw told the Tracker that he was led down to the basement conference room and, once there, he was patted down, his pockets emptied and his photo taken from the front and side by an officer. After approximately 30 minutes, he, the two protesters and the bystander were released without charges.
Allen-DuPraw said that it was particularly alarming that — despite identifying himself as a journalist to multiple officers — no effort was made to verify his press credentials. “A lack of training was just evident,” he added.
Freelance journalist Will Allen-DuPraw, center, was detained while on assignment for News2Share documenting climate activists distributing flyers at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 17, 2023.
",detained and released without being processed,National Gallery of Art Protection Services,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,private security,yes,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"environmentalism, protest",,, 2023-12-01 20:53:40.594798+00:00,2024-03-14 16:17:50.755730+00:00,"Independent journalist pushed, arrested at NYC pro-Palestinian march",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalist-pushed-arrested-at-nyc-pro-palestinian-march/,2024-03-14 16:17:50.638709+00:00,"obstruction: disorderly conduct (charges dropped as of 2023-11-29), obstruction: disorderly conduct (charges dropped as of 2023-11-29)",,,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault",,,,Ashoka Jegroo (Independent),,2023-11-11,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"Independent journalist Ashoka Jegroo was pushed and arrested by police officers while documenting a pro-Palestinian demonstration in New York City on Nov. 11, 2023.
Jegroo told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that as the crowd began to disperse near Grand Central Terminal in midtown Manhattan, some demonstrators noticed a pole with American and United Nations flags and one climbed up to replace them with the Palestinian flag. Police then surrounded the pole, pushing everyone back, and prepared to arrest him once he climbed down.
After the protester was placed in handcuffs, Jegroo and other press and protesters followed as officers led the protester to a police van. In footage Jegroo posted to social media, an NYPD officer is heard ordering Jegroo to back up and saying that he was pushing the journalist to get him to move.
“I’m at a reasonable distance,” Jegroo replies. Moments later, multiple officers appear to form a line forcing everyone back, and Jegroo is pushed again as officers order the crowd to get on the sidewalk.
Jegroo asks, “Why are you touching me?” Seconds later, he too is arrested.
#FreePalestine protesters marched in Midtown Manhattan last nite.
— Ash J (@AshAgony) November 12, 2023
As I was recording NYPD arrest a protester, cops began pushing folks. You can hear me tell cops “I’m at a reasonable distance.” Then you can hear me complain about being pushed & then you hear the cuffs put on me. pic.twitter.com/d8ME4Aw1WX
Jegroo told the Tracker that he was held in a cell at NYPD headquarters at One Police Plaza for two to three hours before being released with two citations for disorderly conduct. Both citations were signed by Inspector Frank DiGiacomo, the commanding officer for the department’s Technical Assistance Response Unit.
“When I finally was released,” Jegroo said, “the cop who was escorting me out of the precinct and to the door outside, he remarked that, like, ‘Wow, the inspector himself filled out your tickets. That usually never happens, you must have done something. What did you do?’”
At an initial hearing on Nov. 29, the judge informed Jegroo that police had not properly filed the tickets so he was free to go. Jegroo said that as far as the court records show, the charges against him never happened, but he doesn’t know whether the department could choose to refile them at a later date.
Independent journalist Ashoka Jegroo was arrested by New York Police Department officers while reporting on a pro-Palestinian march in Manhattan on Nov. 11, 2023. The two charges of disorderly conduct against him have since been dropped.
",arrested and released,New York Police Department,2023-11-11,2023-11-11,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"Israel-Gaza war, protest",,, 2023-11-06 16:57:39.126922+00:00,2023-11-06 22:01:25.078802+00:00,Chicago-area reporter cited for seeking comment from local officials,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/chicago-area-reporter-cited-for-seeking-comment-from-local-officials/,2023-11-06 22:02:38.595967+00:00,"obstruction: interference/hampering of city employees (charges dropped as of 2023-11-06), obstruction: interference/hampering of city employees (charges dropped as of 2023-11-06), obstruction: interference/hampering of city employees (charges dropped as of 2023-11-06)",,(2023-11-06 16:56:00+00:00) Citations against Chicago-area reporter dropped,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Hank Sanders (Daily Southtown),,2023-10-30,False,Calumet City,Illinois (IL),41.61559,-87.52949,"Officials in Calumet City, Illinois, allege that a local reporter violated municipal ordinances by asking them questions about the city’s upkeep of stormwater infrastructure prior to massive flooding from heavy rains in the Chicago suburb in September 2023.
Daily Southtown reporter Hank Sanders, who reported on Oct. 19 that Calumet City officials were informed last year by a consultant that the municipality’s stormwater facilities are in poor condition, is accused of “interference/hampering of city employees” by contacting them for follow-up coverage, according to the Chicago Tribune, whose parent company publishes both papers.
Three citations issued to Sanders on Oct. 30 listed as complainants Calumet City Mayor Thaddeus Jones, who is also an Illinois state representative; Jerico Thomas, the city’s public works commissioner; and city employee Megan Wilson, the Tribune added.
According to the paper, the notice referencing Wilson states that between Oct. 4-12, Sanders sent 14 emails and a Freedom of Information Act request to the Calumet City government regarding flooding. The notice referencing Jones noted that Sanders had called the city’s Department of Public Works “several times” since Sept. 17.
City attorneys asked Sanders to cease contacting city employees about the matter while the records request is pending, but said despite the requests, “Hank Sanders continues to do so.”
A U.S. Press Freedom Tracker request for comment from Calumet City officials did not immediately receive a response.
On his TikTok account, Sanders posted about the citations, calling them “ridiculous.”
Daily Southtown’s Executive Editor Mitch Pugh, in a statement published in the Tribune, called the citations “outrageous” and likened them to the Oct. 27 arrest of an Alabama reporter and publisher for reporting on a local grand jury investigation and the August police raid on the Marion County Recorder and homes of the Kansas newspaper’s co-owners, executed while the Recorder was investigating Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody’s background.
“They represent a continued assault on journalists who, like Hank, are guilty of nothing more than engaging in the practice of journalism. From places like Alabama to Kansas to Illinois, it appears public officials have become emboldened to take actions that our society once viewed as un-American,” Pugh said. “Unfortunately, in our current political climate, uneducated buffoonery has become a virtue, not a liability, but the Tribune will vigorously stand up for Hank’s right to do his job.”
Don Craven, president, chief executive and general counsel of the Illinois Press Association, told The New York Times that he was optimistic that Calumet City would withdraw the citations. “We’re hopeful that our lawyer and their lawyer can have an adult conversation and understand that these are out of bounds and they’ll be withdrawn.”
A portion of one citation issued to Daily Southtown reporter Hank Sanders on Oct. 30, 2023, charging him with “interference/hampering of city employees” for allegedly harassing Calumet City, Illinois, officials when seeking comment for his reporting.
",charged without arrest,Calumet City Police Department,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,,,, 2023-11-01 18:09:18.890354+00:00,2024-02-29 17:20:41.283727+00:00,Alabama reporter faces felony charge for article on grand jury investigation,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/alabama-reporter-faces-felony-charge-for-article-on-grand-jury-investigation/,2024-02-29 17:20:41.176804+00:00,"publishing: revealing, disclosing or divulging grand jury information (charges pending as of 2023-10-27)",,(2023-10-30 13:02:00+00:00) Alabama reporter placed under prior restraint as condition of bail,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Prior Restraint",,,,Don Fletcher (Atmore News),,2023-10-27,False,Atmore,Alabama (AL),31.02379,-87.49387,"Atmore News reporter Don Fletcher was arrested in Atmore, Alabama, on Oct. 27, 2023, and charged with a felony for his reporting on an ongoing grand jury investigation, the newspaper reported.
Fletcher authored an article on Oct. 25 concerning an Escambia County investigation into allegations of mismanagement of federal COVID relief funds by the county Board of Education. The article referenced statements made by District Attorney Steve Billy at an Oct. 12 school board meeting confirming that the superintendent would not be brought before a grand jury.
The article also reported that the outlet had obtained documents stating that Billy had issued a subpoena seeking copies of checks labeled as “COVID” payments or bonuses.
Atmore News reported on Facebook that both Fletcher and the newspaper’s publisher and co-owner Sherry Digmon were arrested on Oct. 27, charged with revealing, disclosing or divulging grand jury information, a felony, and released about six hours later after paying $10,000 bonds.
When reached by phone, Fletcher confirmed to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the two had an initial hearing on Oct. 30 but directed all further inquiries to their attorney, Earnest White. White declined to comment when reached on Oct. 31.
Veronica “Ashley” Fore, a bookkeeper for the county school system, was also arrested and is charged with providing grand jury information to the media, according to WALA-TV. It was not immediately clear how Fore obtained the information.
Neither District Attorney Billy nor the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office responded to requests for comment.
Atmore News reporter Don Fletcher and publisher Sherry Digmon were arrested on Oct. 27, 2023, and charged with felonies for reporting on an ongoing grand jury investigation in Escambia County, Alabama.
",arrested and released,Escambia County Sheriff’s Office,2023-10-27,2023-10-27,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,pending,False,[],,,,, 2023-11-01 18:17:04.716394+00:00,2024-02-29 17:20:58.675278+00:00,Alabama publisher charged over report on grand jury investigation,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/alabama-publisher-charged-over-report-on-grand-jury-investigation/,2024-02-29 17:20:58.568535+00:00,"publishing: revealing, disclosing or divulging grand jury information (charges pending as of 2023-10-27)",,(2023-10-30 13:04:00+00:00) Alabama publisher placed under prior restraint as condition of bail,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Prior Restraint",,,,Sherry Digmon (Atmore News),,2023-10-27,False,Atmore,Alabama (AL),31.02379,-87.49387,"Atmore News co-owner and publisher Sherry Digmon was arrested in Atmore, Alabama, on Oct. 27, 2023, and charged with a felony for publishing an article on an ongoing grand jury investigation, the newspaper reported.
A reporter for the paper, Don Fletcher, authored an article on Oct. 25 concerning an Escambia County investigation into allegations of mismanagement of federal COVID relief funds by the county Board of Education. The article referenced statements made by District Attorney Steve Billy at an Oct. 12 school board meeting confirming that the superintendent would not be brought before a grand jury.
The article also reported that the outlet had obtained documents stating that Billy had issued a subpoena seeking copies of checks labeled as “COVID” payments or bonuses.
Atmore News reported on Facebook that both Digmon and Fletcher were arrested on Oct. 27, charged with revealing, disclosing or divulging grand jury information, a felony, and released about six hours later after paying $10,000 bonds.
Fletcher, who took a call to the newsroom from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, confirmed that he and Digmon had an initial hearing on Oct. 30 but directed all further inquiries to their attorney, Earnest White. White declined to comment when reached on Oct. 31.
Veronica “Ashley” Fore, a bookkeeper for the county school system, was also arrested and is charged with providing grand jury information to the media, according to WALA-TV. It was not immediately clear how Fore obtained the information.
Neither District Attorney Billy nor the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office responded to requests for comment.
Atmore News reporter Don Fletcher and publisher Sherry Digmon were arrested on Oct. 27, 2023, and charged with felonies for reporting on an ongoing grand jury investigation in Escambia County, Alabama.
",arrested and released,Escambia County Sheriff’s Office,2023-10-27,2023-10-27,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,pending,False,[],,,,, 2023-10-27 15:20:45.073629+00:00,2024-03-14 16:08:55.645032+00:00,"Freelance photojournalist detained, cited at Reno rally",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-photojournalist-detained-cited-at-reno-rally/,2024-03-14 16:08:55.542127+00:00,blocking traffic: crossing a roadway outside of a marked crosswalk (convicted as of 2023-10-25),,(2023-10-25 12:35:00+00:00) Freelance photojournalist pays Reno rally jaywalking fine,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Eric Marks (This Is Reno),,2023-10-20,False,Reno,Nevada (NV),39.52963,-119.8138,"Freelance photojournalist Eric Marks was handcuffed and issued a citation while documenting a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Reno, Nevada, on Oct. 20, 2023, according to a news report.
This Is Reno reported that Marks, whose website says he freelances for the digital news outlet as well as the Reno News & Review, was among multiple members of the press documenting the Reno Rally for Palestine in front of the Bruce R. Thompson Federal Building and Courthouse. The outlet published his photo-essay from the rally.
Marks told the outlet that while members of the press have often reported on protests from the median on Virginia Street, that day the police ordered them to walk across the street despite oncoming traffic. Marks said he refused.
A police spokesperson told This Is Reno that Marks was told to go to the east sidewalk, toward the courthouse, and was warned to avoid the median. Marks said he followed their directions, but that officers ordered them to walk into traffic twice, which This Is Reno confirmed in video from the incident.
An officer then grabbed Marks, twisted his arm behind his back and rushed him across the street before handcuffing and detaining him for 30 minutes in a nearby parking garage, according to the outlet.
Marks told This Is Reno that officers told him he was under arrest and ultimately gave him a citation for crossing a roadway outside of a marked crosswalk, the state’s jaywalking law.
Marks did not respond to requests for comment. The Reno Police Department did not immediately respond to a voicemail requesting additional information.
Freelance photojournalist Eric Marks was detained and cited under Nevada’s jaywalking law while documenting a pro-Palestinian gathering in Reno on Oct. 20, 2023.
",arrested and released,Reno Police Department,2023-10-20,2023-10-20,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"Israel-Gaza war, protest",,, 2023-10-03 18:35:39.960937+00:00,2023-10-04 00:28:38.885804+00:00,"Freelance journalist shoved, arrested while filming police in Arizona",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-journalist-shoved-arrested-while-filming-police-in-arizona/,2023-10-04 00:28:38.722294+00:00,"failure to obey: obedience to officers (charges pending as of 2023-09-19), obstruction: resisting arrest (charges pending as of 2023-09-19)",,,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault",,,,Lucas Mullikin (Freelance),,2023-05-16,False,Yuma,Arizona (AZ),32.72532,-114.6244,"Freelance journalist Lucas Mullikin was shoved to the ground and then arrested while filming officers detain a man in Yuma, Arizona, on May 16, 2023. Prosecutors deferred two charges against him on Sept. 19.
Mullikin, whose work has been published by NBC News, Al Jazeera, Business Insider and CNBC, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was driving by as he saw officers aggressively detaining someone, so pulled over to film with his smartphone from what he believed was a safe distance.
“Knowing not to impede the detention, I positioned myself on the far side of the fence,” Mullikin wrote to the Tracker via email. “[An] officer saw me filming through the fence and yelled ‘Get that guy.’ As I was already backing up, suddenly another officer charged, shoving me to the ground.” Mullikin said that the fall reinjured his ACL and caused his knees to bleed.
In the footage Mullikin captured on his cellphone, the officer tells him to “Stay there” before Mullikin stands and asks multiple times for his badge number. The officer immediately turns, points at Mullikin and tells him that he’s under arrest. As Mullikin calls out for a sergeant, the footage ends.
#Yuma, #Arizona Police assault and unlawfully arrest journalist documenting police violence against unsheltered community member. pic.twitter.com/rwktaWE0Nn
— Lucas Mullikin (@lucasmullikin) September 18, 2023
“I didn’t resist [the arrest] in any way, even as he attempted to lift me off the ground by bending my arm upwards behind my back, a move that could have easily dislocated my shoulder,” Mullikin told the Tracker.
Mullikin told AZ Family that he turned off his cellphone to protect his footage, but that his girlfriend filmed his arrest, in which two officers can be seen pinning him to the ground. He told the Tracker he repeatedly identified himself as a journalist throughout the incident
The Yuma Police Department released the body camera footage from the incident on Sept. 25. Voice-over narration detailed the department’s version of events, including that Mullikin and his girlfriend were “flanked” on either side of the officer during the initial arrest.
“The male subject started to inject himself into the incident by asking the officer questions,” Sergeant Lori Franklin said in the video. “For approximately five minutes the officer had to deal with a resisting suspect and attempt to watch two unknown subjects who continued to encroach into the officers’ direct space.”
Mullikin was charged with failure to obey and resisting arrest, according to court records reviewed by the Tracker. Mullikin said the city prosecutor’s office initially offered a plea deal that would have him serve 40 days in jail, which he declined. They later offered him deferred prosecution, akin to probation, under which he would not be prosecuted on the charges unless he was arrested over the subsequent year. Mullikin accepted the offer — which included paying a $500 fee — on Sept. 19.
Mullikin told the Tracker that he intends to file a civil lawsuit against the Yuma Police Department. He said the deposition of officers in his case found that the department does not provide training on how to interact with journalists or the public’s right to record, and that lack of training makes them negligent.
“It’s very important for me to have a positive outcome for this,” Mullikin said. “I want the city to start hiring accountable officers.”
Body cameras worn by police captured freelance journalist Lucas Mullikin being pinned to the ground and arrested while filming a detainment in Yuma, Arizona, on May 16, 2023.
",arrested and released,Yuma Police Department,None,2023-05-16,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,,,, 2023-05-09 14:29:41.056093+00:00,2024-02-02 16:13:11.069975+00:00,Photojournalist arrested at candlelight vigil for man killed on NYC subway,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-arrested-at-candlelight-vigil-for-man-killed-on-nyc-subway/,2024-02-02 16:13:10.659228+00:00,obstruction: disorderly conduct (charges dropped as of 2024-01-25),,"(2023-07-25 13:03:00+00:00) Disorderly conduct charge against NY photojournalist deferred, (2024-01-25 10:57:00+00:00) Charge dropped against photojournalist arrested at NYC vigil",Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Stephanie Keith (Freelance),,2023-05-08,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"Freelance news photographer Stephanie Keith was arrested while documenting a candlelight vigil in New York, New York, on May 8, 2023.
The vigil was organized following the May 1 death of Jordan Neely, a homeless man who was choked to death on a subway train by a Marine Corps veteran. Keith has been documenting demonstrations in the wake of Neely’s death, with some of her coverage published in Brooklyn Magazine.
Keith was one of nearly a dozen people arrested at the May 8 vigil, according to the New York Post, which was held at the Broadway-Lafayette subway station in Manhattan where Neely was killed. In footage posted to Twitter by Oliya Scootercaster, Keith can be heard identifying herself as a press photographer as multiple officers place her in handcuffs and lead her away.
When reached for comment, a New York Police Department spokesperson confirmed that Keith was issued a summons and released, but declined to say which specific charges were filed against her.
The spokesperson directed the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker to footage of a press conference held later that evening. During the press conference, Chief of Patrol John Chell indicated that the majority of those arrested were charged with obstructing government administration and disorderly conduct.
“The reporter interfered in at least two arrests in the middle of the street and we got very physical,” Chell said. “She interfered a third time, so she was placed under arrest.”
Keith, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, told the Daily News she was detained at the 7th Precinct.
“I was trying to photograph what I thought was an arrest but I never even got a chance to see since they grabbed me as soon as I tried to photograph,” Keith told the News. “I said, ‘I’m press’ and they said, ‘You’re not, you’re arrested.’”
New York Press Photographers Association President Bruce Cotler said in a statement to the News that the organization stands in support of Keith and that he is confident the Manhattan district attorney will drop any charges against her.
Mickey Osterreicher, general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, told the Tracker that Keith was charged with disorderly conduct.
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated with details of the charges filed against Keith.
Photojournalist Stephanie Keith was arrested on May 8, 2023, while documenting a candlelight vigil for a man who died on a New York City subway train earlier in the month. Keith was charged and released.
",arrested and released,New York Police Department,None,2023-05-08,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,protest,,, 2023-05-19 19:48:37.358137+00:00,2023-12-03 22:30:02.059026+00:00,Newspaper ordered to comply with subpoena for jailhouse interview notes,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/newspaper-ordered-to-comply-with-subpoena-for-jailhouse-interview-notes/,2023-12-03 22:30:01.877079+00:00,contempt of court (acquitted as of 2023-11-07),LegalOrder object (213),"(2023-11-15 14:10:00+00:00) Newspaper complies with court order, turns over jailhouse interview notes, (2023-11-07 16:16:00+00:00) Appeals court drops contempt charges, but says paper must turn over jailhouse interview notes, (2023-05-24 12:44:00+00:00) Newspaper held in contempt after refusing to turn over jailhouse interview notes","Subpoena/Legal Order, Arrest/Criminal Charge",,,,,,2023-04-04,False,Bakersfield,California (CA),35.37329,-119.01871,"A California judge has ordered The Bakersfield Californian to comply with a subpoena seeking unpublished materials from a jailhouse interview conducted by one of the newspaper’s reporters. The newspaper and its reporter, Ishani Desai, were instructed on May 10, 2023, to turn over the materials by May 17, but they have refused and now face possible contempt charges.
The dispute began after Desai conducted a jailhouse interview in February with Sebastian Parra. Parra was a key witness in the murder indictment of another inmate, Robert Pernell Roberts, but was subsequently indicted as a co-defendant.
The Californian published Desai's article about Parra on Feb. 26. On March 3, the public defender representing Roberts, Alexandria Blythe, subpoenaed the newspaper seeking any audio or video recordings of the interview or, if no recording exists, a copy of Desai’s notes and interview questions. The Tracker has documented that subpoena here.
While the first subpoena was quashed on April 4, a nearly identical subpoena was issued the same day and served to The Californian on April 10.
An attorney representing the newspaper, Thomas Burke, filed a motion to quash the second subpoena on April 25, according to court filings reviewed by the Tracker.
“In a civil case, the protections for these materials would be absolute; but even criminal defendants like Roberts are not entitled to subject newsgatherers to compelled discovery unless strict conditions are met,” Burke wrote. “Defendant Roberts still cannot begin to satisfy those conditions — he’s simply trying for a second time.”
During a hearing on May 10, Blythe argued that because Parra’s statements to The Californian differed from his sworn testimony it was possible he made other claims that would support Roberts’ defense, according to a transcript reviewed by the Tracker.
Kern County Superior Court Judge Elizabet Rodriguez sided with Blythe, ruling that unlike with the first subpoena, Blythe had successfully shown that the documents would assist in Roberts’ defense.
“Clearly Ms. Blythe does not know what’s in the reporter’s notes since they have not been disclosed,” Rodriguez said, according to the hearing transcript. “There is no requirement that she in fact prove that the notes will be helpful. The requirement is just to make a showing that the information will materially assist his defense.”
Rodriguez ordered the newspaper and Desai to turn over the interview questions and notes by 5 p.m. local time on May 17. According to the transcript, Blythe also intends to call Desai as a witness at the trial, which is scheduled to begin on May 24.
Burke told the Tracker that one of the most alarming aspects was how the judge's decision might encourage similar demands for reporters' notes in future.
“She announced it in a courtroom where I counted at least five prominent criminal defense attorneys who were really listening, as she said how frankly easy it is for a criminal defendant to get notes from a reporter who interviews them,” Burke said. “That’s not a good development. Absent a reversal by the Court of Appeals, that’s like a blueprint for every criminal defendant that the newspaper interviews.”
The Californian filed an emergency appeal on May 15 requesting a stay of the order compelling Desai to turn over her notes. The Court of Appeals determined that the request was premature, and that a newsperson must be held in contempt before the appellate court can intercede.
Burke confirmed to the Tracker that The Californian would not turn over the materials, and Desai said she and the newspaper plan to continue fighting the order.
“We are doing this because we don’t believe that my notes, my unpublished materials, should be seized by any government agency in order for them to use them for their purposes,” Desai said. “A news organization is independent, we don’t help the government do its job.”
A portion of a judge’s May 10, 2023, ruling ordering The Bakersfield Californian to comply with a subpoena seeking recordings or notes from reporter Ishani Desai’s jailhouse interview with a defendant charged with murder.
",charged without arrest,Superior Court of California,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,journalist communications or work product,['IGNORED'],None,None,Institution,subpoena,State,None,False,[],The Bakersfield Californian,,,, 2023-02-09 16:29:30.325939+00:00,2024-02-06 16:16:42.416563+00:00,NewsNation reporter arrested while covering Ohio governor news conference,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/newsnation-reporter-arrested-while-covering-ohio-governor-news-conference/,2024-02-06 16:13:28.168992+00:00,"trespassing: criminal trespass (charges dropped as of 2023-02-15), obstruction: resisting arrest (charges dropped as of 2023-02-15)",,"(2023-11-13 13:58:00+00:00) NewsNation reporter sues over wrongful arrest, battery, (2023-02-09 14:38:00+00:00) Body camera footage, law enforcement statements released in arrest of NewsNation correspondent, (2023-02-15 14:15:00+00:00) Charges against NewsNation correspondent dropped, (2024-01-30 00:00:00+00:00) TV reporter settles Ohio arrest and battery suit","Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault",,,,Evan Lambert (NewsNation),,2023-02-08,False,East Palestine,Ohio (OH),40.83395,-80.54035,"NewsNation Correspondent Evan Lambert was forced to the ground and arrested while covering a news conference held by Ohio’s governor in East Palestine on Feb. 8, 2023. The outlet reported live as he was released approximately five hours later.
Lambert was reporting live at around 5 p.m. as Gov. Mike DeWine spoke in a school gymnasium about cleanup efforts around a recent train derailment. Law enforcement officers approached Lambert at the back of the room, telling him to be quiet. After finishing his live report, officers again approached him and asked that he leave.
In footage of the incident, Lambert can be seen speaking with four law enforcement officers as one of them pulls on Lambert’s arm to forcibly remove him. Officers ultimately forced Lambert to the ground, pinning him on his stomach while handcuffing him. Two officers then place him in what appears to be a Columbiana County Sheriff’s Office vehicle.
NewsNation Washington Bureau Chief Mike Viqueria said during a broadcast that he spoke to Lambert while he was jailed.
“The first thing I’m going to tell you is Evan continues to act with a calm professionalism and equanimity despite what appears to me to be an infuriating outrage and violation of the First Amendment,” Viqueria said.
NewsNation reported live as Lambert was released from the Columbiana County Jail at around 10:15 p.m. He faces charges of criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct. It was not immediately clear which law enforcement agency filed the charges. When reached by phone, the Columbiana County Sheriff’s Office directed the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker to contact the East Palestine Police Department. A EPPD officer said that they would be releasing a press release on Feb. 9.
After his release, Lambert said he was doing fine and that it had been an extremely long day.
“I’m just trying to do my job — as I am continuing to do right now — and that’s what it’s all about,” Lambert said. “No journalist expects to be arrested when you’re doing your job, and I think that’s really important that that doesn’t happen in our country.”
"No journalist expects to be arrested when you're doing your job," @EvanLambertTV says. He goes on to say he will continue to do his job and report what people need to know.
— NewsNation (@NewsNation) February 9, 2023
Watch #Banfield: https://t.co/s8z9kEhRC4 pic.twitter.com/tqHDvxHbk7
The governor told reporters shortly after the arrest that he had not ordered or authorized it.
“It has always been my practice that if I’m doing a press conference, someone wants to report out there and they want to be talking back to the people back on channel, whatever, they have every right to do that,” DeWine said. “If someone was stopped from doing that, or told they could not do that, that was wrong.”
NewsNation correspondent Evan Lambert is pinned to the ground after being stopped from covering a news conference held by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Feb. 8, 2023. He was arrested and later released with pending charges.
",arrested and released,East Palestine Police Department,None,None,True,4:23-cv-02200,['DISMISSED'],Civil,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,,,, 2023-01-19 15:41:37.800666+00:00,2023-07-31 20:42:56.195050+00:00,"SC reporter arrested, banned from tribal lands",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/sc-reporter-arrested-banned-from-tribal-lands/,2023-07-31 20:42:56.073192+00:00,trespassing (charges dropped as of 2023-07-17),,(2023-07-17 16:31:00+00:00) Trespassing charge against reporter dropped,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Maggie Brown (The Post and Courier),,2023-01-14,False,Rock Hill,South Carolina (SC),34.92487,-81.02508,"Post and Courier reporter Maggie Brown was arrested and charged with trespassing after being removed from a Catawba Nation general council meeting near Rock Hill, South Carolina, on Jan. 14, 2023.
The Post and Courier, which originally reported the arrest in a since-deleted article, wrote that Brown was in attendance to cover discussions around whether to cut ties with the operators of a Catawba-owned casino that is under federal scrutiny. That article is available for reference from an internet archive. Brown and Managing Editor Andy Shain declined to comment when reached by email.
Queen City News reported that tribal administrators denied Brown’s request to attend the meeting — which was only open to tribal members and invited guests — in the days leading up to the event. The News reported that approximately 200 people were in attendance.
The York County Sheriff’s Office told the outlet that a deputy gave Brown a citation for trespassing, a misdemeanor punishable by up to 30 days in jail or a $200 fine, and released her. Brown left the Catawba reservation under a police escort.
The Catawba Nation condemned her actions in a statement released on Twitter after the incident, referring to her as Maggie Brown Driggers. The statement said that she had flaunted tribal sovereignty and disrespected their boundaries.
“Catawba General Council meetings are gatherings of Catawba citizens to discuss, debate, and ultimately vote on issues facing the Nation,” the statement said. “We are a sovereign nation with the power to set boundaries and laws on our land to protect and serve our people. This includes restricting those who are allowed and not allowed in our meetings.”
According to the statement, Brown has been banned from tribal lands.
The York County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to a voicemail requesting further information.
Wall Street Journal reporter Dion Rabouin was detained on alleged trespassing charges while reporting outside of a bank in Phoenix, Arizona, on Nov. 23, 2022.
ABC15 Arizona reported that Rabouin, who’s based in New York, had traveled to Arizona to visit family during the Thanksgiving holiday. He told the outlet he went to a Chase branch in north Phoenix to interview customers for an ongoing story about savings accounts.
Rabouin, who declined to comment further, said he was standing on a sidewalk outside the building when a pair of employees asked him what he was doing. According to a police report about the incident, bank employees called the Phoenix Police Department to report a suspicious person at approximately 2:45 p.m. and an officer arrived 20 minutes later. The report claims Rabouin told the employees he was a reporter conducting interviews and refused to leave, and that when the officer asked Rabouin to produce his identification, he refused.
Rabouin refuted that account in an interview with ABC15. The reporter said that he had told the branch employees that he was there working on a story and at no time did the bank ask him to leave. When the officer arrived at the scene, he identified himself as a reporter for the Journal.
When the officer told him he was trespassing, Rabouin said that he was unaware it was private property and attempted to leave, but was physically blocked from doing so.
Rabouin told ABC15 the officer started grabbing his arms and when he drew back, the officer said, “This could get bad for you if you don’t comply and don’t do what I say.”
The reporter was then placed in handcuffs. According to ABC15, a bystander saw the situation unfolding and began recording the detainment on her cellphone. The station aired the footage she captured.
“I heard him say he was going to leave,” the woman says in the recording. “This is ridiculous. He’s a reporter.”
In the footage, the officer led Rabouin to his police car and attempted to place him in the back, but the reporter refused to place his feet inside to allow the officer to close the door. The two talked for several minutes until additional officers arrived, and approximately 15 minutes after he was initially detained, Rabouin was released.
According to the police report, the officer informed Rabouin that he was “officially trespassed from the property” and that if he returned he would be arrested and charged.
Rabouin told ABC15 that he filed an internal complaint with the Phoenix Police Department in the days that followed. About a week later, he received a call notifying him that it had reviewed the incident and found no wrongdoing.
In a letter shared with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker by the Journal, Editor-in-Chief Matt Murray called on Chief of Police Michael Sullivan in early December to conduct an internal review.
“I am appalled and concerned that officers at your department would attempt to interfere with Mr. Rabouin’s constitutional right to engage in journalism and purport to limit anyone’s presence in a public location,” Murray wrote. “The Journal and Mr. Rabouin are still determining what further action to take in response to his detention by your officers.”
When reached for comment by the Tracker via email in January 2023, PhxPD spokesperson Sgt. Melissa Soliz acknowledged the letter and said the department had opened an investigation.
“This letter was shared with our Professional Standard Bureau for review and they are conducting an administrative investigation. Once the administrative investigation is complete, it will be made available as part of a public records request,” Soliz said.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, a founding partner of the Tracker, condemned Rabouin’s detainment and echoed calls for an internal investigation to ensure that no other journalists are hampered or harassed by police in the course of their work.
“Detaining and handcuffing a journalist — who was gathering news in a public place — is a flagrant violation of his First Amendment rights,” said CPJ U.S. and Canada Program Coordinator Katherine Jacobsen.
The police department is facing ongoing scrutiny from the Department of Justice, which announced in August 2021 that it would be assessing, among other things, whether PhxPD officers retaliate against people engaging in activities protected by the First Amendment or carry out discriminatory policing.
Rabouin told ABC15 that while he as a journalist does not want to be the story, it’s important to share his experience.
“This is a department that’s under DOJ investigation for excessive force, under investigation for the way they operate and handle business, and despite that, they continue to operate this way,” Rabouin said.
Wall Street Journal reporter Dion Rabouin was handcuffed by a Phoenix Police Department officer and threatened with trespassing charges while conducting interviews outside a Chase Bank in Phoenix, Arizona, on Nov. 23, 2022.
",detained and released without being processed,Phoenix Police Department,None,2022-11-23,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,,,, 2022-11-08 21:27:20.582038+00:00,2023-08-16 17:13:11.128343+00:00,Ohio editor charged with wiretapping after publishing obtained court recording,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/ohio-editor-charged-with-wiretapping-after-publishing-obtained-court-recording/,2023-08-16 17:13:10.959830+00:00,"wiretapping: interception of wire, oral or electronic communications (charges dropped as of 2023-08-10)",LegalOrder object (203),(2023-08-14 13:11:00+00:00) Wiretapping charge against Ohio editor dropped after more than nine months,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Subpoena/Legal Order",,,,Derek Myers (Scioto Valley Guardian),,2022-10-31,False,Waverly,Ohio (OH),None,None,"Scioto Valley Guardian Editor-in-Chief Derek Myers was charged with felony wiretapping on Oct. 31, 2022, after publishing a recording of witness testimony from an ongoing trial in Waverly, Ohio.
Myers told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he has been covering the murder trial of George Wagner IV, which began in September. As part of that coverage, the newspaper was using a laptop to livestream witness testimony and exhibits. Judge Randy Deering issued an order before the trial began allowing anyone testifying in the case to “opt out” of being filmed by the media. The Fourth District Court of Appeals issued an emergency order overruling him partway through the testimony of Wagner’s brother, Jake, who was indicted alongside Wagner and their parents for the 2016 killings of eight members of the Rhoden family.
The court ordered that media be allowed to film unless Deering was able to show cause that it could jeopardize the fairness of the trial. Deering ruled that if Jake were to appear on camera he might be “nervous” and untruthful, again barring media from recording video or audio of him.
Myers told the Tracker that he was out of the country when Jake took the stand, but that someone in the courtroom surreptitiously recorded his testimony and provided it to the Guardian. After deliberation, Myers published a condensed version of the audio on Oct. 28.
According to files reviewed by the Tracker, Judge Anthony Moraleja approved a search warrant that day for a Guardian laptop being used to livestream the trial. The Tracker documented the laptop seizure and the illegal seizure of Myers’ cellphone here.
The Pike County Sheriff’s Office subsequently charged Myers with interception of wire, electronic or oral communications, a fourth degree felony. According to court records, he was charged under Ohio Revised Code Section 2933.52 (A)(3), which forbids the use of a recording that one knows or has reason to believe was illegally obtained.
Myers turned himself into custody on Nov. 1 and was released after paying a $20,000 bond. He told the Tracker that he pleaded not guilty at a hearing the following day. He also waived his right to a preliminary hearing, where evidence is presented before a judge who decides whether the case should advance to trial. Instead, his case will be heard by a grand jury, which will determine whether to indict him on the charges.
When reached for comment, the Pike County Prosecutor’s Office told the Tracker that the next grand jury session is scheduled to begin in February 2023, when the new prosecutor takes office.
One of Myers’ attorneys, John Greiner, highlighted the Supreme Court ruling in Bartnicki v. Vopper, which ruled that the media cannot be held liable for publishing information that was obtained illegally by a source.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, a founding partner of the Tracker, condemned the equipment seizure and the charges against Myers in a statement.
“The incompetency of local law enforcement to abide by basic legal proceedings would be comical if it were not so concerning,” said CPJ U.S. and Canada Program Coordinator Katherine Jacobsen. “Not only have Pike County authorities confiscated journalist Derek Myers’ cellphone and the Scioto Valley Guardian’s laptop without presenting a valid warrant, but they have also lobbed wiretapping charges against Myers for keeping the community informed about an ongoing murder trial. Retaliating against a news outlet, especially a small local publication, for doing their jobs in matters of public interest is completely unacceptable.”
Myers told the Tracker he hasn’t been able to cover the trial since his arrest.
“I tasked myself with covering this eight-week trial and I should be there covering it, but I can’t because I don’t have the equipment,” Myers said. “And, frankly, I don’t feel safe in that courthouse. If I take another cellphone down there they’ll probably seize that too.”
Scioto Valley Guardian Editor-in-Chief Derek Myers was charged with felony wiretapping on Oct. 31, 2022, after publishing an obtained recording of testimony from an ongoing murder trial in Waverly, Ohio.
",arrested and released,Pike County Sheriff's Office,None,2022-11-01,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,Journalist,warrant,State,None,False,None,,,,, 2022-08-26 20:14:11.300158+00:00,2024-02-29 19:11:19.004006+00:00,"New Hampshire newspaper publisher arrested, charged with violating political ad laws",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/new-hampshire-newspaper-publisher-arrested-charged-with-violating-political-ad-laws/,2024-02-29 19:11:18.890242+00:00,"publishing: failure to identify political advertising (convicted as of 2023-12-07), publishing: failure to identify political advertising (convicted as of 2023-12-07), publishing: failure to identify political advertising (convicted as of 2023-12-07), publishing: failure to identify political advertising (convicted as of 2023-12-07), publishing: failure to identify political advertising (convicted as of 2023-12-07)",,"(2022-10-19 13:58:00+00:00) NH publisher pleads not guilty to charges of violating political ad law, (2023-12-07 00:00:00+00:00) New Hampshire newspaper publisher convicted, fined for mislabeling political ads",Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Debra Paul (Londonderry Times),,2022-08-24,False,Londonderry,New Hampshire (NH),42.86509,-71.37395,"The publisher of a New Hampshire-based weekly newspaper, the Londonderry Times, was arrested on Aug. 24, 2022, and charged with publishing political advertisements without correctly identifying them as ads.
According to a press release by Attorney General John M. Formella, publisher Debra Paul was charged with six misdemeanor counts of violating state laws on political advertisements. Paul had previously been investigated and warned by the state’s Election Law Unit for failing to comply with state election law in 2019 and 2021. According to the statement, Paul was issued a final warning letter about properly labeling the ads in September 2021.
In a statement emailed to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, Paul condemned the state’s actions against the newspaper.
“This is clearly a case of a small business needing to defend itself against overreaching government. To threaten a small business owner with jail time over something this insignificant is very heavy handed,” Paul wrote.
Paul’s lawyer, Tony Naro, told the Tracker in an emailed statement that he could not make public statements about pending matters but denied any wrongdoing by Paul. Naro also said Paul arrived at the police station after making arrangements to turn herself in for processing before being released.
“The Londonderry Times does their absolute best to put out a quality publication with limited staff and a limited budget. Ms. Paul acted with no criminal intent, denies the allegations, and is presumed innocent. It is our intention to handle this matter exclusively in the court system where it belongs and not in the press. While this matter plays out in court, we ask for the public, and the media, to keep an open mind and not prejudge this case.”
If convicted, Paul faces a maximum penalty of one year in county jail and a fine of up to $2,000 per charge. An arraignment is scheduled for Oct. 19, 2022.
Photojournalist Alberto Mariani, a Pulliam Fellow with The Arizona Republic, was detained by Arizona Department of Public Safety troopers while documenting reproductive rights protests at the capitol building in Phoenix on June 25, 2022.
Protests broke out across the country following the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial ruling overturning Roe v. Wade on June 24, which established that the right to abortion is guaranteed under the right to privacy. The Republic reported that protesters in Phoenix gathered at the Arizona Capitol complex, pounding on the doors and windows of the Senate building while the legislature was in session.
Mariani told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that troopers set up temporary fences around the perimeter of the Capitol the following morning. Hundreds gathered for demonstrations at the complex that evening, Mariani said, and the protests continued peacefully until around 11 p.m. when most of the protesters dispersed.
“Around 11:30 p.m. that night, there were 50 or 60 people around and about five people started pulling down the fences,” Mariani said. “At that moment, once they tore down the fences, a group of 20 or 30 state troopers came out.”
The troopers announced that the assembly was unlawful and ordered everyone to disperse, but Mariani said that within 20 to 30 seconds the crowd — including him and Republic photojournalists Joel Angel Juárez and Antranik Tavitian — were surrounded.
“We were shouting that we were members of the press as we were holding our press badges up in the air, our cameras as well,” Mariani told the Tracker.
Mariani said he was separated from his colleagues and was standing approximately 5 to 10 feet away when a trooper approached and ordered him to get on the ground.
“I followed the order and got on the ground on my knees,” Mariani said. “As soon as I did, that same officer pushed me to the ground and restrained me for a little bit, and I saw from the photos that he was actually trying to handcuff me.”
Arizona Republic Pulliam Fellow @albe_mariani, 1st photo, was also temporarily detained by Arizona State Troopers during tonight’s abortion-rights rally. He was released within minutes after @AntranikTaviti1, 2nd photo, & myself identified him as a member of the press. @azcentral pic.twitter.com/fbxXCBAqi0
— Joel Angel Juárez (@jajuarezphoto) June 26, 2022
Mariani said the trooper “absolutely” knew he was a journalist when he ordered Mariani to the ground, and continued to restrain him for several minutes until his colleagues told another trooper that he was with The Republic.
“It’s just evident that the officers didn’t care whether you were wearing a press badge or not,” Mariani said.
Jack Sorgi, a photographer with LLN Arizona, a newsgathering collective, was also detained by state troopers that night. The Tracker has documented that incident here.
After he was released, Mariani and his colleagues were ordered to the other side of the road along with all other members of the press. He said they were able to continue documenting without further issue as other detainees were arrested and processed.
When reached for comment, DPS Media Relations Specialist Bart Graves provided this statement: “They were in a restricted area and once they identified themselves as news media (via credentials) they were released. Local media are well aware of the rules.”
Find press freedom violations documented by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker at reproductive rights demonstrations across the U.S. here.
Photographer Jack Sorgi was detained by Arizona Department of Public Safety troopers while documenting reproductive rights protests at the capitol building in Phoenix on June 25, 2022.
Protests broke out across the country following the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial ruling overturning Roe v. Wade on June 24, which established that the right to abortion is guaranteed under the right to privacy. The Republic reported that protesters in Phoenix gathered at the Arizona Capitol complex, pounding on the doors and windows of the Senate building while the legislature was in session.
Troopers set up temporary fences around the perimeter of the Capitol the following morning, according to The Republic.
Sorgi, who documents for LLN Arizona, part of a newsgathering collective, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that hundreds gathered for demonstrations at the complex that day until most dispersed at around 11 p.m.
“Around the 11:15 p.m. mark, that’s when protesters started grabbing on the chain link fence that surrounded the Capitol,” Sorgi said. “[They] started shaking it, eventually pulling the fence down about a dozen feet of the fence.”
Approximately 45 seconds later, Sorgi said state troopers announced that it was an unlawful assembly and dozens of troopers swarmed the area from the north and south sides of the Capitol.
In footage Sorgi captured of the incident, a line of troopers can be seen running out from behind the fences with some shouting “Get on the ground!” and “Back up!”
Following hours of sit-ins and marches a small group remained after 11 PM at the state capitol where they began attempting to take down the fence surrounding the building. DPS quickly swarmed the area and surrounded the group ordering everyone to the floor (myself included) pic.twitter.com/9Tis98JsLB
— LLN Jack | Phoenix Metro (@LLN_Jack) June 26, 2022
The video continues as Sorgi moves away from the advancing troopers toward the sidewalk where multiple individuals who appear to be photographers and legal observers are already kneeling on the ground.
Sorgi told the Tracker he verbally identified himself as press while holding his press pass out in front of him. He also said he was wearing a T-shirt with “media” printed across the front and back.
“Get all the way down man, all the way down,” a state trooper directs him in the footage. “I don’t care what your pass says.”
Sorgi said that after getting on the ground he tried to position his camera at the trooper who was giving him orders, but the trooper told him to put his hands “all the way down” and grabbed his camera by the lens hood and forced it into the ground.
At least one other journalist, Arizona Republic photojournalist Alberto Mariani, was also detained by state troopers that night. The Tracker has documented that incident here.
Sorgi continued to record as multiple individuals nearby were allowed to stand and leave the area. After approximately a minute on the ground, Sorgi said a trooper who appeared to be supervising the others said, “This guy has a camera, get him out of here.” Sorgi was then directed to stand and follow the others across the street.
When reached for comment, DPS Media Relations Specialist Bart Graves provided this statement: “They were in a restricted area and once they identified themselves as news media (via credentials) they were released. Local media are well aware of the rules.”
Find press freedom violations documented by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker at reproductive rights demonstrations across the U.S. here.
LLN Arizona photographer Jack Sorgi, center, was ordered to get on the ground and briefly detained by state troopers while documenting reproductive rights protests in Phoenix on June 25, 2022.
",detained and released without being processed,Arizona Department of Public Safety,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"court verdict, protest, reproductive rights",,, 2022-07-05 20:45:49.442183+00:00,2022-08-05 19:15:59.230713+00:00,Photographer documenting reproductive rights protests detained at Arizona Capitol,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-detained-at-arizona-capitol-while-documenting-reproductive-rights-protests/,2022-08-05 19:15:59.178652+00:00,,,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,"Michael ""Mike"" Gonzalez (LLN Arizona)",,2022-06-25,False,Phoenix,Arizona (AZ),33.44838,-112.07404,"Photographer Michael "Mike" Gonzalez was detained by Arizona Department of Public Safety troopers while documenting reproductive rights protests at the capitol building in Phoenix on June 25, 2022.
Protests broke out across the country following the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial ruling overturning Roe v. Wade on June 24, which established that the right to abortion is guaranteed under the right to privacy. The Republic reported that protesters in Phoenix gathered at the Arizona Capitol complex, pounding on the doors and windows of the Senate building while the legislature was in session.
Troopers set up temporary fences around the perimeter of the Capitol the following morning, according to The Republic.
Gonzalez, who documents for LLN Arizona, part of a newsgathering collective, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he and his colleague Jack Sorgi arrived to document as hundreds gathered for demonstrations at the complex that day until most dispersed shortly before 11 p.m.
“There was a crowd that decided to stay — I’d say anywhere between 40 to 70 people,” Gonzalez said. “At some point, there was a group of 5 to 10 people who kept on touching the fence, grabbing the fence, checking its integrity to see how much it would take to pull it down.”
Gonzalez told the Tracker that immediately after some of the individuals pulled down a section of the fence, DPS troopers announced that it was an unlawful assembly and ordered everyone to disperse.
“At that same time, DPS from every corner — from inside the building, outside the building, from the street side — stormed in with police cars and riot gear,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez said the troopers shouted for everyone to get on the ground, so he knelt on one knee while holding his press pass in front of him and identifying himself as press. In addition to his press badge, Gonzalez said he was wearing a shirt printed with Loud Labs News and was carrying a professional camera.
“A trooper basically storms in, yells at me to get all the way down and basically stands overtop of me as I laid there,” Gonzalez said. He added that he put his camera down in the grass and tried to angle it toward the other journalists who were being detained.
Sorgi and at least one other journalist, Arizona Republic photojournalist Alberto Mariani, were also ordered to the ground by state troopers that night. The Tracker has documented those incidents here.
After a few minutes, Gonzalez was told he could get up and that all members of the press should cross the street and stay out of the troopers’ way.
“My number one priority after my initial detainment was to figure out where Jack was and make sure he was good and that he didn’t actually get fully detained and put in handcuffs,” Gonzalez said. Once he located Sorgi, Gonzalez said the pair continued documenting until the troopers had completed the arrests of multiple demonstrators.
“We’re press photographers and we’re documenting, so a couple of our rights got broken,” Gonzalez said. “For that to happen on public property is kind of a scary thing to think about. If you go on state property or into a state building, you’re supposed to feel protected or safe and I didn’t.”
When reached for comment, DPS Media Relations Specialist Bart Graves provided this statement: “They were in a restricted area and once they identified themselves as news media (via credentials) they were released. Local media are well aware of the rules.”
Find press freedom violations documented by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker at reproductive rights demonstrations across the U.S. here.
Independent videographer Sean Beckner-Carmitchel was repeatedly shoved and detained in a kettle alongside other journalists 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 eight journalists in the city that night.
Beckner-Carmitchel told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he arrived at Pershing Square in downtown LA at around 2 p.m., and that the first hours of the protest were energetic but not destructive.
After a group of protesters were able to block the highway, disrupting traffic, Beckner-Carmitchel said the atmosphere shifted and the Los Angeles Police Department officers became more aggressive with the demonstrators and press. He told the Tracker that he was shoved by officers multiple times that evening, and that at one point an officer shoved a protester who then fell into him.
Shortly after 9 p.m., Beckner-Carmitchel posted on Twitter that police had detained him alongside protesters and other journalists using a technique known as kettling, in which police box in a crowd before typically conducting mass arrests.
Kettled. One member of press currently detained. Lots of violence.
— Sean Beckner-Carmitchel (@ACatWithNews) June 25, 2022
The Tracker has documented all of the journalists detained in the kettle that night here.
Beckner-Carmitchel told the Tracker he was released at exactly 9:30 p.m., and that he believed they were detained for 30 to 45 minutes.
“A lot of what I saw was a flagrant violation of the spirit of [Senate Bill 98], if not the letter of the law,” Beckner-Carmitchel said.
In October 2021, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 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.
LAPD 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 Sean Beckner-Carmitchel.
Anthony Cabassa, a field correspondent for the conservative bilingual outlet El American, was detained in a kettle alongside at least one other journalist 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 eight journalists in the city that night.
In a Twitter post at 9:45 p.m., Cabassa wrote that police had detained him alongside protesters and other journalists using a technique known as kettling, in which police box in a crowd before typically conducting mass arrests.
In my reporting this evening, I (alongside protestors and other journalists) are being detained. This after the group I was following assaulted police and were vandalizing downtown shops.
— Anthony Cabassa (@AnthonyCabassa_) June 25, 2022
I showed police my journalist credentials, they said we cannot leave, as arrests are made. pic.twitter.com/KrIkzR8ukp
“When we approach the police line, we are told that we are not allowed to leave. We showed them our media credentials,” Cabassa said in a video posted with the tweet. “I guess we’re being detained. I believe we are awaiting further instructions on what’s to happen, but as of now we cannot leave, we cannot leave at all.”
Cabassa did not respond to a request for additional comment.
Independent videographer Sean Beckner-Carmitchel, confirmed to the Tracker that he was detained in the kettle alongside Cabassa that night, and that they were released at 9:30 p.m. The Tracker has documented Beckner-Carmitchel’s detainment here.
At around 10:30 p.m., Cabassa posted on Twitter that he had been released without being charged.
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 details from independent videographer Sean Beckner-Carmitchel.
In his Twitter livestream, El American correspondent Anthony Cabassa details his detainment while covering a reproductive rights demonstration in Los Angeles on June 24, 2022.
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Protests broke out across the country following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning the landmark case of Roe v. Wade, which had previously protected the right to abortion under the right to privacy.
Singh told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that when he arrived at Los Angeles City Hall shortly after 6 p.m. to cover the demonstrations, the crowds seemed relatively calm, despite hundreds of people already gathered.
As the crowds started marching in different directions, Singh said Los Angeles Police Department officers stopped him and two other reporters behind the protesters.
“I asked them if there was a media viewing area,” Singh said, “and we were eventually let go, but I get frustrated with even these momentary restrictions to access because things happen so quickly during protests.”
Journalists temporarily denied entry as officers assault pro-abortion/pro-choice protesters. We asked about the media viewing zone but were met with no actual reply. pic.twitter.com/8EBkk00IRI
— Vishal P. Singh (they/he) 🏳️⚧️ (@VPS_Reports) June 25, 2022
Singh told the Tracker that after officers allowed the journalists to continue following the crowd, he immediately saw a clash between protesters and police. He started filming the encounter when an officer approached him.
“He walked toward me, grabbed me by the shoulders, and shoved me,” Singh said.
LAPD threatens to hit pro-abortion/pro-choice protesters with their vehicle. As folks move out of the way, impatient riot police start shoving people aside, myself included. pic.twitter.com/aCJkyBnUwz
— Vishal P. Singh (they/he) 🏳️⚧️ (@VPS_Reports) June 25, 2022
Singh said he followed protesters for most of the night and saw police becoming increasingly aggressive. At one point, an officer pointed a crowd-control weapon at him.
“I started filming some b-roll from the sidewalk, focusing my frame when I heard yelling coming from the left,” Singh said, “and when I looked over, I’m staring down the barrel of a riot launcher pointed at my head.”
While I'm filming a police vehicle, I look to my left and stare down the barrel of a 40mm riot gun. This is how LAPD responded tonight. With violence. Soon after this clip they opened fire. pic.twitter.com/6V775G64AR
— Vishal P. Singh (they/he) 🏳️⚧️ (@VPS_Reports) June 25, 2022
Singh said as he backed away from the area an officer noticed him filming and shoved him toward a crowd of people. Afterward, he noticed the press pass he was wearing on a lanyard around his neck had fallen off and was lost.
As LAPD opens fire with riot munitions at point blank range on pro-choice and pro-abortion protesters, I try and get a shot of an officer with a 40mm riot gun and another officer shoves me nearly to the ground. pic.twitter.com/P4s9VDc7PZ
— Vishal P. Singh (they/he) 🏳️⚧️ (@VPS_Reports) June 25, 2022
“I got up, and obviously, I was shaken, and at that point, all hell broke loose,” Singh said.
Singh said he saw police officers assault other journalists, including Tina Desiree-Berg and Samuel Braslow. Soon after, he realized officers were forming a kettle around him and other journalists and protesters.
Journalists kettled. pic.twitter.com/VngJUNwtGw
— Vishal P. Singh (they/he) 🏳️⚧️ (@VPS_Reports) June 25, 2022
“I continually asked the officers if an unlawful assembly had been officially issued or if there was a dispersal order,” Singh said, but to no response. According to Singh, he was allowed to leave after an officer read a dispersal order.
Singh was among several journalists assaulted or detained by LAPD officers while covering the protests. The Los Angeles Times reported that police officers repeatedly ignored a law signed in October 2021 that protected journalists from interference by law enforcement and expanded the rights of journalists covering protests during the civil protests:
“According to Times reporters, witnesses' videos and interviews with other media members on the ground, journalists were pushed, struck with batons, forced out of areas where they had a right to observe police activity and blocked from entering other areas where police and protesters were clashing and arrests were being made.”
LAPD Chief Michel Moore told the Times that the department would be investigating the complaints made by members of the press. The LAPD did not return emailed requests for comment.
Find press freedom violations documented by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker at reproductive rights demonstrations across the U.S. here.
Freelance photojournalist Julianna Lacoste was detained in a kettle alongside other journalists 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 eight journalists in the city that night.
Lacoste told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she arrived in downtown LA at around 6 p.m., after the protests had already gotten underway. She said she saw a crowd gathered near City Hall and walked with others and they made their way to a highway entrance nearby. When officers with the Los Angeles Police Department and U.S. Department of Homeland Security barred individuals from entering, Lacoste said she thought the protest had more or less ended.
“I walked around downtown with some other press people that I knew trying to find the protesters for about an hour,” Lacoste said.
She had gotten in a car with a couple of other journalists to head home when she spotted lines of police cars driving by and got out to document what was happening.
“I just put myself in front of the protest line in between the protesters and the police, so I was just filming the police at that point,” Lacoste said. “There were at least 100 protesters at that point, it was a big group, and there were just not enough officers.”
Lacoste told the Tracker the situation became increasingly tense as officers tried to give the crowd orders and after someone launched a firework that landed behind the police line.
In a matter of moments, Lacoste said she saw a second firework explode, and officers aggressively shove a legal observer, arrest an individual who had made a makeshift incendiary device and assault independent journalist Tina-Desiree Berg.
Lacoste said she moved along the police skirmish line until she was detained alongside protesters and other journalists using a technique known as kettling, in which police box in a crowd before typically conducting mass arrests. When she identified herself as press and asked if she could leave, Lacoste said the officer told her she’d have to wait as they cleared the area in waves.
Independent videographer Sean Beckner-Carmitchel, who was also detained that night, told the Tracker they were released at 9:30 p.m. after being held for 30 minutes to an hour. The Tracker has documented all of the journalists detained in the kettle that night here.
“I just didn’t think that the protests would escalate to that magnitude,” Lacoste said. “It was worse than I have seen in a long time.”
Lacoste told the Tracker she tried to play it safe that night in order to avoid injuries like those she sustained while covering protests in the city in 2020, which caused her to be hospitalized. After the night’s events, she decided not to cover any of the other protests that weekend.
In October 2021, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 98, which was written in order to ensure the rights of journalists while covering protests or other civic actions, according to NPR. 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.
LAPD did not respond to a request for comment.
Find press freedom violations documented by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker at reproductive rights demonstrations across the U.S. here.
Photojournalist Julianna Lacoste documented reproductive rights protests in Los Angeles, California, on June 24, 2022. That night, she was detained in a police kettle alongside other journalists.
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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 eight journalists in the city that night.
Jean, who asked to only be identified by her first name out of fear of retaliation, told the Tracker she arrived in downtown LA to document the protests taking place near City Hall. She said she filmed from an overpass as some members of the crowd made their way to a highway entrance nearby, and then followed as members of the crowd made their way back into downtown.
“That was when protesting started happening a little differently — people started going against traffic and so on and so forth,” Jean said. “There came a point though where the protesting was stopped by the police, and this was when the first firework went off.”
Officer tried to stop the protesters from advancing, Jean said, but because of their small numbers they were unable to do so. She said that officers resorted to pushing and shoving her and many protesters while running past.
The group of protesters continued marching to another intersection, where Jean said police assaulted multiple members of the press, including independent journalist Tina-Desiree Berg.
“There was a major dash by poIice to the site of the crowd, and so many others rushed in to see what was happening,” Jean said. “In a video that I documented I was telling an officer that I am trying to see what is happening beyond him and while I am telling him this there is Tina — who’s also trying to do the same — except what I see is another officer with a riot gun strikes her across the face and stuns her.”
Jean said that before Berg was able to react, a second officer shoved her to the ground near Jean’s feet, and she helped Berg stand back up.
Soon after, Jean said she was corralled alongside the rest of the crowd and multiple journalists by police using a technique known as kettling, in which police box in a crowd before typically conducting mass arrests.
Independent videographer Sean Beckner-Carmitchel, who was also detained that night, told the Tracker they were released at 9:30 p.m. after being held for 30 minutes to an hour. The Tracker has documented all of the journalists detained in the kettle that night here.
“After already getting out of the kettle around the other side to head back to City Hall,” Jean said, “they still advanced on us again and threatened to kettle us for not dispersing quickly enough.”
“In general, what I take away from the night was that the initial response was to be forcefully aggressive and not follow basic protocol procedures,” Jean told the Tracker.
In October 2021, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 98, which was written in order to ensure the rights of journalists while covering protests or other civic actions, according to NPR. 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.
LAPD did not respond to a request for comment.
Find press freedom violations documented by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker at reproductive rights demonstrations across the U.S. here.
A documentary filmmaker was detained by Atlanta Police Department officers while filming in a forest southeast of Atlanta, Georgia, on June 15, 2022, according to a news report and an interview with the journalist.
The filmmaker — who has produced work for CNN and Discovery Channel — asked to remain anonymous out of concern of retribution. He told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he had begun working on a documentary about the Defend the Atlanta Forest campaign, a grassroots movement against the destruction of forest area to make way for a 85-acre police training facility.
“On that day in particular I had seen on social media that the police were in the forest cutting trees and looking for protesters so I decided to take my cameras and go down,” the filmmaker said. “The protesters in the forest were all hiding, so I didn’t see any of them that day. I walked through the forest and I came to a clearing and I saw the police down the hill on a dirt road in the forest.”
The filmmaker said that he was standing approximately 50 to 80 yards away from the officers and began filming.
“I was standing right in the middle of the road, I was not hiding, I had my vest on that was clearly marked with large patches, front and back, ‘PRESS’,” he said. “And when they approached me I did not run, I did not do anything other than identify myself as a journalist.”
The officers informed him that he was trespassing and that he needed to leave the area. As he began walking in the direction the officers had indicated, the filmmaker said more officers arrived on an all-terrain vehicle and told him that he was being detained.
The filmmaker told the Tracker he was alarmed by the behavior of the officer who seemed to be a supervisor and who had initially told him he was under arrest for trespassing.
“I have no doubt that he’s done this before and he’s confident that he can intimidate a journalist with impunity,” the journalist said.
After examining his ID for 15 minutes, another officer was called in and took the lead in questioning him, at first about what he was doing in the area and then more extensively about his reporting and what he had filmed.
“Everything seemed to stop at that point,” the filmmaker said.
“The next 30 to 40 minutes was all about, ‘We want to see your footage. Delete your footage. We want to see your footage. You might be going to jail. You’re going to be arrested,’” he said. “They were just continually trying to intimidate me into deleting my footage or showing it to them.”
In footage of the incident, an officer tells the filmmaker his responses could determine his ability to walk away.
“I’m going to ask you to delete all the footage that you have today since it was obtained illegally,” the officer says. “And depending on how the rest of this interview goes, will determine whether or not you’re going to be arrested.”
The filmmaker said he believed the officer to be from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
The journalist repeatedly refused to show them or delete the footage, and said he was released after approximately 90 minutes with a warning not to return.
Drago Cepar, an attorney advising the filmmaker, told the Tracker that it is clear the detainment was in retaliation for the journalist exercising his First Amendment rights.
“I think if you detain somebody and tell them they have to delete their footage or else, it’s pretty clear that’s what’s going on,” Cepar said. “I think it’s a pretty egregious situation.”
The APD announced that it would investigate the detainment in December, according to SaportaReport. When emailed for comment, APD’s Public Affairs Office responded with an automated reply that it was operating on holiday on-call capacity, and that it would follow up.
Independent journalist Alissa Azar was detained by Kootenai County Sheriff's deputies and her car searched after she documented multiple arrests at a Pride parade in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, on June 11, 2022.
Portland-based Azar told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she decided to travel to Idaho when she became aware that right-wing and neo-Nazi groups were planning a protest in opposition to the annual Pride in the Park event.
Azar told the Tracker she documented the arrests of two individuals at around 1 p.m., and then continued to report on the general festivities and the actions of the gathered counterprotesters. Azar said she was planning to leave a few hours later when she saw a sheriff running with his baton out, trailed by six or seven individuals.
“I wasn’t sure what was going on but I knew something was happening, so I started running and I followed them,” Azar said. “I followed all the way out of the park and another one to one-and-a-half blocks away, where there were a bunch of police cars in the street. As I got a little bit closer that’s when I saw the group of Patriot Front that was arrested.”
CNN reported that 31 individuals believed to be affiliated with Patriot Front — which the Anti-Defamation League identifies as a white supremacist group — were arrested for conspiracy to riot.
Azar said that while filming law enforcement unmasking and processing each individual, an officer called her by name and told the officer next to him, “There’s your girl, the one filming.”
At approximately 1:38 in her footage, a voice can be heard saying, “Hey Azar, hey Azar.” As the video pans to the right, an officer waves at her while a voice off screen says, “Yeah, that’s her.”
Patriot front arrested. they have a uhaul filled with shields and idk what else https://t.co/c8pCyd0xGW pic.twitter.com/omQuLyPpoe
— alissa azar (@AlissaAzar) June 11, 2022
Azar told the Tracker that she returned to her car when the arrests were finished, which was parked about a mile away.
“I had a bad feeling after being called out by name, but I didn’t notice anyone following me,” Azar said. She opened all of her car doors to allow it to cool off; within five minutes, a Kootenai Sheriff's deputy arrived and began asking her questions.
“I do think it was extremely targeted,” Azar told the Tracker.
The deputy told her that by leaving her doors open she was blocking the roadway and breaking the law, so she closed the doors but the officer continued to question her and asked her to sit on the sidewalk. Azar told the Tracker that throughout the encounter she identified herself as a journalist and was wearing her press badge.
She said two additional police vehicles pulled up within 15 minutes, and an officer questioned her about her presence at the various arrests during the day.
“He said that he was suspicious of my involvement because I was one of the first people there on the scene, but I thought that was very odd because there were a bunch of onlookers there that were witnessing it,” Azar said. “And I was the first person at every arrest that happened that day because that’s kind of what I do: I document all of that.”
She was then told to go back to the sidewalk, where within moments a Sheriff’s deputy told her she was being detained.
“I thought it was a joke,” Azar said.
“Ok. NOW you’re being detained.” I thought this was a joke at first, but they were serious. The sheriff left for a moment as the other cops began taking a ton of pictures of me on their phones. The sheriff came back with his K9 and the cops began searching every inch of the car
— alissa azar (@AlissaAzar) June 12, 2022
The K-9 officer and other deputies proceeded to search her car and belongings. Azar said that while she was sitting on the sidewalk, numerous other officers took photos of her with their cellphones.
Officers did not find anything in her car, Azar said, and she was ultimately released without charges after about an hour. She told the Tracker she has not decided whether to file a complaint with the Sheriff’s department.
More than 30 members of a white nationalist group were arrested at a Pride event in Idaho on June 11, 2022. Shortly after documenting their arrests, independent journalist Alissa Azar was herself detained by law enforcement.
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Fatica, who is based in Arizona, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in December that he was on assignment for Unicorn Riot that day covering protests organized by the Defend the Atlanta Forest campaign. According to Fatica’s reporting for the nonprofit media organization, demonstrators gathered in Atlanta as part of a “week of action” against the planned destruction of 85 acres of forest to make way for a police training facility.
Fatica told the Tracker that on May 14, protesters marched for approximately an hour before returning to Freedom Park and beginning to disperse.
“We could see the cops starting to line up at the edge of the park, piles of zip ties in their hands,” Fatica said. “Lots of people left, others thought that they were in a public park so they didn’t have anything to worry about.”
Atlanta Police Department officers advanced on those remaining in the park without warning, Fatica said. While he was filming the arrest of a demonstrator, an officer pointed at him and directed other officers to detain him as well.
“Him too, he was in the street recording, he was recording, too,” the officer can be heard saying in Fatica’s footage of the incident.
Fatica told the Tracker that while he wasn’t wearing a press badge, as soon as officers grabbed him he identified himself as a journalist. While he was handcuffed and on the ground, a sergeant took his reporting notebook from his pocket.
“She started looking through the notes, then said something like, ‘You’re not getting this back,’ and put it in her pocket,” Fatica said. He added that she wrote down his name on the inside flap before walking away.
Fatica said he was one of approximately 17 people detained, and that those who were charged were cited with “pedestrian in roadway,” a misdemeanor.
Once he was transported with the other detainees to jail to be processed, officers realized that the proper paperwork had not been filled out for Fatica during his arrest. He said he was released without charges approximately five hours after he was detained.
“I do believe that my arrest is part of a process of escalation of tactics against that movement and anyone documenting it,” Fatica said. “If this had been a protest about some issue unrelated to the police they would not have attacked it in the way that they did.”
When emailed for comment, the Atlanta Police Department’s Public Affairs Office responded with an automated reply that it was operating on holiday on-call capacity, and that it would follow up.
Fatica told the Tracker that his notebook still had not been returned as of December. Attorney Drago Cepar has filed an ante litem notice on Fatica’s behalf, the first step in filing a lawsuit against the Georgia government. Cepar said the event in the park deserves to be rectified.
“With Ryan, he hasn’t been ‘arrested,’ but his liberty has been restricted, he has been detained,” Cepar told the Tracker.
Los Angeles-based independent photojournalist Jessica Rogers, who said she shares her work through social media, was arrested and charged with ignoring police orders while documenting protests in San Clemente, California, on April 23, 2022.
The protest was held in remembrance of Kurt Reinhold, a homeless Black man who was fatally shot by Orange County Deputies after jaywalking in front of a hotel in September 2020. According to police, 30-45 individuals had gathered to participate in the demonstration.
Rogers told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she was photographing the march as it advanced toward City Hall, where participants paused to kneel for a moment of silence. As she was taking photos from the curb at about 3:45 p.m, Rogers said multiple deputies with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office came forward and placed her under arrest.
“I immediately said, ‘I am press, here’s my press badge, I am a photographer,’” Rogers told the Tracker, referring to her National Press Photographers Association press badge. “And they told me I was being arrested for being in the street, which later I found out is not true because they are trying to charge me with resisting arrest.”
At 3:45pm on a Saturday I was targeted/arrested by OCSD while photographing the Kurt Reinhold action in San Clemente. While taking photos a large group of sheriffs came into the crowd, grabbed, & arrested me. My @NPPA press badge was in plain sight & I verbally stated I was press pic.twitter.com/zBYMmH7g13
— Jessica (@jessrayerogers) April 24, 2022
Sgt. Scott Steinle, a public information officer for the Sheriff’s Office, clarified that both Rogers and a second individual who was taking photographs, Juan Gomez, were charged under California Penal Code 148 (A)(1). The law criminalizes willfully resisting, delaying or obstructing a public officer.
“They went out into the public roadway somewhere between four and six different times. Each time, Sheriff’s Department personnel contacted these two individuals who were told to return to the sidewalk area,” Steinle said, noting that that area has a 45-mile per hour speed limit.
Steinle also refuted assertions that the pair were targeted because they were documenting the protest.
“As a member of the press you are supposed to be performing your duties in a responsible manner, and it’s completely irresponsible when you’re told by law enforcement that you are causing a hazard and putting yourself in a hazardous situation to continue to do so,” Steinle said. “They were told numerous times and subsequently they forced our hand and we had to make an arrest.”
Before transporting her to a staging location nearby, Rogers said deputies allowed her to hand off her camera and cellphone to one of the protest organizers. Once she was taken to a law enforcement facility in Santa Ana, Rogers told the Tracker she was transferred in and out of multiple cells, repeatedly questioned about why she was arrested and denied water or access to a working phone for more than 13 hours.
“I shut down,” she said. “I realized that they can and will do whatever they want to me in there.”
Rogers said she was released the following morning at 5:15 a.m. Rogers said her release paperwork orders her to appear for a preliminary hearing on July 22, but her online arrest record lists her next appearance date as May 23. She said she is unsure of the reason behind the discrepancy. If convicted, she faces a fine of up to $1,000, one year in jail or both.
Orange County Sheriff’s deputies detain social media journalist Jessica Rogers at a demonstration in remembrance of Kurt Reinhold, a homeless Black man killed by police, in San Clemente, California, on April 23, 2022.
",arrested and released,Orange County Sheriff's Office,2022-04-24,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, protest",,, 2022-01-06 15:20:11.838984+00:00,2023-11-03 18:09:29.796592+00:00,"Reporter arrested, phone confiscated while covering NC homeless camp eviction",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-arrested-phone-confiscated-while-covering-nc-homeless-camp-eviction/,2023-11-03 18:09:29.594032+00:00,trespassing (convicted as of 2023-06-16),LegalOrder object (256),"(2023-04-19 16:26:00+00:00) Reporters convicted on trespassing charges, immediately appealed for jury trial, (2023-06-16 14:29:00+00:00) Asheville reporter convicted of trespassing following jury trial, (2022-03-11 09:55:00+00:00) Police return phone, belongings to reporter after obtaining search warrant, (2023-05-03 12:43:00+00:00) Asheville reporter learns of cellphone search warrant, park ban in lead up to jury trial","Arrest/Criminal Charge, Equipment Search or Seizure, Subpoena/Legal Order",,cellphone: count of 1,,Matilda Bliss (The Asheville Blade),,2021-12-25,False,Asheville,North Carolina (NC),35.60095,-82.55402,"Asheville Blade reporter Matilda Bliss was arrested alongside a colleague while covering a police eviction of a homeless encampment in Asheville, North Carolina, on Dec. 25, 2021.
Bliss, whose pronouns are she/they, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she had been at Aston Park multiple times throughout the day but had left to run an errand at approximately 9 p.m. Both Bliss and Blade reporter Veronica Coit returned to the park a little before 10 p.m. after receiving texts about a growing police force gathering at the park. A small encampment in the park was the latest focus of ongoing city efforts to clear Asheville’s homeless populations out of public areas, according to the Asheville Citizen Times.
As officers directed everyone in the camp to “move on” under threat of arrest, Coit and Bliss documented their actions from a distance, Bliss told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. The Blade reported that one of the officers then pointed toward Coit and said, “[They’re] taking pictures.”
Five officers then advanced toward Coit and placed them under arrest. Several officers then told Bliss to immediately leave the park or face arrest. Bliss repeatedly identified as a member of the press before she, too, was arrested.
The Blade reported that Bliss was wearing a press badge issued by the outlet at the time of her arrest.
Asheville police just arrested Blade reporters @matilda_bliss and Veronica Coit. Both were on the ground covering the events at Aston Park, displaying press id #avlnews #avlgov
— Asheville Blade (@AvlBlade) December 26, 2021
“According to the last things [Bliss and Coit] observed, and from sources they later spoke with, APD then grew even more violent, dragging campers out of tents and arresting them,” the Blade reported. “Our journalists were clearly targeted first to remove those who could quickly bring the brutality that followed to the public’s attention.”
Coit and Bliss were each charged with second degree trespassing, which carries a penalty of up to 20 days in jail and a $200 fine.
Blade founder and editor David Forbes told the Tracker that while Coit was released shortly after midnight, Bliss was left handcuffed in a police car for more than two hours and was the last person released from custody. Forbes said that to the best of the journalists’ knowledge, Bliss was the only arrestee whose phone was confiscated.
Bliss told the Tracker that when she was released at approximately 1:50 a.m. on the 26th, officers did not return her belongings, stating that they are being held as evidence and that it’s up to the district attorney to approve their release. The Asheville Police Department did not return a call requesting comment.
The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the arrests in a statement on Twitter a few days after the incident:
“Authorities in #Asheville, NC should drop all charges against @AvlBlade reporters Veronica Coit and @matilda_bliss, who were arrested on December 25. We are deeply concerned that @AshevillePolice interfered with their reporting, and unnecessarily confiscated Bliss's phone.”
Forbes told the Tracker that the charges against Bliss and Coit are still pending and they both have hearings scheduled for March 8, 2022.
“It was a hard experience but also I’m not going to back down either,” Bliss told the Tracker. “That’s the only way that this doesn’t happen to other people.”
While documenting police engaging in a sweep of a homeless encampment in Asheville, North Carolina, on Dec. 25, 2021, two Asheville Blade journalists were arrested and charged with trespassing.
",arrested and released,Asheville Police Department,2021-12-26,None,False,None,[],None,returned in full,True,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,Journalist,warrant,State,None,False,None,,encampment,,, 2022-01-06 15:22:46.773274+00:00,2023-06-16 20:59:06.430532+00:00,Journalist arrested while covering North Carolina homeless camp eviction,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-arrested-while-covering-north-carolina-homeless-camp-eviction/,2023-06-16 20:59:06.271919+00:00,trespassing (convicted as of 2023-06-16),,"(2023-04-19 16:22:00+00:00) Reporters convicted on trespassing charges, immediately appealed for jury trial, (2023-05-03 12:41:00+00:00) Asheville journalist learns of park ban in lead up to jury trial, (2023-06-16 14:37:00+00:00) Asheville reporter convicted of trespassing following five-day jury trial",Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Veronica Coit (The Asheville Blade),,2021-12-25,False,Asheville,North Carolina (NC),35.60095,-82.55402,"Veronica Coit, a reporter for the Asheville Blade, was arrested alongside another Blade reporter while covering a police eviction of a homeless encampment in Asheville, North Carolina, on Dec. 25, 2021.
The Blade reported that Coit, whose pronouns are they/them, arrived at Aston Park after reporter Matilda Bliss discovered that a significant police force had gathered there shortly before 10 p.m. A small encampment in the park was the latest focus of ongoing city efforts to clear Asheville’s homeless populations out of public areas, according to the Asheville Citizen Times.
As officers directed everyone in the camp to “move on” under threat of arrest, Coit and Bliss documented their actions from a distance, according to the Blade.
The outlet reported that one of the officers then pointed toward Coit and said “[they’re] taking pictures.” Five officers then advanced toward Coit and placed them under arrest. Several officers then told Bliss to immediately leave the park or face arrest.
Bliss told the Blade she identified herself as a member of the press multiple times before she, too, was placed under arrest. Blade founder and editor David Forbes told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that while Bliss was wearing a press pass issued by the outlet, Coit did not have their lanyard press pass that night.
Asheville police just arrested Blade reporters @matilda_bliss and Veronica Coit. Both were on the ground covering the events at Aston Park, displaying press id #avlnews #avlgov
— Asheville Blade (@AvlBlade) December 26, 2021
“According to the last things [Bliss and Coit] observed, and from sources they later spoke with, APD then grew even more violent, dragging campers out of tents and arresting them,” the Blade reported. “Our journalists were clearly targeted first to remove those who could quickly bring the brutality that followed to the public’s attention.”
Coit and Bliss were each charged with misdemeanor trespassing, which carries a penalty of up to 20 days in jail and a $200 fine. Coit did not respond to requests for comment.
Forbes told the Tracker that Coit was released at approximately 12:15 a.m. on the 26th, but Bliss, whose phone was confiscated, was not released until approximately 1:50 a.m. The Asheville Police Department did not return a call requesting comment.
The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the arrests in a statement on Twitter a few days after the incident:
“Authorities in #Ashville, NC should drop all charges against @AvlBlade reporters Veronica Coit and @matilda_bliss, who were arrested on December 25 We are deeply concerned that @AshevillePolice interfered with their reporting, and unnecessarily confiscated Bliss's phone.”
Forbes told the Tracker that the charges against Bliss and Coit are still pending and they both have hearings scheduled for March 8, 2022.
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to reflect that Veronica Coit, who was previously a freelancer for the Asheville Blade, is now a reporter for the news co-op.
While documenting police engaging in a sweep of a homeless encampment in Asheville, North Carolina, on Dec. 25, 2021, two Asheville Blade journalists were arrested and charged with trespassing.
",arrested and released,Asheville Police Department,2021-12-26,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,encampment,,, 2023-07-25 18:38:44.318333+00:00,2023-07-25 18:38:44.318333+00:00,"Texas journalist files suit following arrest, equipment seizure",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/texas-journalist-files-suit-following-arrest-equipment-seizure/,2023-07-25 18:38:43.966822+00:00,obstruction: interference with public duties (charges pending as of 2022-05-16),"LegalOrder object (230), LegalOrder object (231)",,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Equipment Search or Seizure, Subpoena/Legal Order",,"camera: count of 2, cellphone: count of 1, external battery: count of 1, miscellaneous equipment: count of 3, recording equipment: count of 1, storage device: count of 2",,Justin Pulliam (Independent),,2021-12-21,False,Damon,Texas (TX),None,None,"Independent journalist Justin Pulliam was arrested and his equipment seized while filming a mental health check by Fort Bend County Sheriff’s deputies in Damon, Texas, on Dec. 21, 2021. He was charged with interference with public duties but the initial proceedings ended in a mistrial in March 2023. In the interim, Pulliam filed a federal lawsuit against the county.
Pulliam lives in Fort Bend County near Houston and independently reports on local government and law enforcement for his social media channels, including on YouTube and Facebook. According to his lawsuit, Pulliam followed officers to a remote corner of the county where they were conducting a wellness check on a man whose case Pulliam had been following for several years.
“Justin had recorded previous [sheriff’s office] interactions with the mentally ill man and believed officers had a history of unnecessarily escalating their responses to him,” the lawsuit stated.
Pulliam began filming from a gas station located approximately 130 feet from the man’s home after receiving permission from his mother, according to his footage from the incident. At some point, a deputy informed the other officers via radio that Pulliam had arrived, identifying him by name and as a “local journalist,” Pulliam’s lawsuit stated.
Moments after two mental health advocates arrived at the scene, a deputy approached and first directed only Pulliam and then the advocates to go across the street. Pulliam began walking toward the street, but turned to resume filming when the advocates began speaking to the officer.
Seconds later, the officer again directed Pulliam to leave; Pulliam responded that he had a right to be there as long as the other bystanders were permitted to remain. As the officer began walking toward him while counting down from five, Pulliam’s footage shows him backing up further until the officer reached him and placed him under arrest.
During the booking process, Sheriff Eric Fagan and the chief deputy took Pulliam into a room and attempted to question him, according to his lawsuit. When he refused to speak without an attorney, both reportedly became agitated and indicated that the booking process would continue, according to the lawsuit.
Pulliam was released after several hours once his $500 bail was posted. His equipment — which included a hand-held camera, body camera and cellphone — remained in police custody. The majority of the equipment was returned on Jan. 7, 2022, though the sheriff’s office continued to hold his body camera, memory cards and cellphone.
A week later, officers obtained search warrants for the memory cards and body camera, arguing that they held evidence of Pulliam’s alleged interference with public duties. A grand jury indicted Pulliam on May 16, 2022.
Pulliam’s case went to trial on March 28, 2023, according to court records reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. It was ruled a mistrial after one of the six jurors held that Pulliam should be convicted while the other jurors voted to acquit, confirmed Christie Hebert, one of the attorneys at the public interest law firm Institute for Justice representing Pulliam in his federal suit.
Wesley Wittig, second assistant district attorney for Fort Bend County, told the Tracker that no new trial date has been requested.
For Pulliam, it has been a life-altering experience. “It’s not just the arrest and one police officer,” Pulliam told the Tracker in July 2023. “It’s like the whole system is out to get you. And so that, taken as a whole, is very chilling. It makes me scared to really do much of any filming in this county.”
The Institute for Justice filed the civil rights lawsuit on Pulliam’s behalf on Dec. 5, 2022, against the county, Sheriff Fagan and four others in the sheriff’s office. The suit alleges violations of Pulliam’s First, Fourth and 14th Amendment rights by arresting him and seizing his equipment, as well as by barring him from one of the sheriff’s press conferences in July 2021.
On June 29, 2023, District Judge David Hittner denied the county’s motion to dismiss the majority of Pulliam’s claims. Hittner ruled that Pulliam had sufficiently argued that he had been singled out for exercising his First Amendment rights and that the officers are not protected by qualified immunity at this time.
The Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment when reached in July 2023, citing the ongoing litigation.
Hebert said in a statement following the ruling that Hittner recognized the gravity of Pulliam’s claims.
“The heart of the First Amendment is the right to speak out about government, and Fort Bend County does not get to pick and choose who will cover their activities,” Hebert said.
Hebert told the Tracker that the case is tentatively scheduled to go to trial in early 2024.
Independent journalist Justin Pulliam was arrested by a Fort Bend County Sheriff’s deputy while documenting a mental health call on Dec. 21, 2021. A year later, Pulliam filed a civil rights lawsuit against the sheriff’s office.
",arrested and released,Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office,None,None,False,4:22-cv-04210,['ONGOING'],Civil,returned in part,True,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,Journalist,warrant,State,None,False,None,,,,, 2021-12-07 20:51:40.432682+00:00,2023-11-03 18:10:10.144717+00:00,"Photojournalist arrested, equipment seized while documenting homeless encampment",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-arrested-equipment-seized-while-documenting-homeless-encampment/,2023-11-03 18:10:09.904030+00:00,"assault: battery on a police officer with injury (charges dropped as of 2021-12-28), obstruction: resisting an executive officer (charges dropped as of 2021-12-28), assault: battery on a police officer (charges dropped as of 2021-12-28)",LegalOrder object (164),"(2021-12-09 12:33:00+00:00) Police obtain search warrant after seizing photojournalist’s equipment during an arrest, (2021-12-28 11:42:00+00:00) No charges for photojournalist arrested while reporting on Sausalito homeless encampment, (2022-02-21 09:51:00+00:00) Photojournalist sues city, police following arrest while reporting on Sausalito homeless encampment","Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Search or Seizure, Subpoena/Legal Order",,"cellphone: count of 1, external battery: count of 1, camera: count of 1, camera lens: count of 1, camera equipment: count of 1, recording equipment: count of 3, storage device: count of 2",,Jeremy Portje (Freelance),,2021-11-30,False,Sausalito,California (CA),37.85909,-122.48525,"Freelance photojournalist Jeremy Portje was arrested and charged with two misdemeanors and a felony while documenting a homeless encampment in Sausalito, California, on Nov. 30, 2021, according to an officer from the Sausalito Police Department.
Portje was filming for a documentary about homelessness in Marin County, according to the Pacific Sun, a weekly newspaper in the county. A witness identified as a volunteer at the encampment told the Pacific Sun that an officer was following Portje and deliberately stood in front of his camera as he tried to film.
The volunteer told the newspaper an officer grabbed Portje’s camera without provocation, and appeared to accidentally hit himself with the equipment.
“The officer reacted to the camera hitting him,” the volunteer told the Pacific Sun. “He started punching Jeremy.”
Portje attempted to defend himself from the blows but was quickly forced to the ground and placed under arrest, the newspaper reported. At some point during the altercation the officer threw Portje’s camera to the ground. No equipment damage was mentioned in initial reports of the incident.
In footage of Portje’s arrest published by the Pacific Sun, the photojournalist can be heard saying, “Why are they doing this? Because I asked them questions?”
Neither Portje nor his attorney responded to requests for comment.
Portje’s camera can be seen lying on the pavement behind him as two officers work to place him in handcuffs while a third keeps the growing crowd back as voices can be heard shouting “let him go” and “don’t hurt him.”
An officer from the Sausalito Police Department told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that Portje was arrested shortly after 5 p.m. and charged with resisting an executive officer, battery on a police officer and battery on a police officer with injury. If convicted on all charges, Portje faces up to $5,000 in fines, three years imprisonment or both.
Charles Dresow, a criminal defense attorney representing Portje, told the Pacific Sun the photojournalist spent the night in jail and was released the following morning on $15,000 bail.
“My journalist client ended up on the ground,” Dresow said. “It’s clear the Sausalito police used force to arrest a journalist. To say this is an outrage of constitutional proportions is an understatement.”
When reached for comment, Sausalito Mayor Jill Hoffman told the Tracker officers were called to the park to respond to a disturbance and that Portje had interfered with police activity, injuring a police sergeant in the process.
“We have shown that we support and respect the right to free speech,” Hoffman said. “What is unacceptable is impeding a police investigation and injuring a member of our department.”
Hoffman confirmed that Portje’s camera equipment was seized as evidence.
The Pacific Sun reported that the three officers who arrested him were the same officers who arrested two homeless people for camping in a park two weeks prior. According to the newspaper, Portje had recently made a public records request for the body camera footage from that incident.
On Nov. 6, 2021, FBI agents raided the Mamaroneck, New York, home of conservative group Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe as part of an investigation into the reported theft of a diary belonging to Ashley Biden, President Joe Biden’s daughter, The New York Times reported.
According to a statement published on Project Veritas’ website, the search came two days after raids had taken place at the homes of multiple individuals affiliated with the group, which describes itself as a non-profit investigative organization. The group is known for its hidden-camera sting operations that typically target liberal politicians and nonprofits, as well as news organizations including CNN and NPR.
O’Keefe, who did not respond to an emailed request for comment, said in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity that the agents arrived at his home before dawn, placed him in handcuffs, seized two of his iPhones and searched his apartment for more than two hours.
“On my phone were many of my reporter's notes, a lot of my sources unrelated to this story and a lot of confidential information to our news organization,” O’Keefe said. “If they can do this to me, if they can do this to this journalist and raid my home and take my reporter notes, they’ll do it to any journalist.”
In the Fox News interview, Paul Calli, one of the attorneys representing O’Keefe, said the search warrant cited misprision of — or knowingly helping to conceal — a felony, accessory after the fact and transporting materials across state lines as the basis of the warrant.
Calli denied allegations that his client or Project Veritas was involved in the theft of Biden’s diary. O’Keefe confirmed that Project Veritas was approached by individuals claiming to possess the diary in 2020, but said in his statement that they had declined to publish its contents and had turned the diary over to law enforcement.
“It appears the Southern District of New York now has journalists in their sights for the supposed ‘crime’ of doing their jobs lawfully and honestly,” O’Keefe said, in reference to the judicial district in Manhattan. “Our efforts were the stuff of responsible, ethical journalism and we are in no doubt that Project Veritas acted properly at each and every step.”
Trevor Timm, the executive director of Freedom of the Press Foundation, where the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is housed, wrote on Twitter that the raid of O’Keefe’s home was concerning.
“This is worrying from a press freedom perspective—unless & until DOJ releases evidence [Project] Veritas was directly involved in the theft,” Timm wrote. “Because if there is none, then the raids could very well be a violation of the Privacy Protection Act.”
The Privacy Protection Act of 1980 states that a state and federal law enforcement cannot search for or seize journalistic work product or documentary materials under claims of probable cause if the alleged offense consists of the receipt, possession, communication or withholding of the materials or the information they contain.
“If you take it as true that they were given this diary by someone unknown to them and they chose not to publish it, this is kind of a classic journalistic situation,” said Jane Kirtley, a University of Minnesota law professor and former executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. “And what law enforcement should have done is issue a subpoena.”
Kirtley told the Tracker she agreed that regardless of the debates surrounding Project Veritas’ methods, the raid of O’Keefe’s home and the seizure of his phone could set a dangerous precedent.
“When we get in the business of government trying to decide when someone is a journalist and when someone isn’t, there’s always a danger that some definitions will be narrow and they will weed out a lot of people who deserve to have journalistic protections,” Kirtley said. “As troublesome as I find Project Veritas’ activities — and again, I do not defend any illegal conduct on their part at all — that is a separate question from whether or not they should be protected by these laws. And if they aren’t then I think all journalists are at risk.”
Another O’Keefe attorney, Harmeet Dhillon, told the Tracker that agents had executed the warrant despite O’Keefe’s attorneys having “indicated a willingness to cooperate and provide any information necessary.”
Dhillon tweeted on Nov. 11 that District Court Judge Analisa Torres had ordered that the Department of Justice halt its review of O’Keefe’s phones pending a ruling on their request for a special master — typically a retired judge without ties to the case — to be appointed to oversee the search of the devices.
"We are gratified that the Department of Justice has been ordered to stop extracting and reviewing confidential and privileged information obtained in their raids of our reporters, including legal, donor, and confidential source communications," Dhillon told Fox News.
In a statement released on Nov. 14, Brian Hauss of the American Civil Liberties Union expressed concern for the precedent that could be set by the case and urged the court to appoint a special master.
“Project Veritas has engaged in disgraceful deceptions, and reasonable observers might not consider their activities to be journalism at all,” wrote Hauss, who is a senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. “Nevertheless, the precedent set in this case could have serious consequences for press freedom. Unless the government had good reason to believe that Project Veritas employees were directly involved in the criminal theft of the diary, it should not have subjected them to invasive searches and seizures.”
As of publication date, the court had not yet ruled on a special master.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York told the Tracker it does not provide comment on pending cases.
For the purposes of the Tracker, O’Keefe identifies as a journalist, has a track record of publication and said the phones seized by the FBI contained his reporter’s notes. For more about how the Tracker counts incidents, see our frequently asked questions page.
Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe, speaking here at the Conservative Political Action Conference in early 2021, was detained by FBI agents at his home and his phones seized on Nov. 6.
",detained and released without being processed,FBI,None,None,False,None,[],None,in custody,True,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,Journalist,warrant,Federal,None,False,None,,Department of Justice,,, 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.
Journalist Lev Omelchenko, arrested on Sept. 8, 2021, while filming a protest in Atlanta, has since filed a lawsuit against the city and two police officers.
The lawsuit, filed in September 2023, states that Omelchenko, an independent documentary filmmaker, was arrested while recording a protest outside the Atlanta home of then-City Councilmember Natalyn Archibong as she took part in a virtual council meeting. Four protesters also arrested have filed similar lawsuits.
The Atlanta City Council, at its meeting, approved the lease for a controversial public safety training center for the Atlanta Police Department. Opponents of the center, who dubbed it “Cop City,” allege that the 85-acre, $90 million facility will harm the environment and contribute to the militarization of the police in the Atlanta area.
According to Omelchenko’s lawsuit, around 12 people were holding cardboard signs and chanting in front of Archibong’s home. Omelchenko was “present at the site of this protest but did not participate in the protest itself,” the suit states, adding that he was “not chanting but was present in his role as a filmmaker to film the protest.” The suit notes that the protesters and Omelchenko were “standing or striding as near as practicable to an outside edge of the roadway” on a street without sidewalks or shoulder.
About 20 minutes after police arrived, officers told the protesters that they were in violation of the noise ordinance, the suit says. Soon after, officers told the protesters that they were obstructing traffic and ordered them to leave. After a few minutes of walking back and forth, the protesters decided to leave. At that time, one of the officers ordered the arrest of the protesters.
Olemchenko was also arrested, the lawsuit says, despite the fact that he “was not participating in the protest, was not chanting, but was instead filming the entire time” and “clearly informed the officers of same.”
Omelchenko was charged with “pedestrian walking in roadway,” a misdemeanor, and released on his own recognizance on Sept. 9, 2021, according to his arrest report and court records reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. He pleaded not guilty on Oct. 27, 2021, and the case was transferred from Atlanta Municipal Court to Fulton State Court.
According to the lawsuit, “The Fulton County Solicitor’s Office never filed an accusation in Plaintiff’s case and therefore no criminal prosecution against this Plaintiff is currently pending.” It went on to state that “based on this information and belief – and although the case was never formally dismissed – Plaintiff believes that Fulton County Solicitor’s Office has decided not to prosecute his case.”
The solicitor’s office, when asked for an update on the case, told the Tracker that the case was handled in the Municipal Court of Atlanta. Fulton County, in response to an open records request, said, “We have no record of this case as of yet.”
Drago Cepar Jr., an attorney representing Omelchenko in the lawsuit, had no further comment when reached by phone.
The lawsuit alleges that Omelchenko was falsely arrested in violation of his First and Fourth Amendment rights, and that the detention was retaliation for exercising his right to film the protest.
It further asserts that the filmmaker was arrested “because officers believed that he shared the views of the protesters” and accuses the city of failing to properly train police officers and of routinely arresting protesters “under the pretext of violating pedestrian in the roadway laws.”
The suit seeks damages and the recovery of attorneys fees and other expenses.
A protester is detained during demonstrations in Atlanta over a planned police training center on Jan. 21, 2023. Filmmaker Lev Omelchenko sued the City of Atlanta and police after his arrest while covering a 2021 protest against the center.
",arrested and released,Atlanta Police Department,2021-09-09,2021-09-08,False,1:23-cv-04041,['ONGOING'],Civil,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"environmentalism, protest",,, 2021-07-27 17:16:48.758165+00:00,2022-09-21 22:51:02.650262+00:00,Photographer held in multiple kettles by LA police while covering Wi Spa protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-held-in-multiple-kettles-by-la-police-while-covering-wi-spa-protest/,2022-09-21 22:51:02.583070+00:00,,,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Joey Scott (Freelance),,2021-07-17,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"Freelance photographer Joey Scott said he and other members of the media were twice corralled and stopped from moving by police as they covered a protest in Los Angeles on July 17, 2021.
Scott said and other journalists were reporting on protests around the Wi Spa when they were held by police using a crowd-control technique called kettling, which corrals and restricts people from dispersing. 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.
In the first kettle, Scott and other media were told by the Los Angeles Police Department they would be arrested, but were later let go, he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. “They wouldn't let us disperse out of the kettle despite telling them this is where we were told to go.”
In the second kettle they were told by a police officer that they had been there all day and refused to leave, so they were being arrested.
Scott said he was wearing press identification and a helmet with PRESS on it.
“Media was threatened with arrest initially but we were able to convince someone else to let us out with our press credentials,” he told the Tracker.
An LAPD spokesperson said arrests had been made on July 17 around Rampart Boulevard and Wilshire Boulevard after people failed to leave the area following a dispersal order.
“We do not have information specific to Joey Scott or statements being made that media would be arrested, so we are unable to confirm it occurred.”
This article was updated to remove a tweet that referenced a different detainment. The Tracker also documented the kettling and detainment of Scott while he covered a protest around the eviction of a homeless encampment in Los Angeles in March.
Independent photojournalist Gabe Quinones said he was arrested on charges of grand larceny by the New York City Police Department on July 6, 2021.
The department alleges that Quinones attempted to steal an NYPD officer’s baton on June 5, the photojournalist told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. On that evening, Quinones was covering demonstrations in Washington Square Park, which had been the site of both protests and street parties in the weeks preceding. Gothamist reported that for several months the NYPD had attempted to enforce the park’s largely ignored midnight curfew, and had announced a 10 p.m. curfew at the end of May.
Riot cops just cleared Washington Square Park, arresting one person because he has a speaker playing Fuck The Police, and swinging batons at a teenager. Because the park closes at midnight pic.twitter.com/nrGDDEQYba
— Jake Offenhartz (@jangelooff) November 7, 2020
Quinones told the Tracker that officers arrived well before the closure of the park and advanced on the crowds gathered there shortly before 10 p.m. As officers attempted to enforce the curfew and clear the park, Quinones said an officer ran up behind him as he walked down the sidewalk and shoved him into a wall with his baton. The Tracker has documented that incident here.
Quinones told the Tracker he filed a complaint against the officer and was contacted by the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Office to provide his footage and answer questions about the incident.
On July 6, Quinones said officers arrived at his apartment and arrested him on charges of grand larceny, alleging that he had attempted to steal the officer’s baton during the June 5 incident. Quinones denied the allegations unequivocally.
“There’s no humanly possible way that I could have stolen anything,” Quinones said. “I got assaulted by that baton: I didn’t try to steal it. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing when I walked in there.”
Quinones said he was taken to the NYPD’s 6th Precinct where he was held for three to four hours before being released with a hearing scheduled for July 26.
The NYPD didn’t respond to emailed requests for comment.
Independent videographer Sean Beckner-Carmitchel was arrested while filming a homeless camp cleanup operation in the Harbor City neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, on July 1, 2021.
Beckner-Carmitchel told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he has been documenting such cleanup operations, which aim to remove trash and encourage unhoused populations to seek out shelters, for four months as the city has responded aggressively to a rise in homelessness in the county.
Upon arriving at the site alongside two activists, a worker with LA Sanitation & Environment approached Beckner-Carmitchel and told the group that they weren’t allowed to film in that area. After some discussion, he said, they reached an agreement that the group could observe and document the operation from a location a little further back, away from the trucks.
“Not long after, LAPD came over and told us we could not be there,” Beckner-Carmitchel said. “We were told to go one way; we complied. We were told to go the other way, and in the process of complying with that we were all detained and cited.”
Was just detained, cited and released with 56.11MC despite being told the area I was in was fine to stay in. I’ll release footage along with @FilmThePoliceLA who was also detained later but it’s more important to cover the proceedings going on. pic.twitter.com/4Ds9PuWbNi
— Sean Carmitchel (@ACatWithNews) July 1, 2021
In footage Beckner-Carmitchel captured when the Sanitation Department official first approached, his National Press Photographers Association credentials can be seen on a lanyard around his neck. Beckner-Carmitchel also identified himself as press to the officer, he said, and attempted to explain why he needed somewhere to observe the operation.
Beckner-Carmitchel told the Tracker that while the officer was placing him under arrest, the officer deliberately threw his phone to the ground, but the device wasn’t damaged.
Beckner-Carmitchel said the officer placed him in cuffs and sat him in the back of his vehicle for approximately 30 minutes.
Beckner-Carmitchel told the Tracker he was cited with violating Municipal Code 56.11.10(d) — “delaying/obstructing dept sanitation clean up operation” — and was ordered to appear in court on Oct. 28. If convicted, he faces a fine of up to $2,500. Beckner-Carmitchel said he believes the charges will be dropped before his hearing date.
The Los Angeles Police Department didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment.
Gavin Stone, an editor for the Richmond County Daily Journal, was charged on June 22, 2021, with criminal contempt of court for violating an administrative order that forbade the use of electronic equipment in the courtroom, according to the charging document reviewed by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Stone was charged along with Daily Journal reporter Matthew Sasser, who had brought a tape recorder into a courtroom while covering a murder trial. Stone acknowledged that he incorrectly instructed Sasser that he could bring a tape recorder into court, according to court documents and Brian Bloom, the newspaper’s regional publisher, who spoke with CPJ. CPJ is a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
Both Sasser and Stone acknowledged that they violated an August 2019 bar on electronic devices, but said they did not correctly understand that tape recorders were also prohibited inside the courtroom, according to the court document.
The Associated Press reported that, under North Carolina law, courts can punish someone for criminal contempt if they had previously been warned by the court that the conduct was improper.
Stone had in January 2020 received notice in a letter from Chief District Court Judge Amanda Wilson claiming he had violated the August 2019 order by photographing in the courtroom and publishing that image in the Daily Journal.
Resident Superior Court Judge Stephan Futrell, who filed the June 2021 charges against the journalists, sentenced Stone to five days in prison and jailed the editor immediately following the hearing, according to Bloom and the AP. Stone told the Tracker he was released after approximately 24 hours in custody.
Sasser was fined $500, the maximum allowed, according to the same sources. The Tracker has documented his charges here.
An attorney representing the journalists filed an immediate appeal, securing Stone’s release, according to the AP. Futrell lifted the initial penalties and the editor and reporter will appear before an appeals court in August, Bloom told CPJ. If their convictions are upheld, each could face a fine up to $500, 30 days in prison or both, according to the court document.
Matthew Sasser, a reporter for the Richmond County Daily Journal, was charged on June 22, 2021, with criminal contempt of court for bringing a tape recorder into a courtroom while covering a murder trial, according to the charging document reviewed by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The charging document states that on June 21 and 22 Sasser violated a standing administrative order from August 2019 forbidding the use of electronic equipment in the courtroom.
Resident Superior Court Judge Stephan Futrell fined Sasser $500, the maximum allowed. In the same hearing, Futrell charged Sasser’s editor Gavin Stone with contempt of court for instructing Sasser that he could bring a tape recorder into court, according to the court documents and the newspaper’s regional publisher Brian Bloom, who spoke to CPJ. CPJ is a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
Both Sasser and Stone acknowledged that they violated the August 2019 order, but said they did not correctly understand that tape recorders were also prohibited inside the courtroom, according to the court document.
The Associated Press reported that, under North Carolina law, courts can punish someone for criminal contempt if they had previously been warned by the court that the conduct was improper.
Stone had in January 2020 received notice in a letter from Chief District Court Judge Amanda Wilson claiming he had violated the August 2019 order by photographing in the courtroom and publishing that image in the Daily Journal.
During a June 22 court hearing, Stone was sentenced to 5 days in prison and was jailed immediately. Stone told the Tracker he was released after approximately 24 hours in custody. The Tracker has documented his charges here.
An attorney representing the journalists filed an immediate appeal, securing Stone’s release, according to the AP. Futrell lifted the initial penalties and the editor and reporter will appear before an appeals court in August, Bloom told CPJ. If their convictions are upheld, each could face a fine up to $500, 30 days in prison or both, according to the court document.
Authorities in Hubbard County, Minnesota, detained and strip-searched journalist Alan Weisman and charged him with gross misdemeanor trespassing charges, according to Weisman and County Attorney Jonathan Frieden, who both spoke with the Committee to Protect Journalists.
At about 5 p.m. on June 7, an officer with the local sheriff’s department in Hubbard County, Minnesota, arrested Weisman, a freelance journalist on assignment for the Los Angeles Times, while he was covering a protest against the construction of an oil pipeline, Weisman said.
The deputies brought Weisman to the local sheriff’s department, where officers strip-searched him and confiscated his phone, voice recorder, notebooks, and prescription medications, he said. He told CPJ, a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, that authorities released him at about 9:30 p.m., returned his possessions, and did not inform him of any charges filed against him.
In a phone interview, Frieden told CPJ that his office had filed gross misdemeanor trespassing charges against Weisman, but said that the charges had not been formally approved by a judge as of today. He said he was not aware that Weisman was a journalist at the time his office filed the charges, but added that Minnesota state law does not provide special dispensation for journalists in such cases.
Under Minnesota law, the maximum fine that can be imposed for a gross misdemeanor is $3,000.
Law enforcement arrested about 250 people on trespassing, public nuisance, and unlawful assembly charges in relation to the protest, according to news reports.
Weisman told CPJ he did not know why he was arrested. He said that he was standing in an area with other journalists and was wearing two lanyards with press credentials when a sheriff’s deputy tapped him on the shoulder and said he was under arrest.
“It was very clear that I was a journalist,” Weisman told CPJ, saying that he had a notebook in his hand and was conducting interviews at the time. He said that the officer did not give him any warning before the arrest or issue any commands to leave the area.
The officer placed Weisman in a sheriff’s department vehicle along with eight other people who were arrested at the protest, he said. He told CPJ he was able to call his friends and colleagues from inside the vehicle, but said officers repeatedly denied his right to a phone call once he arrived at the station.
He added that officers initially refused to give him his medication while in detention, but eventually did so. When Weisman asked a sheriff’s deputy why he was being released, they said that he was released so he could continue taking his medication on schedule.
In emails to CPJ yesterday, Cory Aukes, the Hubbard County sheriff, said that deputies would not arrest a credentialed journalist who was “obviously documenting the situation,” but said, “that wasn’t the case here.”
Aukes said that if Weisman “was in an area that he had permission to be in, we wouldn’t arrest him.” He added that the issue of whether Weisman will face any criminal charges “is between the Hubbard County Attorney and Mr. Weisman.”
Weisman said that, upon his release, a local religious organization that helps newly released detainees transported him back to his rental car.
Weisman has contributed on environmental issues and other topics to news outlets including the Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, and The New York Times, among others, and wrote The World Without Us. Weisman is under contract for his next book with Dutton/ Penguin Random House and is a senior producer and the board treasurer at Homeland Productions, an independent, nonprofit journalism collective, according to his biography on that group’s website.
Law enforcement arrested nearly 250 people at an organized protest of the Line 3 pipeline in Hubbard County, Minnesota, on June 7, 2021, including journalist Alan Weisman, who was on assignment for the Los Angeles Times.
",arrested and released,Hubbard County Sheriff’s Office,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"environmentalism, protest",,, 2021-05-21 15:27:13.144756+00:00,2022-08-05 19:09:39.959507+00:00,"Reporter, colleague arrested while documenting Elizabeth City protests",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-colleague-arrested-while-documenting-elizabeth-city-protests/,2022-08-05 19:09:39.896397+00:00,,,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Ayano Nagaishi (The Staunton News Leader),,2021-05-19,False,Elizabeth City,North Carolina (NC),36.2946,-76.25105,"Two reporters for The Staunton News Leader, a USA TODAY network paper, were detained while covering a social justice protest in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, on May 19, 2021.
The protest was in response to an announcement earlier that day from the prosecutor’s office that the police shooting death of Andrew Brown Jr., a Black man, on April 21 was justified and that none of the Pasquotank County sheriff’s deputies would face charges. The demonstration was the latest in a wave of protests against racial injustice and police brutality sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in May 2020.
At approximately 9 p.m., law enforcement officers ordered the crowd to disperse under threat of arrest on charges of standing, sitting or lying on a street or roadway, the News Leader reported. Minutes later, as reporters Ayano Nagaishi and Alison Cutler were standing in a crosswalk about a foot away from the curb and filming an arrest across the street, law enforcement officers approached them, asking for the “ladies in the vests,” according to the outlet.
In footage captured on Nagaishi’s livestream, both journalists were placed in zip-tie cuffs and led away by officers. When asked on what charge they were being arrested, an officer can be heard responding, “For standing in the middle of the street, in the roadway.”
#ElizabethCity #AndrewBrownJr https://t.co/9Gf5DxGJHm
— Ayano Nagaishi (@yanonaga98) May 20, 2021
Nagaishi and Cutler were both wearing fluorescent yellow vests that said “NEWS MEDIA” and identified themselves as journalists when law enforcement in riot gear detained them, according to a video on their employer’s website and Casey Blake, the North Carolina Statewide Team Editor, who spoke to the Committee to Protect Journalists in a phone interview.
According to the News Leader, a citizen filmed the journalists’ arrests using Nagaishi’s phone, and Cutler was able to call the news outlet from a police van to confirm they’d been arrested.
Blake told CPJ, a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, that the reporters could not distinguish which law enforcement officials arrested them because the officials were in unmarked riot gear.
Cutler was booked, but was not formally charged; Nagaishi was neither booked nor charged, according to Blake. The reporters were released from police custody at approximately 10:30 p.m., the News Leader reported. The Tracker has documented Cutler’s arrest here.
When reached for comment via phone, an Elizabeth City Police Department officer directed CPJ to Deputy Chief of Police James Avens, who did not immediately respond to CPJ’s voicemail and email requesting comment.
The Daily Advance, based in Elizabeth City, reported that City Manager Montre Freeman said the two reporters were apart from the main group of protesters when they were arrested and that they had refused to comply with officers’ directives.
“Reporters have to decide if they’re going to be a protester or a reporter,” Freeman reportedly said. “They can be both, but they have to follow the directives of the officers out there.”
While a curfew went into effect at 8 p.m., members of the press were explicitly exempted. The livestream footage captured by the Nagaishi also contradicts Freeman’s assertions.
Nagaishi posted on Twitter following their release that both reporters were safe.
I just want to say @alisonjc2 and I are safe. We truly appreciate the support we got from the local community, friends, family and co-workers from @USATODAY Network. You can never make assumptions on what happens when reporting from the ground and this situation was one of them.
— Ayano Nagaishi (@yanonaga98) May 20, 2021
“We truly appreciate the support we got from the local community, friends, family and co-workers from @USATODAY Network,” Nagaishi wrote. “You can never make assumptions on what happens when reporting from the ground and this situation was one of them.”
Two reporters for The Staunton News Leader, a USA TODAY network paper, were arrested while covering a social justice protest in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, on May 19, 2021.
The protest was in response to an announcement earlier that day from the prosecutor’s office that the police shooting death of Andrew Brown Jr., a Black man, on April 21 was justified and that none of the Pasquotank County sheriff’s deputies would face charges. The demonstration was the latest in a wave of protests against racial injustice and police brutality sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in May 2020.
At approximately 9 p.m., law enforcement officers ordered the crowd to disperse under threat of arrest on charges of standing, sitting or lying on a street or roadway, the News Leader reported. Minutes later, as reporters Alison Cutler and Ayano Nagaishi were standing in a crosswalk about a foot away from the curb and filming an arrest across the street, law enforcement officers approached them, asking for the “ladies in the vests,” according to the outlet.
In footage captured on Nagaishi’s livestream, both journalists were placed in zip-tie cuffs and led away by officers. When asked on what charge they were being arrested, an officer can be heard responding, “For standing in the middle of the street, in the roadway.”
Tensions are rising in #ElizabethCity as protestors for #AndrewBrownJr are deemed an unlawful assembly ordered to leave the premises in under five minutes. One man has already been arrested. Stay tuned with @yanonaga98 live as we cover the scene on the ground tonight. @USATODAY pic.twitter.com/JJcnZ962wH
— Alison Cutler (@alisonjc2) May 20, 2021
Cutler and Nagaishi were both wearing fluorescent yellow vests that said “NEWS MEDIA” and identified themselves as journalists when law enforcement in riot gear detained them, according to a video on their employer’s website and Casey Blake, the North Carolina Statewide Team Editor, who spoke to the Committee to Protect Journalists in a phone interview.
According to the News Leader, a citizen filmed the journalists’ arrests using Nagaishi’s phone, and Cutler was able to call the news outlet from a police van to confirm they’d been arrested.
Blake told CPJ, a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, that the reporters could not distinguish which law enforcement officials arrested them because the officials were in unmarked riot gear.
Cutler was booked, but was not formally charged; Nagaishi was neither booked nor charged, according to Blake. The reporters were released from police custody at approximately 10:30 p.m., the News Leader reported. The Tracker has documented Nagaishi’s arrest here.
When reached for comment via phone, an Elizabeth City Police Department officer directed CPJ to Deputy Chief of Police James Avens, who did not immediately respond to CPJ’s voicemail and email requesting comment.
The Daily Advance, based in Elizabeth City, reported that City Manager Montre Freeman said the two reporters were apart from the main group of protesters when they were arrested and that they had refused to comply with officers’ directives.
“Reporters have to decide if they’re going to be a protester or a reporter,” Freeman reportedly said. “They can be both, but they have to follow the directives of the officers out there.”
While a curfew went into effect at 8 p.m., members of the press were explicitly exempted. The livestream footage captured by the Nagaishi also contradicts Freeman’s assertions.
Cutler retweeted a post on Twitter following their release that both reporters were safe.
Ayano said it all in this tweet. Thank you to everyone who supported us in every way, especially our @USATODAY family. We were two of many people who were arrested by police this evening. Tonight was an important night to be present here as a journalist in #ElizabethCity. https://t.co/oaBaUxwkiK
— Alison Cutler (@alisonjc2) May 20, 2021
“Thank you to everyone who supported us in every way, especially our @USATODAY family,” Cutler wrote. “We were two of many people who were arrested by police this evening. Tonight was an important night to be present here as a journalist in #ElizabethCity.”
Local police officers arrested Univision Arizona news anchor León Felipe González Cortés and seized his cellphone while he was reporting in Gilbert, Arizona, on April 30, 2021.
González was in Gilbert, about 20 miles southeast of Phoenix, to report on the death of one policeman and critical injury of another the previous day. The officers were hit by a man driving a stolen pickup truck, who was being chased by police, according to The Arizona Republic. The man was later arrested on suspicion of first degree murder, the newspaper reported.
According to a motion filed in Gilbert Municipal Court on June 3 by attorneys for the journalist, González was one of several reporters covering the story in Gilbert that day. But he was the only one “arrested, handcuffed, transported, fingerprinted and charged” with a crime, according to the motion. Gilbert police records charge him with trespassing and interfering with an officer, the motion states; police charge that González was reporting “from the wrong side of police tape.”
González did not respond to a request for comment.
According to The Arizona Republic, attorneys representing González allege that police also seized his cellphone, threatened to access its contents by "brute force" and referred to him in a derogatory way as "compadre," in reference to his Latino heritage.
"[He] was wearing a Univision shirt, was accompanied by a Univision photographer, and he identified himself as a journalist to the Gilbert Police officers working at the scene," according to the motion, which demands that police return the cellphone to González.
In a statement to The Arizona Republic, Univision Arizona President and General Manager Joe Donnarumma said the channel supported its journalist and demanded immediate return of his cellphone, “a mobile journalism tool which was seized on baseless and unreasonable grounds."
"Freedom of the press is a cornerstone of our democracy,” Donnarumma said, “as are the tools, technologies and constitutionally protected newsgathering activities that our journalists employ every day across the country to keep our audiences informed."
Gilbert Police spokesperson Brenda Carrasco told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that González was arrested “after he intentionally walked inside a clearly-marked crime scene during the criminal investigation.” Carrasco said the journalist’s phone was seized “as evidence at the time of his arrest, as the Police Department had probable cause to believe that the phone contained evidence of his criminal conduct.”
A pre-trial conference on the charges against González is scheduled for July 8.
Freelance reporter Cerise Castle said she was detained by LA County sheriff’s officers when she attempted to re-enter a press conference being held on the steps of the Hall of Justice, Los Angeles, on April 20, 2021.
Castle said on Twitter: “I was detained today while covering a press conference hosted by the LA County Sheriff's Department. Yes, I had my press pass.”
I was detained today while covering a press conference hosted by the LA County Sheriff's Department. Yes, I had my press pass. https://t.co/GtTDA37Kuk
— Cerise Castle (@cerisecastle) April 20, 2021
The press conference was part of National Victims’ Rights Week, a series of annual events highlighting services for victims of crime and related issues.
John Schreiber, a photojournalist at local LA stations KCBS 2 / KCAL 9, filmed Castle as LA County Sheriff’s officers detained her and then prevented her from returning to the press conference.
In his Twitter post, Schreiber wrote that he and Castle had stood next to each other at the press conference. “When protesters arrived, we both went over to film” them, he wrote. “Then, saw deputies try to block her from coming back. She was later let back in.”
Castle told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that police held her “for between 5-15 minutes” before sheriff’s officers allowed her to return to the press conference. She said she was wearing a press pass issued by VICE, where she had been previously employed, and currently freelances.
Castle, who has published an investigative series on a history of violence within the LA County Sheriff’s department, said she had been working with a few outlets on stories about the department and was pursuing a chance to ask Sheriff Alex Villanueva a question during a question and answer session at the press conference.
Referring to attempts by officers to block Castle from returning to the press conference, the ACLU Southern California office said: “This conduct is unacceptable, and we strongly support journalists’ demands for an immediate change in practice.”
Such incidents “offend the First Amendment’s unambiguous protection of newsgathering,” the ACLU stated. “Journalists, like the public, have a robust right of access to document government activity free of interference from law enforcement.”
The ACLU statement summarized a series of actions by southern California law enforcement agencies toward journalists in recent months, describing them as unacceptable patterns of behavior.
“Law enforcement practices at protests throughout Southern California exhibit a disturbing trend in treatment of journalists—detaining, arresting, harassing, and otherwise interfering with journalists’ First Amendment rights to gather and disseminate information to the public,” the ACLU wrote. “The public interest requires that law enforcement agencies allow journalists to access and cover protests to the full extent of their First Amendment rights.”
When contacted by the Tracker, the LA County Sheriff’s Office said: “We are unfamiliar with the details surrounding this incident and will need to conduct an inquiry to ascertain more information. At this time we are unable to offer further comment, but what we can say is Sheriff Alex Villanueva strongly supports the First Amendment, the right to peacefully protest, and the people’s right to be informed by the press.”
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.
Jasper Colt, a photojournalist with the USA Today Network, was one of the journalists detained.
Colt told USA Today that when police issued a dispersal order around 9:30 p.m., he and other journalists did not immediately leave. “We didn’t think we needed to, and we wanted to cover what was happening,” he said.
Then, he told the paper, police rounded up protesters and members of the press in one group and told everyone to lie down on their stomachs. Officers identified people who were members of the media and then brought them to another area, where they took photographs of journalists’ credentials, IDs and their faces.
“They were the ones with the guns, so we were like, ‘OK, well, we have to do this,’” Colt told USA Today.
Colt also detailed the experience in a tweet posted at 12:07 a.m. on April 17. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Tracker.
After quickly dispersing protesters in #BrooklynCenterMN tonight, police surrounded members of the media and made us lie flat on our stomachs. They then photographed our faces, credentials and identification before allowing us to leave the perimeter. pic.twitter.com/v3BUHyvWgV
— Jasper Colt (@jaspercolt) April 17, 2021
Video published by USA Today shows Minnesota State Patrol troopers checking journalists’ credentials. Colt told USA Today that the sheriff’s office made the dispersal announcement over the loudspeaker, and state and local police were involved in the detainment.
The journalists were detained hours after a federal judge had issued a temporary restraining order barring police 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 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 said that troopers will no longer photograph journalists and their credentials, but will continue to check media credentials.
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 Minneapolis Star Tribune photojournalists were among a group of journalists detained by police while covering protests in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on the night of April 16, 2021, according to reports shared with the U.S. Freedom Tracker, or published on social media or 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. At around 10 p.m., according to Minnesota Public Radio, police moved swiftly to corral the protesters and members of the press, deploying flash-bang grenades and pepper spray. State officials said in a news conference that 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.
Minneapolis Star Tribune journalist Renée Jones Schneider told the Tracker she was detained while covering the protest with her colleague, Liz Flores.
Jones Schneider said the journalists were in front of the police department, on the northwest side of Humboldt Avenue. She said they had decided to separate themselves from the crowd of protesters, because they were unsure what the demonstrators planned to do.
Jones Schneider said they heard a dispersal order, which, unlike at protests earlier in the week, didn’t include any specific announcement for members of the media to leave. Suddenly, she said, the crowd ran toward them.
She said she and Flores decided to go up the street to see what was prompting people to run, but when they turned, she said, a large line of police officers was approaching.
Jones Schneider said that they identified themselves as press. They were also wearing large press passes, issued by the Star Tribune, and gas masks, she said.
The police told them they didn’t care that they were press, Jones Schneider said, and directed them to turn and go back up the street. The law enforcement agents then ordered her and people near her to lie on the ground on their stomachs.
Jones Schneider said many other people who were detained near her were also members of the press. She said that police weren’t touching or yelling at anyone in the group, and that she wasn’t worried about getting arrested, but that the situation was surprising.
After a few minutes, Jones Schneider said, the journalists were allowed to get up. Police told the journalists that they wanted to look at their credentials before they let them go. Jones Schneider said they were told to go up the street, where they encountered another line of officers and a different group of journalists. There, she said, police directed them to take out their press credentials and their state-issued identifications, and took photographs of their faces and documents.
The next day, Jones Schneider retweeted a video of two other Star Tribune journalists having their credentials photographed. She wrote that she was screened twice, because law enforcement checked her credentials when she had been detained and forced to lie on her stomach earlier in the night.
This was also @floresliz12 and my experience. However that was our second screening since we were also previously caught in a police kettling closer to the police station and made to lay on our stomaches for about 10 minutes and processed there too. https://t.co/XwpAsOC2Qs
— Renee JonesSchneider (@reneejon) April 17, 2021
Jones Schneider and the other journalists in the group were detained hours after a federal judge had issued a temporary restraining order barring police 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 sent a letter to Gov. Tim Walz expressing concern about the detainments and other police treatment of journalists since the protests began.
The Minnesota State Patrol didn’t respond to a request for comment about the specific detainment of the Star Tribune journalists.
When reached for general 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 same category as arrests, but notes that the journalists were released without being processed.
The agency 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.
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",,, 2021-05-10 20:36:15.972449+00:00,2024-03-10 23:17:30.754839+00:00,Reuters photojournalist detained at Brooklyn Center protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reuters-photojournalist-detained-at-brooklyn-center-protest/,2024-03-10 23:17:30.644158+00:00,,,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Leah Millis (Reuters),,2021-04-16,False,Brooklyn Center,Minnesota (MN),45.07608,-93.33273,"Reuters photographer Leah Millis said she was one of a group of journalists detained by law enforcement while reporting on a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on the night of April 16, 2021.
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. At around 10 p.m., 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.
Amid the unrest, a group of journalists were detained by law-enforcement officers in Brooklyn Center and ordered to lie on the ground, according to reports given to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, noted on social media or published in other news outlets. Find documented detainments from the night of April 16 in Brooklyn Center here.
Millis posted on Twitter early on the morning of April 17 that she had been detained. She later tweeted more details, including that she was ordered to get on the ground with her hands out.
“I tried not to run because I didn't want to be tackled, then they shouted at us to get out and then they forced us to the ground with our hands out. I wear a large "PRESS" patch on my helmet.”
This is how it was last night, too. I tried not to run because I didn't want to be tackled, then they shouted at us to get out and then they forced us to the ground with our hands out. I wear a large "PRESS" patch on my helmet. https://t.co/No8FCGbbH5
— Leah Millis (@LeahMillis) April 17, 2021
Millis also posted a photograph on Twitter of Minnesota State Patrol officers taking a photograph of her with a cellphone. She wrote that she and others were photographed with their identifications before they were released.
Got detained, they photographed us with our IDs before eventually letting us go. Some colleagues got pretty roughed up. #BrooklynCenter #pressfreedom pic.twitter.com/vrTr1pfsil
— Leah Millis (@LeahMillis) April 17, 2021
Millis referred the Tracker to a Reuters spokesperson for comment.
“Reuters condemns the actions of police against its journalist in Minneapolis on April 16,” a spokesperson said. “All journalists must be allowed to report the news in the public interest without fear of harassment or harm, wherever they are.”
Millis and other journalists were detained hours after a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order barring police 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 Reuters, sent a letter to Gov. Tim Walz expressing concern about the detainments and other police treatment of journalists since the protests began.
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 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 agency said troopers would no longer photograph journalists and their credentials, but would continue to check media credentials.
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.
Reuters photographer Leah Millis captured this image of protesters in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 16, 2021, days after the death of Daunte Wright. Millis was detained and photographed by law enforcement that evening.
",detained and released without being processed,Minnesota State Patrol,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,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 2021, protest",,, 2021-05-11 17:15:13.044454+00:00,2024-03-10 23:17:38.580116+00:00,WCCO reporter detained while covering protest in Brooklyn Center,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/wcco-reporter-detained-while-covering-protest-in-brooklyn-center/,2024-03-10 23:17:38.484615+00:00,,,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Reg Chapman (WCCO-TV),,2021-04-16,False,Brooklyn Center,Minnesota (MN),45.07608,-93.33273,"Reg Chapman, a reporter for Minneapolis CBS affiliate WCCO, said he was detained by police with multiple other journalists while covering protests in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on the night of April 16, 2021.
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. At around 10 p.m., 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.
Amid the unrest, a group of journalists was detained by law enforcement officers in Brooklyn Center and ordered to lie on the ground, according to reports given to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, noted on social media or published on other news outlets. Find reports on the detainments from the night of April 16 in Brooklyn Center here.
Chapman told a WCCO anchor in a segment on the night of April 16 that he and other members of the news team had been detained. He didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The video shows live video, apparently filmed from pavement-level, of multiple Minnesota State Patrol troopers.
Chapman told the anchor they were detained when one group of Minnesota National Guard troops approached protesters from the south while a group of Minnesota State Patrol troopers approached from the north, forming a perimeter around the crowd.
Law enforcement recognized their press credentials but ordered journalists to the ground, Chapman told the anchor in the video. He said officers checked everyone’s IDs and anybody who wasn’t a member of the press was put in handcuffs.
In the video, Chapman said police checked his and others’ IDs and took their photos. He said that they were waiting for the rest of the WCCO crew to be released.
According to a WCCO report, Chapman was detained with other WCCO photojournalists. The Tracker hasn’t been able to verify the identities of the other journalists and WCCO hasn’t responded to requests for more information.
Chapman and other journalists were detained hours after a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order barring state law enforcement 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 sent a letter to Gov. Tim Walz expressing concern about the detainments and other police treatment of journalists since the protests began. CBS signed the letter on behalf of WCCO.
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. MSP didn’t respond to a request for comment specifically about the detainment of Chapman and the WCCO crew.
The agency 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.
Freelance journalist J.D. Duggan said he was detained and shoved to the ground by a law enforcement officer while reporting on a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 16, 2021.
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 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. At around 10 p.m., Minnesota Public Radio reported that police moved swiftly to corral the protesters and members of the press, deploying flash-bang grenades and pepper spray.
Amid the unrest, a group of journalists was detained by law enforcement officers in Brooklyn Center and ordered to lie on the ground, according to reports given to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, noted on social media or published on other news outlets. Find reports on the detainments from the night of April 16 in Brooklyn Center here.
Duggan, who has written for outlets including The Intercept and the Minneapolis Star Tribune, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that when lines of law enforcement officers started moving in to surround the crowd, he found himself near a group of other journalists.
Officers surrounded the group and shouted at them to get on the ground, so Duggan said he got down on his knees. Duggan said he shouted out to identify himself as a member of the press.
As he was on his knees, he said, an officer came up behind him, shoved him on his back between his shoulders and yelled at him to lie on the ground.
Duggan said he didn’t see which law enforcement agency the officer who shoved him was with.
Video he posted on Twitter, which appears to be filmed from the ground, shows multiple Minnesota State Patrol troopers standing nearby.
At one point, Duggan says, “I’m press, I’m press. Can I get out of here?”
“Hang tight” a voice can be heard responding.
Minutes later, a voice orders members of the press to stand up, and a trooper checks Duggan’s credential.
Duggan told the Tracker after the journalists were allowed to get up, officers led them across a parking lot and kept the members of the press in a group. He said officers took photographs of his face, his ID and his press credential.
He was allowed to go about 45 minutes after he was first detained, he said.
Duggan said he was displaying his press badge at the time he was detained. His badge is issued by The Minnesota Daily, the University of Minnesota student newspaper where he was a journalist until he graduated in December.
Duggan and other journalists were detained hours after a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order barring state law enforcement 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 sent a letter to Gov. Tim Walz expressing concern about the detainments and other police treatment of journalists since the protests began. CBS signed the letter on behalf of WCCO.
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. MSP didn’t respond to a request for comment specifically about Duggan.
The agency 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.
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.
Multiple journalists for Minneapolis CBS affiliate WCCO were detained by police while covering protests in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on the night of April 16, 2021.
WCCO reporter Reg Chapman told an anchor in a segment that night that he and other members of the news team had been detained as 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. At around 10 p.m., 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.
Amid the unrest, a group of journalists was detained by law enforcement officers in Brooklyn Center and ordered to lie on the ground, according to reports given to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, noted on social media or published on other news outlets. Find reports on the detainments from the night of April 16 in Brooklyn Center here.
In the live news segment on the 16th, Chapman said the entire news crew was among those detained and released after showing press credentials. The video played live footagevideo, apparently filmed from pavement-level, of multiple Minnesota State Patrol troopers. In a story on its website the following day, WCCO noted that Champman and “other WCCO photojournalists'' were told to get on the ground. The Tracker has documented Chapman’s detention here.
Chapman and WCCO did not return requests for comment, and the Tracker has not been able to verify the identity of the WCCO photojournalists.
Chapman told the anchor they were detained when one group of Minnesota National Guard troops approached protesters from the south while a group of Minnesota State Patrol troopers approached from the north, forming a perimeter around the crowd.
Law enforcement recognized their press credentials but ordered journalists to the ground, Chapman told the anchor in the video. He said officers checked everyone’s IDs and anybody who wasn’t a member of the press was put in handcuffs.
In the video, Chapman said police checked his and others’ IDs and took their photos. He said that they were waiting for the rest of the WCCO crew to be released.
Chapman and other journalists were detained hours after a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order barring state law enforcement 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 sent a letter to Gov. Tim Walz expressing concern about the detainments and other police treatment of journalists since the protests began. CBS signed the letter on behalf of WCCO.
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. MSP didn’t respond to a request for comment specifically about the detainment of Chapman and the WCCO crew.
The agency 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.
Babs Santos, a reporter for Minneapolis-based Fox 9 KMSP, reported live that he was detained while covering a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 16, 2021.
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. Some time after that, authorities told the outlet, some in the crowd began to throw objects and attempted to break through a barrier around the police station, prompting the declaration of an unlawful assembly and orders for dispersal. At around 10 p.m., Minnesota Public Radio reported that police moved swiftly to corral the protesters and members of the press, deploying flash-bang grenades and pepper spray.
A group of journalists was detained by law enforcement officers in Brooklyn Center and ordered to lie on the ground, according to reports given to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, as well as reports in news outlets and on social media. Find reports on the detainments from the night of April 16 in Brooklyn Center here.
Santos described his detainment in a live Fox 9 broadcast.
The video posted on Fox 9’s website shows Santos reporting at 10:04 p.m. that law enforcement had made a dispersal order. Santos says that people are moving around him and away from an approaching group of law enforcement.
The broadcast switches to another reporter in a different location, showing multiple law enforcement vehicles pulling up and officers in state trooper uniforms getting out. A line of police on bicycles can be seen riding up the sidewalk
At 10:08 p.m., the video shows a view from the ground of someone lying on their stomach with Minnesota State Patrol troopers visible standing over them.
At 10:14, the broadcast returns to Santos, who says his team, including photographers and security, had been detained as law enforcement moved in and surrounded the crowd.
“We were really caught right in the middle,” Santos said.
The Tracker has not been able to identify other KMSP journalists detained with Santos. Multiple requests for comment from KMSP and FOX were not returned.
When the team was detained, Santos says in the video, they laid down on the ground with their hands in front of them. He says they identified themselves as press to law enforcement and were allowed to leave.
In the video, Santos is wearing a large, bright yellow card on a lanyard around his neck that says “PRESS” and “FOX9.”
At 10:16 p.m., Santos tweeted a video showing a view apparently from ground level in which multiple Minnesota State Patrol troopers were visible. A voice can be heard identifying themselves as press.
In a second video Santos tweeted about half an hour later, voices can be heard shouting “get on the ground” and state troopers and police lights can be seen.
“Moments ago.. briefly detained with our security detail before being released,” Santos wrote.
We are safe. @FOX9 pic.twitter.com/HAV6D1yTCO
— Babs Santos (@TundeTV) April 17, 2021
Santos was also one of many journalists whose credentials and faces were photographed by law enforcement.
Santos and other journalists were detained hours after a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order barring state law enforcement 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 Fox, sent a letter to Gov. Tim Walz expressing concern about the detainments and other police treatment of journalists since the protests began.
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.)
MSP didn’t respond to a request for comment specifically about the detainment of Santos. The agency’s earlier statement said that state 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.
Two Minneapolis Star Tribune photojournalists were among a group of journalists detained by police while covering protests in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on the night of April 16, 2021, according to reports shared with the U.S. Freedom Tracker, or published on social media or 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 around 10 p.m. 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.
Star Tribune photojournalist Liz Flores told the Tracker she was detained with her colleague Renée Jones Schneider. The Tracker has documented Jones Schneider’s detainment here.
Flores told the Tracker that the journalists had been standing near the fence that surrounded the police station when members of the crowd started to shout, “Run!” Flores said that she and Jones Schneider started to move away from the area but that she stopped to take photographs of the scene.
“All of a sudden I saw police everywhere, all around us,” she said.
Flores said she and Jones Schneider soon came across a line of law enforcement officers, holding long sticks, who moved to corral the group of people near them.
Flores said she and Jones Schneider held out their press passes — large cards issued by the Star Tribune — to identify themselves as journalists, but police shouted at them to get down on the ground. Flores said she kneeled and continued to show her press pass. Police directed them to “get on your stomachs,” she said.
While lying on her stomach, she said, she continued to display her press credentials. According to Jones Schneider, many of the people detained with them were also journalists. Find reports on the detainments from the night of April 16 in Brooklyn Center here.
Flores posted an image she took for the Star Tribune on Instagram. After about 10 minutes, Flores said, police let the journalists get up but not leave. She said that police moved the journalists up the street, where they waited in line as officers photographed journalists’ faces, press credentials and identity cards.
Suki Dardarian, senior managing editor of the Star Tribune, told the Tracker in a statement that in 2020 and 2021, the publication’s journalists have been subject to crowd-control munitions and chemical agents, detained, and photographed by law enforcement despite showing ID. She said authorities sometimes ignored the credentials they instructed journalists to wear. “And to make matters worse, it was unclear in some cases what agency the officer represented,” she said.
She said that the publication and other media organizations have spoken with authorities, who have “pledged to improve their treatment of the media.”
Flores and Jones Schneider were detained hours after a federal judge had issued a temporary restraining order barring police 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 sent a letter to Gov. Tim Walz expressing concern about the detainments and other police treatment of journalists since the protests began.
The Minnesota State Patrol did not respond to a request for comment about the detainment of the Star Tribune journalists. When reached for general comment, a spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety referred the Tracker to a statement from the MSP, which acknowledged that troopers had photographed journalists, their media credentials and their identification “during recent enforcement actions in Brooklyn Center.” The 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 said that troopers will no longer photograph journalists and their credentials, but will continue to check media credentials.
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 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.
Independent photojournalist Alex Kent told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was detained while covering a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota on April 16, 2021.
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. At around 10 p.m., Minnesota Public Radio reported that police moved swiftly to corral the protesters and members of the press, deploying flash-bang grenades and pepper spray.
Amid the unrest, a group of journalists was detained by law enforcement officers in Brooklyn Center and ordered to lie on the ground, according to reports given to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, noted on social media or published on other news outlets. Find reports on the detainments from the night of April 16 in Brooklyn Center here.
Kent told the Tracker in an email that as law enforcement closed in around protesters, he was near an apartment building across from the Brooklyn Center Police Department. Kent said he files images for Shutterstock’s editorial branch.
As he was about to leave the area, he said, he noticed a cloud of pepper spray and saw an officer, who state officials determined was with the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, spraying the chemical irritant on three Agence France-Press journalists, Eléonore Sens, Chandan Khanna and Robin Legrand.
Kent said the deputy threatened another couple, then turned toward Kent. He held out his National Press Photographers Association credentials and told the officer he was press, he said, and the officer told him to leave.
Kent said he moved about a half block away when he came upon a line of law enforcement officers blocking the street and “just over a dozen” journalists lying on the ground.
Kent said he held up his hands, holding out his press credential, and told the officers he was a member of the press as he approached. He said they directed him to lie down.
On Twitter, Kent shared photographs posted by USA Today photojournalist Jasper Colt and identified himself in the second photo. The image shows a person lying on the ground, a camera with a long lens visible at their side, a few yards away from a line of Minnesota State Patrol troopers holding sticks.
This is me in the second photo. https://t.co/mM55uYn60r
— Alex Kent (@AlexKentTN) April 17, 2021
After about 10 minutes, Kent told the Tracker, an officer came to check the journalists’ credentials and they were directed to walk to the end of the block.
There, a state trooper asked each journalist to remove their masks and took photographs of their faces, press credentials and IDs.
“I was uncomfortable with the situation, but I didn't dare refuse for the fear of being arrested,” Kent told the Tracker.
Kent posted an image on Instagram, taken by photojournalist Christian Monterrosa, showing an officer in a Minnesota State Patrol uniform taking Kent’s photograph with a cellphone.
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.
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. MSP didn’t respond to a request for comment specifically about the detainment of Kent.
The agency said in the statement 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.
Fox News national correspondent Lauren Blanchard, producer Nick Rojas and photojournalist Les Baker were briefly detained by police while reporting on a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 14, 2021, a spokesperson for the network told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
Demonstrations were held several days in a row in Brooklyn Center, a city near Minneapolis, in response to the fatal police shooting of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, during a traffic stop on April 11.
The Fox News team was reporting live from the Brooklyn Center protests for Fox affiliates, spokesperson Tessica Glancey said in an email.
The team was outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department as confrontation escalated between demonstrators and police. Blanchard tweeted at 9:48 p.m. that police had declared an unlawful assembly and shortly after that wrote that police were beginning to use flash-bang grenades, a crowd-control device. At 10:13 p.m., she tweeted that law enforcement was blocking protesters as the crowd began to break apart and run.
Seven minutes later, Blanchard posted on Twitter that police had stopped her news crew as they were trying to leave the area.
Blanchard wrote that police ordered them to get out of their cars and to get on the ground, took pictures of their press credentials, and allowed them to leave after about five minutes.
My crew and I were ordered out of cars and to the ground by police. They took photos of all of our credentials. After about 5 mins they let us back into our cars and let us leave. They had people all over on ground arresting as they went. We were not only media crew stopped
— Lauren Blanchard (@LaurenBlanch12) April 15, 2021
In a post on Instagram the next day, Blanchard wrote that her crew was stopped and ordered to get on the ground with their hands up, even though she tried repeatedly to tell law enforcement that they were members of the press.
Video included with the post shows multiple officers approaching them, wearing fluorescent yellow jackets, helmets and large decals marked “state trooper” within the shape of the state of Minnesota. One trooper says, “IDs please, press IDs please.”
Blanchard can be heard identifying herself as working with Fox and says other people nearby her are her security team. Two security contractors accompanied the journalists.
“They were told to leave a long time ago,” one voice can be heard saying, as officers take pictures of their press credentials.
Blanchard wrote that the troopers “scolded us for being there” and told them that journalists had been ordered to leave, though Blanchard said they did not hear that order.
Members of the media were exempt from the curfew order Gov. Tim Waltz issued on April 12 for four counties, including Hennepin County, where Brooklyn Center is located.
According to the spokesperson for Fox, the news team was fine and was able to continue reporting after they moved to a different area.
Minnesota State Patrol did not immediately respond to the Tracker’s 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.
Fox News producer Nick Rojas was briefly detained by police while reporting on protests in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 14, 2021.
Rojas was detained with Fox News national correspondent Lauren Blanchard and photojournalist Les Baker, a spokesperson for the network told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
Demonstrations were held several days in a row in Brooklyn Center, a city near Minneapolis, in response to the fatal police shooting of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, during a traffic stop on April 11.
The Fox News team was reporting live from the Brooklyn Center protests for Fox affiliates, spokesperson Tessica Glancey said in an email. Glancey referred comment on the incident to Twitter posts made by Blanchard about being detained.
At 10:21 p.m., Blanchard wrote that police ordered the news crew to get out of their cars and to get on the ground.
“My crew and I were ordered out of cars and to the ground by police,” Blanchard wrote on Twitter. “They took photos of all of our credentials. After about 5 mins they let us back into our cars and let us leave. They had people all over on ground arresting as they went. We were not only media crew stopped.”
My crew and I were ordered out of cars and to the ground by police. They took photos of all of our credentials. After about 5 mins they let us back into our cars and let us leave. They had people all over on ground arresting as they went. We were not only media crew stopped
— Lauren Blanchard (@LaurenBlanch12) April 15, 2021
In a post on Instagram the next day, Blanchard wrote that her crew was stopped and ordered to get on the ground with their hands up, even though she tried repeatedly to tell law enforcement that they were members of the press.
Video included with the post shows multiple officers wearing fluorescent yellow jackets, helmets and large decals marked “state trooper” within the shape of the state of Minnesota approaching. One trooper says, “IDs please, press IDs please.”
Blanchard can be heard identifying herself as working with Fox and says other people nearby her are her security team. Two security contractors accompanied the journalists.
“They were told to leave a long time ago,” one voice can be heard saying, as officers take pictures of their press credentials.
Blanchard wrote that the troopers “scolded us for being there” and told them that journalists had been ordered to leave, though Blanchard said they did not hear that order.
Members of the media were exempt from the curfew order Gov. Tim Waltz issued on April 12 for four counties, including Hennepin County, where Brooklyn Center is located.
According to the spokesperson for Fox, the news team was fine and was able to continue reporting after they moved to a different area.
Minnesota State Patrol did not immediately respond to the Tracker’s 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.
Fox News national photojournalist Les Baker was briefly detained by police while reporting on a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 14, 2021.
Baker was detained with Fox News producer Nick Rojas and correspondent Lauren Blanchard, a spokesperson for the network told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
Demonstrations were held several days in a row in Brooklyn Center, a city near Minneapolis, in response to the fatal police shooting of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, during a traffic stop on April 11.
The Fox News team was reporting live from the Brooklyn Center protests for Fox affiliates, spokesperson Tessica Glancey said in an email. Glancey referred comment on the incident to Twitter posts made by Blanchard about being detained.
At 10:21 p.m., Blanchard wrote that police ordered the news crew to get out of their cars. “My crew and I were ordered out of cars and to the ground by police,” Blanchard wrote on Twitter. “They took photos of all of our credentials. After about 5 mins they let us back into our cars and let us leave. They had people all over on ground arresting as they went. We were not only media crew stopped.”
My crew and I were ordered out of cars and to the ground by police. They took photos of all of our credentials. After about 5 mins they let us back into our cars and let us leave. They had people all over on ground arresting as they went. We were not only media crew stopped
— Lauren Blanchard (@LaurenBlanch12) April 15, 2021
In a post on Instagram the next day, Blanchard wrote that her crew was stopped and ordered to get on the ground with their hands up, even though she tried repeatedly to tell law enforcement that they were members of the press.
Video included with the post shows multiple officers wearing fluorescent yellow jackets, helmets and large decals marked “state trooper” within the shape of the state of Minnesota approaching. One trooper says, “IDs please, press IDs please.”
Blanchard wrote that the troopers “scolded us for being there” and told them that journalists had been ordered to leave, though Blanchard said they did not hear that order.
Members of the media were exempt from the curfew order Gov. Tim Waltz issued on April 12 for four counties, including Hennepin County, where Brooklyn Center is located.
According to the spokesperson for Fox, the news team was fine and was able to continue reporting after they moved to a different area.
Minnesota State Patrol did not immediately respond to the Tracker’s 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.
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.
Independent journalist Tracy Gunapalan, who reports with the Minnesota-based social media news outlet the Neighborhood Reporter, said she was detained while covering a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota on April 14, 2021.
Gunapalan told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she was detained by Minnesota State Patrol troopers at the same time as her Neighborhood Reporter colleague, journalist Naasir Akailvi. The Neighborhood Reporter covers social justice movements in Minnesota’s Twin Cities region and publishes on social media platforms, according to Akailvi.
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.
Gunapalan said that she jogged slowly because she was concerned that running away could result in a charge for attempting to evade arrest. She said a trooper grabbed the back of her hood and pushed her to the ground.
“The whole time I kept yelling, ‘I'm press, I'm press, I'm press!’ and they didn't seem to care,” she said.
Gunapalan said she told the troopers that she had a press credential on a lanyard around her neck. She said she was holding a camera and a phone attached to a tripod as she was pushed down.
Police restrained her hands behind her back with cuffs, which were so tight that they nicked the skin on her hand, she said. After a few minutes, troopers got her up off the ground and brought her over to where they had detained another independent journalist, Niko Georgiades of Unicorn Riot.
Troopers had the journalists pull their face masks down, and they took photographs of the journalists’ faces and press passes, Akailvi said. He 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 police 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.
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.
Adam Gray, chief photojournalist for UK-based South West News Service, was pushed to the ground, handcuffed, and cited with failure to follow a lawful order while he was covering protests in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 13, 2021.
Protests began following the fatal shooting of a Black man, Daunte Wright, by a white Brooklyn Center Police Department officer on April 11.
Gray was covering police pushing protesters north on Humboldt Avenue away from the police station around 10:30 p.m. when law enforcement directed protesters and press to leave, Gray said in an email sent to the Committee to Protect Journalists. CPJ is a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
Brooklyn Center, which is near Minneapolis, St. Paul and Minneapolis were under a 10 p.m. curfew; journalists were exempt, according to news reports.
At approximately 10:38 p.m., law enforcement rushed people down the block, and shortly after pushed people into the area of a Kisch Oil Company gas station, screaming at them to “get out” and “leave,” Gray said, noting that he was documenting the unfolding chaos.
The photojournalist said that he was walking backward away from law enforcement so that he could keep them in view and take photographs.
“I wasn’t going to turn my back and run because that’s usually when they chase you,” said Gray, who was arrested last year while covering protests in New York City.
Gray said that as the crowd moved away from the approaching law enforcement, it became apparent that police were encroaching in on the crowd, catching Gray and protesters in a “kettle,” a technique where police surround a group from all sides.
“I was very clearly press,” the photojournalist said, noting that he also had two large cameras around his neck in addition to press credentials issued by the New York Police Department.
A video Gray later posted to his Instagram account of the moments leading up to his arrest shows Minnesota State Patrol in full riot gear charging at him and shoving him onto a patch of grass. In the video, Gray can be heard saying that he is a member of the press and was trying to return to his car.
Gray said he had been working near several other journalists, though his colleagues had managed to escape the kettle and subsequent detention.
State Patrol officials ziptied Gray’s hands while he was facedown in the grass before rolling him over and standing him up, the photojournalist said.
Gray said he was then taken to a patrol car where a state patrol officer cited Gray for “failure to obey a lawful order.” While the order was being written, Gray said he heard a voice on the radio that said members of the press should be charged with failure to disperse, rather than unlawful assembly.
While Gray was still in the car, and after the citation was written, a voice came on the radio and instructed law enforcement not to issue citations to the press, and to release them, Gray said. The photojournalist asked the officer who wrote his citation then a senior officer if the citation should be deleted, and the senior officer said to leave it, Gray said.
Gray’s citation, which was reviewed by CPJ, requires him to schedule a court appearance within 30 days of the citation’s issue. Mickey Osterreicher, General Counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, told CPJ via email that he is hopeful that they are in the process of resolving the charge.
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.
CNN producer Carolyn Sung was thrown to the ground and arrested by Minnesota State Patrol troopers while documenting protests in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 13, 2021.
Demonstrators had gathered in front of the Brooklyn Center Police Department to demand justice in the killing of Daunte Wright, a Black man, who was fatally shot by a white police officer on April 11.
According to a letter sent by attorneys to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and other local officials and signed by more than two dozen news and advocacy organizations, Sung had been attempting to comply with a dispersal order when “troopers grabbed Sung by her backpack and threw her to the ground, zip-tying her hands behind her back.”
“Sung did not resist and repeatedly identified herself as a journalist working for CNN and showed her credentials,” the letter continued. Troopers also reportedly ignored her complaints that the zip ties were too tight on her wrists.
At one point, the letter alleges, a trooper yelled at Sung, “Do you speak English?”
“Sung, whose primary language is English, was placed in a prisoner-transport bus and sent to the Hennepin County Jail, where she was patted down and searched by a female officer who put her hands down Sung’s pants and in her bra, fingerprinted, electronically body-scanned, and ordered to strip and put on an orange uniform before attorneys working on her behalf were able to locate her and secure her release, a process that took more than two hours,” the letter said.
The letter also stated that a security guard accompanying Sung was briefly detained, but was released upon showing his credentials.
CNN’s public relations office declined to make Sung available for comment, and the Minnesota State Patrol did not respond to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s emailed request for comment as of press time. The status of her arrest and any charges remain unknown.
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 at a protest on April 13, 2021, in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, after the killing of Daunte Wright by a police officer. CNN producer Carolyn Sung was violently arrested while documenting the protest.
",detained and released without being processed,Minnesota State Patrol,None,None,True,None,[],None,None,False,None,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 2021, protest",,, 2021-05-03 15:05:36.198603+00:00,2022-05-11 18:44:28.251169+00:00,Journalist cited while reporting on Brooklyn Center protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-cited-while-reporting-on-brooklyn-center-protest/,2022-05-11 18:44:28.177270+00:00,failure to obey: failure to obey a lawful order (charges pending as of 2021-04-13),,,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault",,,,Naasir Akailvi (The Neighborhood Reporter),,2021-04-13,False,Brooklyn Center,Minnesota (MN),45.07608,-93.33273,"Independent journalist Naasir Akailvi, who reports on social media as the Neighborhood Reporter, said he was detained and cited while reporting on a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 13, 2021.
Demonstrations had been held for several days outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department in response to the fatal 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 told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that late on the night of April 13 he was reporting as police pushed protesters away from the police station up Humboldt Avenue. He told the Tracker that he believed police had issued dispersal orders earlier in the night, but he hadn’t considered leaving because of them. There was a curfew in effect starting at 10 p.m., according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune; it exempt members of the media.
Shortly before 11 p.m., Akailvi said, police had started to form a crowd-control technique called a “kettle,” which blocks people from leaving, in a gas station.
At one point, Akailvi said, he noticed that police were using batons to smash a car’s windows, and he moved closer to film the scene. Within seconds, he said, he felt someone grab him from behind. He said he was taken down to the ground and his wrists were constrained with zip ties.
Akailvi said that he repeated, “I’m press, I’m press,” and told police he had a press pass; he said he wears a self-made card that has his photograph and identifies him as a journalist. According to Akailvi, police responded by saying that a dispersal order had been issued for media.
Akailvi said police took his camera, mic and tripod. He was put in the back of a police car, he said, and told that he would be charged.
The journalist said that while a Minnesota State Patrol trooper who was in the car with him started writing up his paperwork, he heard over the police radio that law enforcement would not be taking members of the press to jail but would issue citations.
He said he was handed a citation for “failure to obey a lawful order” and that his equipment was returned when he was released. As he was leaving, he said, he again heard an announcement over the police radio directing law enforcement not to cite journalists. However, he said, the trooper told him he would need to fight his citation later.
“I still got my citation, and the cops who gave it to me, they said, you’re just going to have to go fight it in court,” Akailvi said.
Akailvi told the Tracker he has not yet taken steps to fight the charge. His citation says that he is required to appear in court, but no date has been set.
The Minnesota State Patrol did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Akailvi was detained again the following night along with a reporting partner while they were documenting continuing Brooklyn Center protests. The Tracker has documented that April 14 incident here.
On April 16, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order barring Minnesota State Patrol from arresting or threatening to arrest journalists and stating that journalists are not required to leave when there is a dispersal order.
In a statement in response to the court order, the MSP acknowledged that the agency was prohibited from enforcing dispersal orders against journalists.
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 13 or more journalists were arrested or detained in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., The Washington Post reported.
Before anyone could exit, according to The Post, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
Los Angeles Times reporter James Queally tweeted that he and Lexis-Olivier Ray, a reporter for the digital site L.A. Taco, were standing next to each other inside the “kettle” as police faced off with protesters. Queally noted that just a week earlier, he had written a story for the Times about the “failure to disperse” charges brought against Ray by the LAPD, months after Ray was covering another incident in downtown LA.
“We [Queally and Ray] were looking at each other, asking, ‘Is it going to happen again?’ and of course, it did,” Queally told The Post of the detainment.
Ray captured the moment around 8:30 p.m. when LAPD officers led Queally out of the kettle and placed him in zip-tie cuffs.
L.A. Times crime reporter @JamesQueallyLAT being taken into custody earlier. We all got boxed in. James and I were trying to stick together. @LATACO pic.twitter.com/l6TWtXRjow
— Lexis-Olivier Ray (@ShotOn35mm) March 26, 2021
“I announced myself as press several times, and credit to the arresting officers, they checked my credential pretty quickly and got a supervisor,” Queally tweeted.
Queally could not immediately be reached by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker for comment, but according to The Post, he was wearing an LAPD-issued press pass around his neck when he was arrested.
In his tweet thread, Queally wrote that the supervisor who was called in by the arresting officers “didn’t care I was press,” and told him, “this is the policy tonight.”
The Post reported that attorneys and a managing editor for the Times contacted Queally and secured his release after approximately 30 minutes, just as he was about to board a transport bus.
Shortly after Queally’s arrest, the LAPD put out a statement on Twitter that reads, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement specifically addressing the detainment of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement reads. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which can “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement says members of the press were directed to identify themselves to police and then move off to a designated media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
About the media area, Queally tweeted, “Media pens are deliberately setup to keep reporters AWAY from news. Tonight was no different. It was nowhere near the protests or action in the park.”
The LAPD statement notes that as individual arrests were made of those inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which only accepts requests for comment via email, did not immediately respond to an emailed request from the Tracker for further comment.
The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all arrests from the protest and subsequent kettle in Echo Park here.
Los Angeles Police Department officers detain protesters demonstrating against the closure of a homeless encampment at Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021. At least a dozen journalists were also arrested or detained.
",detained and released without being processed,Los Angeles Police Department,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"encampment, kettle, protest",,, 2021-03-26 19:22:15.691865+00:00,2022-01-03 14:59:18.213113+00:00,L.A. Taco reporter detained while covering Echo Park protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/la-taco-reporter-detained-while-covering-echo-park-protest/,2022-01-03 14:59:18.148662+00:00,,,,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault",,,,Lexis-Olivier Ray (L.A. Taco),,2021-03-25,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"At least 13 journalists, and likely more, were arrested or detained in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.were arrested or detained in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., The Washington Post reported.
Before anyone could exit, according to The Post, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
Los Angeles Times reporter James Queally tweeted that he and reporter Lexis-Olivier Ray, who writes for the digital news site L.A. Taco, were standing next to each other inside the “kettle” as police faced off with protesters. Queally noted that just a week earlier, he had written a story for the Times about the “failure to disperse” charges brought against Ray by the LAPD months after he was covering another incident in downtown L.A.
Ray tweeted that he and Queally were trying to stick together after the crowd was boxed in, and he posted footage he took as Queally was led away by officers and placed in zip-tie cuffs.
Ray confirmed to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he continued filming as officers arrested more individuals in the kettle — sometimes violently. In the footage, Ray can be heard saying, “Why are you pointing this [weapon] at me? I’m with the media,” as an officer trains his weapon on Ray’s chest and face.
LAPD violently arresting a protestor earlier near Lemoyne and Park Ave. Dozens of protestors and media have been boxed in. Nobody is able to leave. @LATACO pic.twitter.com/3hh6kOLERi
— Lexis-Olivier Ray (@ShotOn35mm) March 26, 2021
Queally tweeted that after his arrest and release 30 minutes later, Ray called him and said that he was still detained in the kettle.
“I managed to get hold of an officer in media relations who rushed to do something about it,” Queally wrote. “I’m still worried he might have gotten arrested otherwise.”
Ray tweeted at around 10:30 p.m. that he had been released, along with other members of the press, without being formally arrested.
LAPD has let me and a group of press go without detaining us. They made us all show our press passes to avoid arrest. I'm safe 🙏🏾 @LATACO pic.twitter.com/z1nuIuyUxI
— Lexis-Olivier Ray (@ShotOn35mm) March 26, 2021
“They held us there for more than an hour and then let people go if they had a press pass,” Ray told the Tracker. “Last year they said press could self-ID but I think they only let people go [that night] if they approved their press pass.”
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that reads, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement reads. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which can “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement says members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area 350 feet away from the crowd.
About the media area, Queally tweeted, “Media pens are deliberately setup to keep reporters AWAY from news. Tonight was no different. It was nowhere near the protests or action in the park.”
The LAPD statement notes that as individual arrests were made of those inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which only accepts requests for comment via email, did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all arrests and detainments from the Echo Park Lake protest here.
Los Angeles Police Department officers detain protesters demonstrating against the closure of a homeless encampment at Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021. More than a dozen journalists were also arrested or detained.
",detained and released without being processed,Los Angeles Police Department,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,unknown,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"encampment, kettle, protest",,, 2021-03-26 19:42:04.148375+00:00,2022-05-12 19:36:34.324393+00:00,"Knock LA reporter arrested while covering Echo Park protest, charged with failure to disperse",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/knock-la-reporter-arrested-while-covering-echo-park-protest-charged-with-failure-to-disperse/,2022-05-12 19:36:34.175917+00:00,rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2021-04-07),,"(2021-04-07 13:03:00+00:00) Charges dropped against reporter for community news site Knock LA, (2022-05-09 15:35:00+00:00) Knock LA journalists sue Los Angeles Police Department following arrests in 2021",Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Jonathan Peltz (Knock LA),,2021-03-25,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"At least 13 journalists, and likely more, were arrested or detained in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., The Washington Post reported.
Before anyone could exit, according to The Post, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
Jonathan Peltz, a reporter for nonprofit community journalism outlet Knock LA, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was covering the protest with his colleague Kate Gallagher. Police made an announcement to disperse at around 7:45 p.m, but the message was inaudible to him and most of those present, Peltz said.
About 15 minutes later, an officer ordered members of the media and legal observers to disperse. The police designated a pen for media that was several blocks away, according to Peltz, but he said he wasn’t concerned because there were other journalists around him.
“From my perspective, you know, I was doing my job,” he said. “This was where the protest was happening.”
Peltz said that protesters began to move up the street away from the police line when law enforcement moved in to “kettle” the group and began arresting people.
Peltz told the Tracker that he repeated to police that he and his colleague were journalists. He said he heard other people nearby say that they were press, too.
Peltz said he continued to record video of the confrontation until 8:35 p.m.; he said he noted the time on his camera just before officers restrained his wrists in zip-tie cuffs. He asked the officer who was recording his personal information what he was being charged with, but the officer did not know.
A tweet from the Knock LA Twitter account posted at 9:45 p.m. said that Peltz and Gallagher were arrested by the LAPD while they were covering the protest.
Two of our reporters have been arrested at #EchoParkRiseUp pic.twitter.com/T1zeBPm7Dw
— Knock LA (@KNOCKdotLA) March 26, 2021
Knock LA called for police to release its journalists immediately, and demanded that any charges be dropped.
“Law enforcement cannot be allowed to jail journalists for doing their job,” the statement reads.
Peltz told the Tracker he again identified himself as a journalist to police as he was loaded onto a bus with other people who had been arrested. They were transported to the LAPD Metropolitan Detention Center, where he was processed. Peltz said his wrists were zip tied so tightly that his hands went numb.
He said he was released at around 12:30 a.m. on March 26 but was ordered to appear in court on July 30 on a charge of failure to disperse.
UPDATE: Jonathan Peltz and Kate Gallagher are free. Thank you to everyone who advocated for their release. pic.twitter.com/wB0eiqiKcF
— Knock LA (@KNOCKdotLA) March 26, 2021
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that reads, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement reads. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which can “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement says members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
The LAPD statement notes that as individual arrests were made of those inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which only accepts requests for comment via email, did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all arrests and detainments from the Echo Park Lake protest here.
Los Angeles Police Department assemble near Echo Park Lake amid evictions of homeless encampments there on March 25, 2021. At least 19 journalists were arrested or detained while covering demonstrations against the evictions.
",arrested and released,Los Angeles Police Department,2021-03-26,None,False,2:22-cv-03106,['ONGOING'],Civil,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"encampment, kettle, protest",,, 2021-03-26 20:33:29.615774+00:00,2022-01-03 14:59:49.327151+00:00,Spectrum News 1 reporter detained while covering protest at LA’s Echo Park,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/spectrum-news-1-reporter-detained-while-covering-protest-at-las-echo-park/,2022-01-03 14:59:49.271436+00:00,,,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Kate Cagle (Spectrum News 1 (Southern California)),,2021-03-25,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"At least 13 journalists, and likely more, were arrested or detained in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., The Washington Post reported.
Before anyone could exit, according to The Post, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
Kate Cagle, an anchor and reporter for Spectrum News 1 SoCal, a local Los Angeles news channel, was among the journalists detained while she was covering the protests.
Cagle posted on Twitter at 8:22 p.m. that she was being held in the kettle at Echo Lake Park. A few minutes later, she posted a video of protesters and police, explaining that the group was being held between two lines of police officers.
At around 9 p.m. Cagle tweeted that an officer announced that everyone was being arrested.
In a video Cagle later posted on Twitter, two officers are leading Cagle away from the camera. She can be heard saying, “Wait, I’m with Spectrum News 1!” and saying that she needs to stay with the members of her crew.
"Wait. I'm with Spectrum News 1."
— Kate Cagle (@KateCagle) March 26, 2021
"I have to stay with my crew."
This is the moment three LAPD officers pulled me from a crowd of protestors and zip tied my hands tonight at Echo Park Lake. @SpecNews1SoCal pic.twitter.com/jwSBFgpsSc
At 10:03 p.m., Cagle posted that she had been released.
She wrote on Twitter that she identified herself as a Spectrum News 1 reporter and showed a press pass issued by Los Angeles County. She said she also texted her location to the LAPD public information officer, and her newsroom called a police supervisor.
“They still handcuffed me,” she wrote.
Just to be crystal clear - I identified myself as a reporter for Spectrum News 1 and showed my LA County press pass.
— Kate Cagle (@KateCagle) March 26, 2021
- I told the officers who corralled us
- texted LAPD’s PIO my location
- my newsroom called their supervisor
They still handcuffed me.
While she was detained in the kettle, Cagle posted on Twitter that she was with two freelance photographers who were live-streaming for Spectrum News 1. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has not been able to identify the two photojournalists, and Cagle did not respond to a request for comment. Efforts to reach newsroom leaders of Spectrum News 1 were not successful, but the channel’s news site confirmed in an article that Cagle had been detained and released.
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that reads, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement reads. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which can “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement says members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
The LAPD statement notes that as individual arrests were made of those inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which only accepts requests for comment via email, did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all arrests and detainments from the Echo Park Lake protest here.
Protesters clash with Los Angeles Police Department officers during an eviction of homeless encampments at Echo Park Lake in California on March 25, 2021. More than a dozen journalists were arrested or detained during the demonstrations.
",detained and released without being processed,Los Angeles Police Department,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"encampment, kettle, protest",,, 2021-03-26 21:06:13.051259+00:00,2022-05-12 19:37:43.395062+00:00,Reporter for Knock LA arrested with colleague while covering Echo Park protest in LA,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-for-knock-la-arrested-with-colleague-while-covering-echo-park-protest-in-la/,2022-05-12 19:37:43.312768+00:00,rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2021-04-07),,"(2021-04-07 13:11:00+00:00) Charges dropped against Knock LA reporter arrested with colleague while covering Echo Park protest in L.A., (2022-05-09 15:37:00+00:00) Knock LA journalists sue Los Angeles Police Department following arrests in 2021",Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Kate Gallagher (Knock LA),,2021-03-25,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"At least 13 journalists, and likely more, were arrested or detained in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., The Washington Post reported.
Before anyone could exit, according to The Post, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
Kate Gallagher, who was reporting on the protest for the nonprofit community journalism outlet Knock LA, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she was covering the protest with her colleague Jonathan Peltz.
She said police made an announcement directing journalists and legal observers to disperse around 8 p.m., but she said the announcement was difficult to hear and she only learned about it on Twitter.
Gallagher said she was concerned about what police planned next for the protesters, so she decided to stay and continue reporting. Meanwhile, police had set up a pen for media several blocks away, but a number of other journalists also decided to stay at the scene of the protest, according to Peltz, the other Knock LA reporter.
About 20 minutes later, Gallagher said, police started to form a kettle to detain the group. Gallagher and Peltz were standing with about a dozen other journalists at the time, she said.
“No one really seemed very alarmed at first,” she said. According to Gallagher, journalists did not expect that police would arrest them because they were there covering the scene, not as part of the protest.
She said that it became clear that journalists were also going to be arrested when one member of the press tried to leave the police kettle and was not allowed to go.
A tweet from the Knock LA Twitter account posted at 9:45 p.m. said that Peltz and Gallagher were arrested by the LAPD while they were covering the protest.
Two of our reporters have been arrested at #EchoParkRiseUp pic.twitter.com/T1zeBPm7Dw
— Knock LA (@KNOCKdotLA) March 26, 2021
The publication called for police to release the journalists immediately and demanded that any charges be dropped.
“Law enforcement cannot be allowed to jail journalists for doing their job,” the statement reads.
Gallagher said that she identified herself as a journalist several times during her interactions with the police, including when police were forming the kettle, again when she was patted down during her arrest, and as she was loaded onto a bus to be transported to the LAPD Metropolitan Detention Center.
Gallagher and Peltz were released from the detention center at around 12:30 a.m. March 26, she said, and she was ordered to appear in court on July 30 on a charge of failure to disperse.
UPDATE: Jonathan Peltz and Kate Gallagher are free. Thank you to everyone who advocated for their release. pic.twitter.com/wB0eiqiKcF
— Knock LA (@KNOCKdotLA) March 26, 2021
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that reads, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement reads. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which can “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement says members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
The LAPD statement notes that as individual arrests were made of those inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which only accepts requests for comment via email, did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all arrests and detainments from the Echo Park Lake protest here.
Los Angeles Police Department officers arrive at Echo Park Lake to evict homeless encampments. Protests against the eviction on March 25, 2021 resulted in the arrests or detentions of at least 19 journalists while reporting.
",arrested and released,Los Angeles Police Department,2021-03-26,None,False,2:22-cv-03106,['ONGOING'],Civil,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"encampment, kettle, protest",,, 2021-03-26 22:40:31.459897+00:00,2022-05-11 18:50:54.320189+00:00,"While documenting LA’s Echo Park protest, videographer arrested, charged with failure to disperse",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/while-documenting-las-echo-park-protest-videographer-arrested-charged-with-failure-to-disperse/,2022-05-11 18:50:54.245041+00:00,rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2021-04-07),,(2021-04-07 13:21:00+00:00) Charges dropped against videographer arrested while documenting Echo Park Lake protest,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Sean Beckner-Carmitchel (Freelance),,2021-03-25,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"At least 13 journalists, and likely more, were arrested or detained in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., The Washington Post reported.
Before anyone could exit, according to The Post, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
Independent videographer Sean Beckner-Carmitchel told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was one of the journalists covering the demonstrations who became trapped with protesters in the police kettle.
“At that point, my mindset was: I’m going to be arrested. I can either be arrested and do my job or be arrested and not do my job,” Beckner-Carmitchel said.
In footage posted to Instagram, Beckner-Carmitchel narrates that the crowd has been kettled on Lemoyne Street between Sunset Boulevard and Park Avenue. He appears to be on a sidewalk as he films individuals standing in the street, who are arrested, one by one, by police. Approximately 38 minutes into the footage, officers approach Beckner-Carmitchel and ask that he come with them.
As Beckner-Carmitchel agrees and hands his equipment to one of the officers, some who remain inside the kettle can be heard booing and shouting that he is a member of the press. Beckner-Carmitchel can be heard telling officers that he is wearing a press credential from the National Press Photographers Association, which advocates for visual journalists in print, broadcast and digital newsrooms as well as freelancers.
When asked what would happen next, an officer can be heard telling Beckner-Carmitchel that he will be transferred to a police bus that would take him to a “staging” area; once there, the officer says, Beckner-Carmitchel would be cited and released.
Beckner-Carmitchel told the Tracker that before being loaded onto the bus, a public information officer who knows the journalist spoke with one of his arresting officers, but did not intervene to stop the arrest.
Los Angeles Times reporter James Queally — who was also detained that night — tweeted at midnight that Beckner-Carmitchel was still being held in police custody. In a subsequent tweet Queally said that the LAPD informed him that Beckner-Carmitchel was being held because the department “doesn’t recognize” the credentials he was wearing, and because he had not gone to a “media area” set up by police some distance away from the protest.
Only information I could get out is that LAPD doesn't recognize Sean's NPPA credential and another complaint about him not being in the media pen. He's not answering my texts either. Unfortunately, this means he's probably still in custody. https://t.co/D1lQVQMz4p
— James Queally (@JamesQueallyLAT) March 26, 2021
Beckner-Carmitchel told the Tracker that other journalists with NPPA credentials were released from the kettle without being arrested, and that, from the media staging area set up by police, it would have been impossible to see what was happening inside the kettle.
Beckner-Carmitchel later tweeted that he had been released shortly after 1 a.m. on March 26 with a failure to disperse charge, a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months imprisonment and a fine of up to $1,000, according to California’s penal code. Beckner-Carmitchel told the Tracker that he was the last person to be released from the open booking area at the Metropolitan Detention Center where he was processed.
His citation, which he shared with the Committee to Protect Journalists, a founding partner of the Tracker, orders him to appear for a hearing on July 30.
“My frustration right now is I could be cutting together 45 hours of footage and doing a report about the people of Echo Park Lake and the activists involved over the past two days,” Beckner-Carmitchel told the Tracker. “Instead, I’m talking to lawyers and checking my Twitter.”
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that reads, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, as Beckner-Carmitchel was being released, the LAPD posted a statement specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement reads. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which can “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement says members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
The LAPD statement notes that as individual arrests were made of those inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which only accepts requests for comment via email, did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all arrests and detainments from the Echo Park Lake protest here.
Los Angeles Police Department officers arrive at Echo Park Lake to evict homeless encampments on March 25, 2021. More than a dozen journalists were arrested or detained while documenting demonstrations against the evictions.
",arrested and released,Los Angeles Police Department,2021-03-26,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"encampment, kettle, protest",,, 2021-03-30 14:06:34.009849+00:00,2022-01-03 15:00:32.302423+00:00,Independent photojournalist detained while covering Echo Park protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-photojournalist-detained-while-covering-echo-park-protest/,2022-01-03 15:00:32.247585+00:00,,,,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault",,,,Ashley Balderrama (Independent),,2021-03-25,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"At least 17 journalists were arrested or detained in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., the Washington Post reported.
According to the Post, before anyone could exit, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest, and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
Independent photojournalist Ashley Balderrama said she was caught in the police kettle while she was live on her Instagram and taking photographs. “I was hit on the back with an officer’s baton,” she told the Tracker in an email. She said she was repeatedly shoved by an officer and asked to leave the area, but “there was literally no where to go” because she was stuck between the officers and the protesters. She said she had her National Press Photographers Association credentials, but the officer kept shoving her until some protesters pulled her away.
“We were first told that we were no longer free to leave and that we would be arrested. After explaining to some officers that we were press, they initially said, ‘It’s too late,’” Balderrama said. “At one point as they went to arrest a protester right next to me, they tackled him and he fell into me, [and] when I looked up, an LAPD officer was pointing a less than lethal weapon directly at my face at point blank range.”
Balderrama tweeted a video of this arrest, in which she can be heard yelling, “We can’t go anywhere. There’s another line of you guys right there.”
Balderrama said that even though her credentials were around her neck, she was told multiple times that she would be arrested. “They then moved us all and made press mix with protesters, which worried me greatly, that they would not even take the time to check my credentials.”
She told the Tracker that after being detained for two hours, she was allowed to leave. “As we walked out, they told us where the press viewing was, which was on the next block over, with absolutely no visibility of [the] incident,” she added.
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that read, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement, specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement said. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which could “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement said members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
The LAPD statement noted that as individuals were being detained inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which accepts requests for comment only via email, did not respond to the Tracker’s request for further comment.
The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all arrests and detainments from the Echo Park Lake protest here.
Los Angeles police arrive on March 24, 2021, to begin the eviction of homeless encampments at Echo Park Lake in Los Angeles. At least 17 journalists were arrested or detained the following day while covering protests against the evictions.
",detained and released without being processed,Los Angeles Police Department,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,unknown,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"encampment, kettle, protest",,, 2021-03-30 15:25:47.717553+00:00,2022-05-11 18:51:20.681970+00:00,Kollection EIC arrested while covering Echo Park protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/kollection-eic-arrested-while-covering-echo-park-protest/,2022-05-11 18:51:20.617687+00:00,rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2021-04-07),,(2021-04-07 13:28:00+00:00) Charges dropped against Kollection EIC arrested while covering Echo Park protest,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Sean Edwards (The Kollection),,2021-03-25,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"At least 17 journalists were arrested or detained in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., the Washington Post reported.
According to the Post, before anyone could exit, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest, and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
Sean Edwards, editor-in-chief of The Kollection, an LA-based lifestyle brand with an editorial arm focused on music and youth culture, told the Tracker via email that he was caught in the kettle. “They began to arrest the crowd and press one by one,” he said. “They did not allow me and other members of independent press to identify ourselves.” He said he had his notebook and camera out, as well as photo identification with proof of employment and bylines at the Kollection.
Shortly after 10 p.m., Edwards said LAPD arrested him, detaining him and other journalists at the 77th Street Community Police Station in South Central Los Angeles. He said he was booked for a 409 violation for, according to Edwards, “failure to disperse at the scene of an unlawful assembly” and charged with a misdemeanor. Edwards said officers released him around 1 a.m. on the 26th and returned his belongings to him. He is scheduled to appear in court on July 22.
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that read, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement, specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement read. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which could “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement said members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
The LAPD statement noted that as individuals inside the kettle were detained, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which accepts requests for comment only via email, did not respond to the Tracker’s request for further comment.
The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all documented press freedom violations from the Echo Park Lake protests here.
At least 17 journalists were arrested or detained in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., the Washington Post reported.
According to the Post, before anyone could exit, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
Freelance photojournalist Joey Scott told the Tracker via email that he’d heard police give an order to disperse that night, telling legal observers and members of the press in particular to leave the area, but that he “stayed to do my job and document what was happening.”
Soon, though, he was trapped with protesters in the kettle. “I was shoved by a police officer who was setting up the skirmish line, pushing me back into the kettled group and not allowing me to leave,” he said.
Scott told the Tracker that he and other members of the media identified themselves as press to the police but were told that in order to leave the kettled area officers would need to speak to their supervisor, an effort that, according to Scott, “never happened.”
“We were detained for over two hours as they arrested people one by one,” Scott said. He posted multiple videos on Twitter showing police making arrests. Find all documented press freedom violations, including arrests, from the Echo Park Lake protests here.
“Police used force arresting people and pointed shotguns with bean bag rounds at members of the press and protesters,” he told the Tracker.
After roughly two hours, Scott said the press were told to show their credentials in order to leave the area. “I was told to leave the area and not to return unless I wanted to be arrested,” he said.
After being released from the area, Scott said, members of the press were not able to talk to any police officials and requests for information were ignored.
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that read, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement, specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement read. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which could “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement said members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
The LAPD statement noted that as individual arrests were made of those inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which accepts requests for comment only via email, did not respond to the Tracker’s request for further comment.
At least 17 journalists were arrested or detained in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., The Washington Post reported.
According to The Post, before anyone could exit, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
Independent journalist and documentary producer Steven Gute told the Tracker that at around 7:15 p.m. he’d arrived at the north entrance of the park, where demonstrators had gathered for the second night in a row. LAPD officers had established a perimeter around the park and a crowd had gathered near the intersection of Park Avenue and Lemoyne Street, facing off with a line of police.
In footage Gute posted to Facebook, the crowd can be seen backing away from the officers in sync, chanting, “One! Two! One! Two!” Seconds later, an officer can be heard announcing, “You are all under arrest. You are no longer free to leave.”
Gute told the Tracker that he did not hear officers give a dispersal warning or order members of the press to relocate to a media staging area.
“While we were kettled and sandwiched together, officers started arresting people one by one,” Gute said. The video posted to Gute’s Facebook ends with a clip from another angle showing officers placing him under arrest.
Gute told the Tracker he has credentials from the National Press Photographers Association but was not wearing them that night. He identified himself as press when officers approached him, he said, but they still arrested him.
“After they grabbed me, they put the flex cuffs on and we sat around for at least an hour and a half or two hours on the sidewalk waiting for the buses to come,” Gute said.
Gute said he was transported to the 77th Street Community Police Station in South Los Angeles, where he was processed and charged with failure to disperse, a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months imprisonment and a fine of up to $1,000, according to California’s penal code. Gute said he was released shortly after midnight.
Gute’s citation orders him to appear in court for a hearing on July 22 at 8 a.m.
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that read, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement, specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement read. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which could “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement said members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
The LAPD statement noted that as individual arrests were made of those inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which accepts requests for comment only via email, did not respond to the Tracker’s request for further comment.
The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all documented press freedom violations from the Echo Park Lake protests here.
At least 20 journalists were arrested, detained or assaulted in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., The Washington Post reported.
According to The Post, before anyone could exit, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
An independent journalist, who asked to be identified only by the anonymized Twitter handle of @desertborder, told the Tracker he was among those detained in the kettle for approximately two hours.
It's been awhile since the last time I was kettled. It sucks, in case anyone was wondering
— Mitch O'Farrell Hates Freedom (@desertborder) March 26, 2021
The journalist said that moments before police trapped the crowd in a kettle, the protesters had begun marching backward in unison, in apparent compliance with a police dispersal order given at around 7:30 p.m.
“The crowd was actively retreating when all of a sudden the crowd broke and people started running,” @desertborder said. “I turned around and looked, and another line of riot cops had come up and blocked us in from behind. There was another side street that they were blocking too, so there was no exit at that point,” he said.
@desertborder said that he stood on a sidewalk, to the side of the main body of protesters, as police began making individual arrests. He and other journalists stayed on the sidelines of the kettle, he said, “to avoid getting arrested.”
“I showed an officer my press badge and I said, ‘Hey, I’m press, can I leave?’ And he told me, ‘No. Press was told to leave and you didn’t. You were given a lawful order and you didn’t comply. Now you’re under arrest too,’” the journalist said. “And I thought, ‘Ah hell, alright. I guess I’m going to jail tonight.’”
@desertborder said that while he continued filming the arrests, an officer pointed a crowd-control weapon directly at him and other members of the press. Lexis-Olivier Ray, a reporter for digital news site L.A. Taco, captured the incident on video.
“They came in to make an arrest over by the sidewalk,” the journalist said. “[The officer] was pointing a less-lethal shotgun [used to fire crowd control munitions] a few inches from our faces and was just really angry and really aggressive, screaming ‘Get back!’ But there was nowhere for us to go, because there was a line of riot cops behind us.”
“I really thought he was going to blast us,” @desertborder said.
About an hour later, he said, journalists standing on one edge of the kettle were told to join those on the opposite edge. @desertborder said he took that as a sign that police might be preparing to let them go without arrest.
“An officer told us, ‘If you don’t have press credentials, just get off the sidewalk and get back with the rest of them,’” the journalist said, “obviously implying that you were going to be arrested if you didn’t have credentials.”
They moved all the press over to this corner. An officer told us if we don't have press credentials we "might as well go back over there" with the crowd of protesters getting arrested. LAPD policy, as handed down by Chief Moore himself, is that press does not need credentials
— Mitch O'Farrell Hates Freedom (@desertborder) March 26, 2021
Shortly after 10 p.m., @desertborder said, the LAPD began allowing members of the press who had press passes to leave the kettle; he said he was able to show the officers his credentials, issued by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, and was permitted to leave.
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that read, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement, specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement read. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which could “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement said members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
The LAPD statement noted that as individual arrests were made of those inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which accepts requests for comment only via email, did not respond to the Tracker’s request for further comment.
The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all documented press freedom violations from the Echo Park Lake protests here.
At least 20 journalists were arrested, detained or assaulted in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., The Washington Post reported.
Before anyone could exit, according to The Post, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
Independent journalist Jeremy Lindenfeld, whose website says his work has been published in the Chicago Sun-Times, Knock LA and other platforms, told the Tracker that he was among the many journalists trapped in the police kettle while covering the protest that night.
Lindenfeld said when he initially told the police that he was a member of the National Press Photographers Association, he was told that it was too late to leave and was shoved with a baton.
According to Lindenfeld, he and other members of the press caught inside the “kettle” watched as police arrested protesters.
“Press were again harassed by being told to move to one side of the street then 10 minutes later to the other side of the street for no reason at all, but to scare us,” Lindenfeld told the Tracker.
After some time the police began releasing members of the press with press credentials, according to Lindenfeld. ”I was able to show them my membership to the NPPA and they released me from the kettle,” he said.
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that reads, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement reads. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which can “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement says members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
The LAPD statement notes that as individual arrests were made of those inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which only accepts requests for comment via email, did not respond to a request for further comment.
The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all documented press freedom violations from the Echo Park Lake protests here.
At least 20 journalists were arrested, detained or assaulted in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., The Washington Post reported.
Before anyone could exit, according to The Post, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
Freelance journalist Austin Baffa, who said his videos have been used by CNN, Fox News and the Los Angeles Times, told the Tracker that he was covering the protest that night when police declared the assembly unlawful and gave orders to the protesters and the press to disperse and leave.
“With about a minute left before they started making arrests, the protesters began to move back and leave the area,” he said. “That’s when LAPD kettled them from an alley and declared that everyone was under arrest including press.”
Baffa told the Tracker that over the next hour, the police arrested a number of individuals in the kettle, including some members of the press.
“We all thought that we were going to get arrested and sent to jail,” he said. But eventually police told the media and remaining protesters to move to one side of the street, and members of the press were asked to show their press credentials in order to leave, according to Baffa.
Baffa said that he was released after he showed his press credentials, issued by the National Press Photographers Association, to the police.
The journalist also said that he experienced multiple moments of excessive force by law enforcement, including having less-lethal weapons pointed at his chest and head.
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that reads, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement reads. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which can “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement says members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
The LAPD statement notes that as individual arrests were made of those inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which only accepts requests for comment via email, did not respond to a request for further comment.
The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all documented press freedom violations from the Echo Park Lake protests here.
At least 19 journalists were arrested, detained or assaulted in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., The Washington Post reported.
Before anyone could exit, according to The Post, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
Freelance journalist Gabriel Fuente, whose work has been published by Salon, The Kollection and 48 Hills according to his Twitter bio, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was among the journalists trapped in the kettle with protesters that night.
Fuente said that those inside the kettle tried to leave, “but police said it was too late. We were under arrest.”
He said that as police continued to make arrests, media were asked to come to the front, and members of the press with press credentials were allowed to leave.
“My partner and I showed our author pages, attempting to demonstrate that we were published journalists, but this was not sufficient evidence,” Fuente said. “We needed to have a press badge.”
Fuente told the Tracker that he was arrested along with his colleague, Sean Edwards, editor-in-chief of The Kollection, and transported to the 77th Street Community Police Station in South Central Los Angeles. According to Fuente, he was “handed a ticket with the PC 409 — failure to disperse at the scene of an unlawful assembly.”
Fuente said he was released at 1 a.m. on the 26th and is scheduled to appear in court July 22.
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that reads, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement reads. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which can “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement says members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
The LAPD statement notes that as individual arrests were made of those inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which only accepts requests for comment via email, did not respond to a request for further comment.
The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all documented press freedom violations from the Echo Park Lake protests here.
At least 20 journalists were arrested, detained or assaulted in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., The Washington Post reported.
Before anyone could exit, according to The Post, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
Photojournalist Nick Stern said he was covering the protest that night as part of a documentary film project and was among the journalists detained in the kettle. Stern, whose work has been published by the Daily Mail, the BBC, and other publications, said he was held for approximately two hours before being released without charge.
Stern said police announced a dispersal order at around 8 p.m., but he said that even though he was near the skirmish line, he didn’t hear it and instead learned about the announcement on Twitter. Then, he said, an officer walked through the protest area announcing that all journalists and legal observers must leave the area. He said that set off alarm bells, because he was concerned about what would happen to protesters after observers left.
“Myself, and every other journalist that I was aware of that was there, and the legal representatives, stayed put with the crowd, I think, which was the right thing to do,” Stern said.
Stern said police moved the crowd back about five feet. The protesters then decided to continue to back up further, he said, possibly in an effort to avoid further confrontation with police. As they were retreating, he said, another line of officers came out from an alleyway, forming the kettle to block the group from the other side and preventing them from leaving.
At that point, Stern said, he asked an officer if he could get through the police line. He said he couldn’t recall whether he identified himself as a journalist, but said that he was wearing a press identification card on a lanyard around his neck, which he frequently holds up at protests when interacting with police.
Stern told the Tracker that the officer refused to let him go and said Stern was about to be arrested. He said that he was detained with the group for about two hours.
Police were moving into the crowd to detain individuals, including members of the press, one at a time, Stern said. At one point, he said, four officers came forward and arrested the journalist next to him, who was wearing a National Press Photographers Association card on a lanyard around his neck.
Stern said police never took him into individual custody. While he was held with the larger group, he said that he noticed a senior officer look towards him and say to another officer, “He’s a legit journalist.”
At around 10 p.m., Stern said an officer pointed at him and told him to follow. The officer walked him through the police line and directed him to walk down the street without stopping. Stern said he followed instructions and returned to his car.
Stern said he does not know why he was not taken into custody, when a number of other journalists were, even though they displayed press credentials. He said that he had two press identification cards on a lanyard around his neck, one issued by the National Press Photographers Association and the other by the British Press Photographers’ Association. He said he often displays the British card at protests because it looks different. He said he also had a helmet marked with the word “PRESS” attached to his backpack.
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that reads, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement reads. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which can “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement says members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
The LAPD statement notes that as individual arrests were made of those inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which only accepts requests for comment via email, did not respond to a request for further comment.
The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all documented press freedom violations from the Echo Park Lake protests here.
At least 19 journalists were arrested, detained or assaulted in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., The Washington Post reported.
Before anyone could exit, according to The Post, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
Keliyah “Gigi” Williams, a student journalist for the Los Angeles Collegian, a news site aimed at students throughout Los Angeles County, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was among the journalists trapped in the kettle that night.
“For nearly 2 hours I was kept there until they corralled us into a corner,” she said.
Williams said that when police eventually asked journalists to identify themselves, “I immediately went up and let them know I was affiliated with LACC’s [Los Angeles City College] Collegian.” Williams said she began to pull up her press identification on her phone, but “before it even loaded they let me know they would not be accepting it,” she told the Tracker. They “did not even take the time to check,” she said.
According to Williams, as soon as she moved back to join the crowd, a police officer pointed her out and she was arrested. “Ultimately, I was handcuffed for 2 more hours, transported to the station,” and charged with a 409 violation misdemeanor, for failure to disperse from the place of an unlawful assembly.
Williams said according to her charge ticket, she is scheduled to appear in court on July 22.
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that reads, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement reads. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which can “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement says members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
The LAPD statement notes that as individual arrests were made of those inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which only accepts requests for comment via email, did not respond to a request for further comment.
The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all documented press freedom violations from the Echo Park Lake protests here.
At least 20 journalists were arrested, detained or assaulted in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., The Washington Post reported.
Before anyone could exit, according to The Post, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.
Independent journalist Stephen Oduntan, whose work has been published by Reel Urban News and Dig Mag, said he was on assignment for LA Focus Newspaper the night of the protest when he was detained in the kettle with protesters and other journalists.
In a video posted by Oduntan on Instagram, police officers can be heard announcing, “You are all under arrest, you are no longer free to leave.”
In the description accompanying the video post Oduntan wrote, “Shortly after LAPD’s announcement, they began rounding up peaceful demonstrators as well as multiple reporters.”
Oduntan told the Tracker over email, “At one point, a journalist — I believe with Spectrum — who was standing a few feet from me was arrested. I was sure it was only a matter of time before they'd slash the cuffs on me too.”
“But after standing on a crowded sidewalk for over an hour, LAPD all of a sudden announced that members of the press should raise their hands and credentials,” Oduntan said.
Oduntan said that he and a few other journalists were released, one at a time, after the police verified their press credentials.
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that reads, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement reads. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which can “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement says members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
The LAPD statement notes that as individual arrests were made of those inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which only accepts requests for comment via email, did not respond to a request for further comment.
The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all documented press freedom violations from the Echo Park Lake protests here.
At least 19 journalists, and likely more, were arrested or detained in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., The Washington Post reported.
Before anyone could exit, according to The Post, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
Freelance photographer Vern Evans said he was caught in the police kettle and detained by the police the night of the protest. Evans, a photographer for 40 years, said he sees his job as “documenting history.”
“The police told the whole assembly to leave, but I just continued to take photos,” he said.
Evans said that police handcuffed him for 3 hours and later took him to a police station where he was charged with a 409 pc misdemeanor, for failure to disperse from a place of unlawful assembly.
Evans said that according to his charge ticket, he is scheduled to appear in court on July 22. The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all arrests and detainments from the Echo Park Lake protest here.
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that reads, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement reads. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which can “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement says members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
The LAPD statement notes that as individual arrests were made of those inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which only accepts requests for comment via email, did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
At least 20 journalists, and likely more, were arrested or detained in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., The Washington Post reported.
Before anyone could exit, according to The Post, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
Orange County-based independent photojournalist Robert “Chip” Sneed told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that as soon as officers declared the unlawful assembly he moved from the street to the sidewalk, in order to avoid possible arrest for standing in the roadway.
Sneed said that protesters had begun moving away from the police line when law enforcement rushed the crowd. Then, he said, a second group of officers came out from a nearby alley to kettle the group.
“As the protesters are moving backward, the police line does a bullrush and I’m toward the front of the crowd at that point, and I get knocked over and banged up a little bit,” Sneed said. “Luckily some people helped me up and carried me back a bit.”
Once the crowd was surrounded by the police kettle, Sneed said, he ran back and forth to photograph arrests as officers detained individuals one by one. Within minutes, however, Sneed said he also was arrested.
“I don’t know whether they were targeting me already,” he said, but as he made his way across a street, “I made eye contact with two officers that were moving forward from behind the skirmish line to make an arrest and they ran toward me and told me I was under arrest.” Sneed said he identified himself to the officers as press and showed them a press badge that he had created himself. He said he was also carrying two professional cameras, a GoPro camera and was filming with his cellphone when he was arrested.
“I kept asking to speak to the supervisor. Eventually I was able to, and I explained that I was press and I was well within my First Amendment rights to be documenting what was going on and he informed me that apparently they had made an announcement that said press and media were also subject to arrest if they didn’t disperse.”
After waiting 45 minutes on the sidewalk and another hour on a police bus, Sneed said he was transported to the LAPD Metropolitan Detention Center. He said he was released after midnight on March 26 and given paperwork ordering him to appear in court on July 30, on a charge of failure to disperse.
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that reads, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement reads. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which can “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement says members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
The LAPD statement notes that as individual arrests were made of those inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
Sneed retweeted the statement, noting that at no time did he hear the order for the media to disperse and that when he identified himself as press he was told it didn’t matter.
At no time was the press specifically ordered to a designated media area. At no point did any officers attempt to identify myself or other media members being arrested. When I was arrested I immediately identified myself as press and was told it didn’t matter. Y’all fucked up. https://t.co/Ie8n3cwefK
— CHIP NOOO (@chip_nooo) March 26, 2021
A Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson, reached by phone, told the Tracker that department policy is not to discuss arrests once paperwork has been filed. The spokesperson did not respond to emailed requests to confirm details about Sneed’s arrest, including confirming whether police had filed paperwork charging him or intended to do so.
On April 29, Rob Wilcox, a spokesman for Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the office had not received cases from police concerning Sneed or the other journalists who had received police citations more than a month earlier, on March 25.
Sneed told the Tracker on May 17 that he had received no notice that the charges were dropped against him, but said that he had expected that they would be.
Despite the lack of communication to the journalists involved, and barring further information, the Tracker is listing the charges against Sneed as “dropped” based on the lack of paperwork filed.
The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all arrests and detainments from the Echo Park Lake protest here.
Independent journalist Talia Jane was briefly detained while documenting riots in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021.
Jane was documenting via Twitter protests and demonstrations unfolding in downtown D.C., organized around the Congressional certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. President Donald Trump held a rally in front of the White House and 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, Reuters reported.
In response to the violence at the Capitol, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a public emergency and issued a curfew order from 6 p.m. until 6 a.m. the following morning. The order explicitly exempted journalists and other essential workers.
Jane told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker via direct messages that she was at the Capitol at around 7:30 p.m. to document a small group of Trump supporters who were trying to defy the curfew order.
“MPD [Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia] made three warnings for people to leave within the space of a minute or two, then started moving people back,” Jane said. “Eventually they formed a big circle, told me because I was press I could leave any time but didn’t answer questions about non-press people still there.”
Moments later, an officer in a white shirt told the others to start grabbing people, Jane said.
An officer placed his hand on her shoulder and began escorting her out of the police “kettle,” a police tactic of encircling a crowd which is often followed with mass citations or arrests. Jane said that she was not released, but led to two coach buses alongside the other detainees.
Two Washington Post journalists, Zoeann Murphy and Whitney Leaming, were also detained within the police kettle. The Tracker has documented those detentions here.
Jane said that she continued to film the scene and attempted to ask both her arresting officer and the commanding officers at the scene whether press were exempted from the curfew, but they ignored her.
“Still on my phone, not zip tied, just being held by my backpack so I can’t move around too much,” Jane said.
When she reached the front of the line, Jane said one of the commanding officers examined her press badge and asked which outlets she works for, and she listed a few.
“Satisfied, he tells me they’re going to let me go but on the caveat I head straight home.”
They grabbed me, walked me to the...coach buses(?) they’re putting detainees in. Divided the people by male/female. Once it got to be my turn, Captain JR Haines looked at my press badge, said he’d let me go. Asked if press are included in curfew, he said “I don’t know” & laughed
— TALIA JANE (@itsa_talia) January 7, 2021
Jane said she was released at approximately 7:45 p.m., then remained at the scene for a while with other members of the press. She said she was not hassled further by the police.
When reached by phone, a spokesperson for MPDC told the Tracker that it could not comment beyond this statement: “When we detain any reporters, it’s to maintain order and safety.”
The spokesperson said she could not comment further on the specifics of any case. The Tracker was then asked that any questions about the department’s use of kettling be sent via email. The department did not immediately respond to those or previously emailed questions.
Rioters stormed the Capitol to disrupt the certification of President-elect Joe Biden's victory on Jan. 6, 2020. Three journalists were detained after a curfew was ordered in response to the violence.
",detained and released without being processed,Metropolitan Police Department,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Donald Trump, election, Election 2020, kettle, protest",,, 2021-01-08 16:22:06.345210+00:00,2022-08-04 21:26:52.786278+00:00,Two Washington Post video journalists detained in police ‘kettle’ during DC riot,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/two-washington-post-video-journalists-detained-in-police-kettle-during-dc-riot/,2022-08-04 21:26:52.720345+00:00,,,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Whitney Leaming (The Washington Post),,2021-01-06,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"The Washington Post video journalist Whitney Leaming was detained alongside a colleague while documenting riots in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021.
Leaming and fellow Post video journalist Zoeann Murphy were covering protests and demonstrations in downtown D.C., The Post reported, organized around the Congressional certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. President Donald Trump held a rally in front of the White House and 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, Reuters reported.
In response to the violence at the Capitol, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a public emergency and issued a curfew order from 6 p.m. until 6 a.m. the following morning. The order explicitly exempted journalists and other essential workers.
Murphy told The Post in a live interview that the two journalists had been entrapped by Metropolitan Police Department officers using a technique known as “kettling,” wherein police surround a group from all sides to prevent exit. Murphy spoke to the outlet live while they were being detained, as Leaming continued to film the scene.
With @wleaming, still rolling the camera while we were being arrested for filming protests outside the Capitol. pic.twitter.com/PcEiwz28DU
— Zoeann Murphy (@ZoeannMurphy) January 7, 2021
Independent journalist Talia Jane was also detained in the kettle. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented her detention here.
Murphy said that police confirmed multiple times that the journalists were under arrest, but did not provide further explanation, even though both Leaming and Murphy identified themselves as members of the press.
While speaking live with The Post at approximately 7:40 p.m., Murphy suddenly said that officers had decided to allow press to leave the scene after providing media credentials. She said she had her Washington Post press badge and was wearing a fleece with the news outlet’s name on it. In a video posted to Twitter by Murphy following their release, Leaming can be seen carrying a large camera and backpack with equipment.
The Tracker has documented Murphy’s detainment here.
The journalists were detained alongside the demonstrators for violating curfew Murphy told the Post.
Murphy told the Tracker that after they were released the police were “completely polite” to the pair as they continued documenting the scene for approximately 30 minutes.
A spokesperson for The Post said in a statement to The Wrap, “Our journalists were just doing their jobs and should never have been arrested in the first place. However, we’re pleased that police quickly released them.”
When reached by phone, a spokesperson for MPDC told the Tracker that it could not comment beyond this statement: “When we detain any reporters, it’s to maintain order and safety.”
The spokesperson said she could not comment further on the specifics of any case. The Tracker was then asked that any questions about the department’s use of kettling be sent via email. The department did not immediately respond to those or previously emailed questions.
This article has been updated to include comment from Zoeann Murphy.
Police stand guard at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., following a Jan. 6, 2021 riot against the certification of presidential election results by Congress.
",detained and released without being processed,Metropolitan Police Department,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Donald Trump, election, Election 2020, kettle, protest",,, 2021-01-08 16:32:01.028410+00:00,2022-08-04 21:27:55.958623+00:00,Washington Post video journalists detained in police ‘kettle’ during DC riot,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/washington-post-video-journalists-detained-in-police-kettle-during-dc-riot/,2022-08-04 21:27:55.888149+00:00,,,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Zoeann Murphy (The Washington Post),,2021-01-06,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"The Washington Post video journalist Zoeann Murphy was detained alongside a colleague while documenting riots in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021.
Murphy and fellow Post video journalist Whitney Leaming were covering protests and demonstrations in downtown D.C., The Post reported, organized around the Congressional certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. President Donald Trump held a rally in front of the White House and 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, Reuters reported.
In response to the violence at the Capitol, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a public emergency and issued a curfew order from 6 p.m. until 6 a.m. the following morning. The order explicitly exempted journalists and other essential workers.
Murphy told The Post in a live interview that the two journalists had been entrapped by Metropolitan Police Department officers using a technique known as “kettling,” wherein police surround a group from all sides to prevent exit. Murphy spoke to the outlet live while they were being detained, as Leaming continued to film the scene.
Some days are like this. Body armor, helmet, getting arrested while filming a siege on the Capitol. #journalism pic.twitter.com/i8i6bD4o5q
— Zoeann Murphy (@ZoeannMurphy) January 7, 2021
Independent journalist Talia Jane was also detained in the kettle. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented her detention here.
Murphy told the Tracker, “We got kettled, and that happens. But usually I can just go up to a police officer and say, ‘We’re media,’ and they just let us out of the kettle. And in this situation they did not.”
Murphy said in the livestream that police confirmed multiple times that the journalists were under arrest, but did not provide further explanation, even though both Leaming and Murphy identified themselves as members of the press.
“I have a credential: a Washington Post credential press badge that I wear. And then I actually have my Washington Post fleece on today as well,” Murphy said.
At approximately 7:40 p.m., while still live with The Post, Murphy can be heard saying, “They’ve just told us that they’re letting the press go and have told us that we can go.”
Both journalists were released shortly after showing officers their media credentials. The Tracker has documented Leaming’s detainment here.
The journalists were detained alongside the demonstrators for violating curfew, Murphy told the Post.
Murphy told the Tracker that after they were released the police were “completely polite” to the pair as they continued documenting the scene for approximately 30 minutes.
A spokesperson for The Post said in a statement to The Wrap, “Our journalists were just doing their jobs and should never have been arrested in the first place. However, we’re pleased that police quickly released them.”
When reached by phone, a spokesperson for MPDC told the Tracker that it could not comment beyond this statement: “When we detain any reporters, it’s to maintain order and safety.”
The spokesperson said she could not comment further on the specifics of any case. The Tracker was then asked that any questions about the department’s use of kettling be sent via email. The department did not immediately respond to those or previously emailed questions.
This article has been updated to include comment from Zoeann Murphy.
Police in Washington, D.C. stand guard at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, following riots against Congress’ certification of the 2020 presidential election results. A curfew was issued following the breaching of the Capitol.
",detained and released without being processed,Metropolitan Police Department,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Donald Trump, election, Election 2020, kettle, protest",,, 2021-04-22 18:08:30.149622+00:00,2022-05-12 13:53:28.168533+00:00,Independent photojournalist arrested while covering Portland protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-photojournalist-arrested-while-covering-portland-protest/,2022-05-12 13:53:28.105060+00:00,obstruction: interfering with a peace officer (charges dropped as of 2021-01-31),,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Sean Bascom (Independent),,2021-01-05,False,Portland,Oregon (OR),45.52345,-122.67621,"Independent photojournalist Sean Bascom was arrested while reporting on a protest in Portland, Oregon, on Jan. 5, 2021.
Protesters had gathered near the North Portland precinct of the Portland Police Bureau, demonstrating in reaction to the announcement that day that no charges would be filed against Wisconsin police officers involved in the shooting of Jacob Blake on Aug. 23, 2020.
Racial justice demonstrations had been held regularly in the city since the death of George Floyd during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25.
Bascom, a photojournalist whose work has been published by outlets such as the Portland Mercury and the Portland State Vanguard, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he’d been following the demonstrations near the police building on the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Killingsworth Street. According to Bascom, some protesters had set a fire in a dumpster in the street, and another had removed a security camera from the fence around the precinct.
Bascom said at one point he went around to the side of the building and took some photographs through a fence of officers in the precinct’s parking lot. Several officers came over to the fence, Bascom said, with one asking if he was “real press.” He said he told them that he was a freelance photojournalist and explained how freelancing works and why he didn’t have a credential issued by a specific outlet.
Soon, more protesters gathered at that side of the fence, Bascom said, and police issued warnings, causing protesters to scatter. Police then moved up the street, he said, pushing protesters back from the area.
Bascom said that he was standing near other journalists and some protesters across the street from the precinct building in a parking area for several businesses when one sergeant pointed at him and directed officers to arrest him.
Bascom said that he had the word “PRESS” marked on his helmet, and he identified himself as a journalist as he was being arrested. He said he’d spoken with the sergeant who pointed him out for arrest earlier in the night, and the officer had said that he wasn’t a real member of the press.
Video posted on Twitter by photojournalist Justin Yau shows Bascom, wearing a black helmet marked “PRESS” with a camera hanging around his neck, being arrested.
Portland Police has just exited the building and conducted targeted arrests. At least one person with cameras and Press markings have been arrested. Officers say the charge is trespassing. #PortlandProtest #PDXProtest #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/2cZNn1yxpu
— Justin Yau (@PDocumentarians) January 6, 2021
Bascom said police handcuffed his wrists behind his back and brought him into the PPB precinct. He said that officers bagged up his personal belongings and that he was held in a cell for about 20 minutes, before being released with a citation for trespassing and interfering with a police officer.
Bascom said that the charges had been dropped and he never needed to appear in court.
A spokesperson for the Multnomah County district attorney confirmed that the state declined to prosecute and that the case is closed. The PPB 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 Sean Bascom captures the moment when a Portland Police Bureau sergeant singles him out for arrest while he was covering protests on Jan. 5, 2021. Bascom said the charges were subsequently dropped.
",arrested and released,Portland Police Bureau,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,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 2021, protest",,, 2020-11-19 17:41:28.352551+00:00,2023-10-27 21:49:23.471371+00:00,Photojournalist’s camera damaged during arrest in Portland,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalists-camera-damaged-during-arrest-in-portland/,2023-10-27 21:49:23.338476+00:00,"obstruction: interfering with a peace officer (charges dropped as of 2021-01-31), obstruction: disorderly conduct (charges dropped as of 2021-01-31)",,(2021-01-31 00:00:00+00:00) Charges dropped against freelance journalist,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Damage",,,camera: count of 1,Clementson Supriyadi (Freelance),,2020-11-05,False,Portland,Oregon (OR),45.52345,-122.67621,"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.
Vishal Singh, a videographer who works on Netflix documentaries and has been covering demonstrations in Los Angeles, was arrested in the city on Nov. 4, 2020, while filming election-related protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Singh told the Committee to Protect Journalists that he and fellow videographer Sean Beckner-Carmitchel were covering a relatively small demonstration that was winding down near the intersection of West 5th and South Hill streets along Pershing Square after marching from City Hall. CPJ is a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
At approximately 7:30 p.m., Los Angeles Police officers arrived on motorcycles and declared the gathering an unlawful assembly, according to Twitter posts by Singh and other journalists present.
According to a tweet posted by Singh, officers then hemmed in the crowd and the two videographers using a police maneuver called kettling.
@acatwithnews and I were arrested tonight while documenting a protest. We were kettled and given no escape route. LAPD specifically targeted us for being journalists who were filming what occurred. #election2020 #FreedomOfThePress pic.twitter.com/G7JscEGcVk
— Vishal P Singh (@VPS_Reports) November 5, 2020
At the beginning of the video in Singh’s tweet, officers can be seen placing Beckner-Carmitchel in zip-tie cuffs and leading him behind the police line. Multiple officers then point at Singh moments before they move in to arrest him.
Singh told the Los Angeles Times that he believes 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 livestreaming, I saw multiple officers pointing me out.”
The Tracker has documented Beckner-Carmitchel’s arrest here. At least two other journalists were detained in the kettle but released without being processed.
Singh described himself to CPJ as a “citizen journalist,” and noted that both the bullet-proof vest and helmet he was wearing were labeled “PRESS.” These markings are visible in another video of his arrest posted by an observer. Singh also said he identified himself to police as a member of the news media before he was handcuffed.
Singh told the Tracker that both he and Beckner-Carmitchel were cited with failure to disperse — a misdemeanor — and released approximately two hours later with orders to appear in court on March 9, 2021.
If convicted, Singh could face up to six months imprisonment and a fine of up to $1,000, according to California’s penal code.
When asked for comment about the arrests, Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson Capt. Stacy Spell confirmed to the 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 said. “Literally the entire crowd claimed to be media.”
Singh told the Times that during his months of covering protests in LA, he had not heard any protesters claiming to be members of the press.
The LAPD did not respond to an emailed request for further comment.
An independent journalist, who asked to be identified only by the anonymized Twitter handle of @desertborder, was one of at least four members of the press detained while documenting election-related protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in downtown Los Angeles, California, on Nov. 4, 2020.
The journalist told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that at approximately 7:30 p.m. a small protest was winding down near the intersection of West 5th and South Hill streets near Pershing Square. Only 40 to 50 people remained, the journalist said, including members of the press.
Los Angeles police officers arrived on motorcycles within minutes and announced that the gathering was an unlawful assembly.
The journalist tweeted that once police had hemmed in everyone present using a police tactic called kettling, they were told that all those inside the police circle were under arrest.
Well we're kettled and they told us we're all under arrest pic.twitter.com/bysklbAmzA
— Andy Ngo is a fascist (@desertborder) November 5, 2020
When the journalist attempted to identify as a member of the press to officers a few minutes later, according to a tweet posted at 7:44 p.m., an officer responded by pointing an unidentified weapon at the journalist.
“I have a lawfully issued press card,” @desertborder can be heard saying in the recording of the exchange.
In the video, the officer can be heard saying, “Turn around and go over there, go to the left.”
The journalist eventually returned to stand with other reporters. The Tracker has documented cases of three others detained that night: student journalist Emily Holshouser and videographers Vishal Singh and Sean Beckner-Carmitchel. Both videographers were arrested and charged with failure to disperse.
“Another officer came over and told us that this was now the press area and so long as we stayed there we wouldn’t be arrested,” @desertborder said.
The journalist tweeted at 8:05 p.m. that the LAPD officers had opened the kettle and released the remaining members of the press and demonstrators who had been detained.
When asked for comment about the arrests, 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 told the Times 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 said. “Literally the entire crowd claimed to be media.”
The LAPD did not respond to an emailed request for further comment.
Student journalist Emily Holshouser was one of at least four journalists detained while covering election-related protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in Los Angeles, California, on Nov. 4, 2020.
Holshouser, who writes for California State University Northridge’s student publication The Daily Sundial, tweeted that she was covering a protest scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. outside City Hall in downtown LA.
When the event dispersed at 6:30 p.m., Holshouser followed a small group of remaining demonstrators as they walked south down Spring Street toward Pershing Square. By 7 p.m., the approximately 40 to 50 people who remained had stopped at the intersection of West 5th and South Hill streets, according to a tweet posted by Holshouser.
Holshouser tweeted just before 7:30 p.m. that Los Angeles police officers had arrived and declared that the gathering was an unlawful assembly.
Multiple journalists present at the protest reported that officers then hemmed in everyone present using a police tactic called kettling, and announced that everyone was under arrest.
Two videographers — Vishal Singh and Sean Beckner-Carmitchel — were placed under arrest for failure to disperse.
After being threatened with arrest, Holshouser tweeted that she and other members of the press were directed to a media staging area approximately 20 minutes later.
Arrests are being made. Media has been given a staging area. They say if we leave the curb, we are subject to arrest. pic.twitter.com/8aqmEKv5dC
— Emily Holshouser (@emilyytayylor) November 5, 2020
The Tracker has documented the detentions of all the journalists confirmed to have been present in the kettle here.
An independent journalist, @desertborder, tweeted at 8:05 p.m. that the LAPD officers had opened the kettle and released the remaining members of the press and demonstrators who had been detained.
By just after 8:30 p.m., Holshouser posted, “It’s all over. Cops have left, reporters have left, I’m headed home.”
When asked for comment about the arrests, 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 said. “Literally the entire crowd claimed to be media.”
The LAPD did not respond to an emailed request for further comment.
Brazilian photojournalist Gabriel Boaz Munhoz was arrested while documenting a protest in New York City on Nov. 4, 2020.
Munhoz, whose work has been published in Brazil and exhibited at the International Center of Photography in New York, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was documenting a demonstration dubbed the People’s March, which began at 7:35 p.m. in Washington Square Park in Lower Manhattan. The New York Times reported the protesters were calling for every vote from the Nov. 3 election to be counted, an end to racial injustice and for police departments to be defunded.
“The marchers walked out of the park and immediately were met by the biked police,” Munhoz said. As the march advanced toward the intersection of 6th Avenue and 8th Street, he said, police tried to direct demonstrators north on 6th, “but the marchers turned left towards the stopped traffic.”
Munhoz said he got ahead of the march and began walking backward in the street, next to parked cars, while photographing the crowd. He said that around 7:55 p.m., he saw the demonstrators looking past him and, when he turned to look, saw an officer pointing directly at him.
“I don’t hear any warning, request or order. By his gesture, I thought he was just asking me to step aside and that’s what I do,” Munhoz said. “I go in the direction of the sidewalk and closer to the parked cars when another policeman holds me… and tells me to hold still.”
The officer who had pointed at him and several others suddenly surrounded him, Munhoz said, as he explained that he was a photojournalist covering the march. He said he asked several times whether he was under arrest before an officer confirmed that he was.
When the officers asked for his press pass, Munhoz said, “I tell them I don’t have one because I’m a freelancer. I explain again that I’m part of the media, that I’m just doing my job.
“I tell them I have a business card, but he says it’s not enough,” he said.
An officer identified on Munhoz’s paperwork as Martinez then handcuffed him and took him to a police vehicle to be transported to One Police Plaza, the NYPD’s headquarters in downtown New York, according to Munhoz.
“I never resisted or fought the arrest,” Munhoz said. “I kept calm, trying to explain that I was press, and when I realized that it wouldn’t make any difference I complied with everything they asked me.”
According to copies of Munhoz’s citations shared with the Tracker, he was booked at 8:17 p.m. on charges of failure to disperse and walking on the roadway. He was released a little over three hours later.
Munhoz was ordered to appear for a hearing on Feb. 1, 2021. If convicted on both charges, Munhoz faces up to 30 days imprisonment or a fine of up to $400, according to the New York penal code.
“My understanding is that, since I was ahead of the march, I was one of the first ones they spotted and it was an arbitrary decision,” Munhoz said. He added that he was arrested just as the march had begun, and he had seen no violence, looting or vandalism taking place.
Mickey Osterreicher, general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, told the Tracker that he has contacted the New York City prosecutors’ office to request that the charges be dropped.
The New York Police Department did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
Bicycle officers with the New York City Police Department ride up to demonstrators in the People’s March for racial justice and election integrity on Nov. 4, 2020.
",arrested and released,New York Police Department,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,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, election, Election 2020, protest",,, 2020-11-18 12:08:46.408561+00:00,2022-08-04 21:23:24.353753+00:00,"Minneapolis police detain St. Paul Pioneer Press staff photographer, other journalists in ‘kettle’",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/minneapolis-police-detain-st-paul-press-staff-photographer-other-journalists-in-kettle/,2022-08-04 21:23:24.282625+00:00,,,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,John Autey (St. Paul Pioneer Press),,2020-11-04,False,Minneapolis,Minnesota (MN),44.97997,-93.26384,"Police in Minneapolis cordoned off and detained a crowd of protesters, along with several journalists, including St. Paul Pioneer Press staff photographer John Autey, on the evening of Nov. 4, 2020, Autey told the Committee to Protect Journalists in a phone interview.
Autey said that he was photographing protesters as they marched onto I-94 in Minneapolis and was then trapped with them on the highway as the Minnesota State Patrol and Minneapolis City Police closed off exits and surrounded the crowd using a technique called kettling.
According to the Star Tribune, the protesters represented a wide-range of interests, including support of the Black Lives Matter movement and opposition to President Trump’s allegations of voter fraud in the Nov. 3 election.
While he was trapped on the highway, Autey said that he approached police officers who were blocking the Riverside ramp to I-94, identified himself as a member of the media and asked to be released. Autey said police refused his request. The photojournalist then approached officers on the opposite side of the highway, which was manned by both state troopers and city police, and asked to leave, again stating he was a member of the media. Autey said his second request was also denied.
“The first half-hour [on the highway] was a little tense and it looked like they were going to start using tear gas on us,” said Autey. “That didn’t happen and then [law enforcement] came on the speaker and said everybody there was under arrest and asked us to sit down,” he said.
The photojournalist told CPJ he then sent an email to his on-duty colleagues at the Pioneer Press and said he was about to get arrested. CPJ is a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
Around 11:30p.m., law enforcement announced through a loudspeaker that all members of the media who wanted to exit would be allowed, Autey said.
The photojournalist told CPJ that law enforcement glanced at his Pioneer Press badge before allowing him to exit. Autey said that he noticed about a dozen other reporters exiting, including two Minneapolis Star Tribune photojournalists, Leila Navidi and Rich Tsong-Taatarii, who were allowed to leave. The Tracker documented their detainment here.
The Minneapolis Police Department and Minnesota State Troopers did not respond to an emailed request for comment from CPJ.
Police in Minneapolis cordoned off and detained a crowd of protesters, along with several journalists, including Minneapolis Star Tribune photographers Leila Navidi and Rich Tsong-Taatarii, on the evening of Nov. 4, 2020, Navidi told the Committee to Protect Journalists in a phone interview. CPJ is a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
Navidi said that they were photographing protesters as they marched onto the eastbound side of the Interstate 94 highway from the Cedar Avenue exit when Minneapolis City Police and Minnesota State Patrol closed off exits and surrounded the crowd using a technique called “kettling.”
According to the Star Tribune, the protesters represented a wide range of interests, including support of the Black Lives Matter movement and opposition to President Trump’s allegations of voter fraud in the Nov. 3 election.
Navidi said that around 7:30 p.m. she texted the on-duty Star Tribune photo editor after realizing that she and Tsong-Taatarii were trapped on the highway and might be arrested by law enforcement.
“The beginning of it was kind of nebulous in that [law enforcement] were just saying ‘Everyone who is on this highway is under arrest for public nuisance,’” Navidi told CPJ. “And then they slowly started detaining people, but they did not detain any press or take away any press.”
Navidi said that when she felt she had completed her reporting, “I went and asked one of the state patrol officers if we could leave.” The officer said he would talk to his supervisor, and, according to Navidi, the supervisor then told her that they were going to make a loudspeaker announcement that all press who wanted to leave would be allowed to exit the highway.
At around 11 p.m., after the announcement was made, Navidi said she and her Star Tribune colleague were allowed by law enforcement to exit the highway via the Cedar Avenue exit. The Tracker has documented Tsong-Taatarii’s detainment here.
The Minneapolis Police Department and Minnesota State Troopers did not respond to an emailed request for comment from CPJ.
On Nov. 4, 2020, police detained protesters and journalists on Minneapolis’ Interstate 94 highway.
",detained and released without being processed,Minneapolis Police Department,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,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, election, Election 2020, kettle, protest",,, 2020-11-19 18:25:09.887862+00:00,2022-08-04 21:23:39.660549+00:00,Minneapolis police ‘kettle’ three photojournalists on highway during protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/minneapolis-police-kettle-three-photojournalists-on-highway-during-protest/,2022-08-04 21:23:39.588103+00:00,,,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Richard Tsong-Taatarii (Minneapolis Star Tribune),,2020-11-04,False,Minneapolis,Minnesota (MN),44.97997,-93.26384,"Police in Minneapolis cordoned off and detained a crowd of protesters, along with several journalists, including Minneapolis Star Tribune photographers Leila Navidi and Richard Tsong-Taatarii, on the evening of Nov. 4, 2020, Tsong-Taatarii told the Committee to Protect Journalists in a phone interview.
Tsong-Taatarii said that he began photographing protesters on the western edge of the University of Minnesota campus and followed as they marched south on Cedar Avenue to the eastbound side of the Interstate 94 highway. Once on the highway, Tsong-Taatarii said that Minneapolis City Police and Minnesota Street Patrol closed off exits and surrounded the crowd using a technique called “kettling.”
“We were surrounded and there was no way to exit,” Tsong-Taatarii told CPJ, adding that he was with Navidi on the highway. “There was no warning that they were going to arrest people if they didn’t get off the highway, and there was no option [to exit].” CPJ is a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
According to the Star Tribune, the protesters represented a wide range of interests, including support of the Black Lives Matter movement and opposition to President Trump’s allegations of voter fraud in the Nov. 3 election.
After they were trapped, Tsong-Taatarii said that he and Navidi were in touch with their editors who alerted state officials that journalists were in the crowd of protesters.
“They made sure that, if at all possible, we would not be detained, processed, and then released,” Tsong-Taatarii told CPJ. Tsong-Taatarii said that he and Navidi heard from someone in the kettle that a television crew had been allowed to leave the highway and decided to ask law enforcement if they could exit.
In a separate interview with CPJ, Navidi said she approached a state patrol officer and asked him if they could leave. The officer said he would talk to his supervisor, and, according to Navidi, the supervisor then told her that they were going to make a loudspeaker announcement that all press who wanted to leave would be allowed to exit the highway. The Tracker has documented Navidi’s detainment here.
Tsong-Taatarii said that, after the announcement, he and Navidi were allowed by law enforcement to exit the highway via the Cedar Avenue exit at approximately 11:30 p.m.
The Minneapolis Police Department and Minnesota State Troopers did not respond to an emailed request for comment from CPJ.
On Nov. 4, 2020, journalists and protesters were cordoned off and detained by police on Minneapolis’ Interstate 94 highway.
",detained and released without being processed,Minneapolis Police Department,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,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, election, Election 2020, kettle, protest",,, 2021-02-19 21:50:28.211857+00:00,2022-08-04 21:32:25.720892+00:00,"Beverly Hills Courier reporter detained during LA election-related protest, released without charge",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/beverly-hills-courier-reporter-detained-during-la-election-related-protest-released-without-charge/,2022-08-04 21:32:25.660146+00:00,,,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Samuel Braslow (Beverly Hills Courier),,2020-11-04,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"Beverly Hills Courier staff writer Samuel Braslow was one of at least five journalists detained while covering election-related protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in Los Angeles, California, on Nov. 4, 2020.
Braslow confirmed to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was documenting a protest outside City Hall in downtown L.A. that evening. When the event dispersed at 6:30 p.m., a small group of remaining demonstrators walked south down Spring Street toward Pershing Square, according to accounts from other journalists present that night.
By 7:30 p.m., the approximately 40 to 50 people who remained had stopped at the intersection of West 5th and South Hill streets. Los Angeles police officers arrived on motorcycles within minutes and announced that the gathering was an unlawful assembly, journalists reported.
Multiple journalists reported that officers then hemmed in everyone present using a police tactic called kettling, and announced that everyone was under arrest. Braslow confirmed to the Tracker that he was among the journalists caught in the kettle.
Two videographers were placed under arrest for failure to disperse and the remaining members of the press were directed to a media staging area within the kettle.
The Tracker has documented the detentions of all the journalists confirmed to have been present in the kettle here.
According to journalists’ accounts, LAPD officers opened the kettle shortly after 8 p.m. and released the remaining members of the press and demonstrators who had been detained, including Braslow
When asked for comment about the arrests, 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 said. “Literally the entire crowd claimed to be media.”
The LAPD did not respond to an emailed request for further comment.
Sean Beckner-Carmitchel, a Los Angeles-based independent videographer who has been covering local demonstrations for several months, was detained and issued a citation on Nov. 3, 2020.
On the evening of the U.S. elections, Beckner-Carmitchel told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was documenting an event titled Marathon Party at the Polls, sponsored by Black Lives Matter Los Angeles, at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles. An Instagram post by BLMLA advertised the event as from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., with guest speakers, food, music and giveaways planned.
Beckner-Carmitchel said that when he arrived at around 6 p.m., the gathering was generally peaceful and there was not a large police presence. A bit before 7:30 p.m. Los Angeles Police Department officers advanced on and arrested three individuals whom Beckner-Carmitchel identified as protest medics. Beckner-Carmitchel tweeted that the medics were targeted “because they were in antifa guise.”
“At that point the crowd got a little unruly, and police were sort of antagonizing the crowd,” Beckner-Carmitchel said. In a tweet posted by Beckner-Carmitchel, officers appear to rush the crowd of protesters and grab a fourth individual.
Soon after, officers declared the gathering an unlawful assembly, according to Beckner-Carmitchel, and while most dispersed, a group of approximately 20-30 people left the area to regroup elsewhere. Beckner-Carmitchel decided to stay behind to document the arrests of the four individuals.
“I decided after covering the detainments for about 20 minutes to catch up with the main crowd,” Beckner-Carmitchel said. “Not long after I did catch up with them was the moment when everyone was kettled and I was detained.”
By the way... I was arrested on the sidewalk. For not being on the sidewalk: “pedestrian on the road” citation. Along with a legal observer from @NLG_LosAngeles during what began as a celebration of Black Lives.#dtla #ElectionNight #2020Election #blm #STAPLESCenter pic.twitter.com/gISuAu5PUT
— Sean Carmitchel (@ACatWithNews) November 4, 2020
Kettling is a police maneuver by which officers hem in protesters from all sides to prevent anyone from dispersing and is often followed with arrests or citations.
In a video Beckner-Carmitchel posted on Twitter, a woman can be heard calling out to police a few yards away, “We are press and National Lawyers Guild!” Legal observers from the National Lawyers Guild regularly attend protests across the country — identifiable by their lime green hats — in order to monitor police conduct.
Beckner-Carmitchel told the Tracker that though he identified himself as a member of the press and was standing on the sidewalk, he was cuffed and issued a citation that states his violation was “pedestrian on the road.”
“Everyone was detained one by one, cuffed, cited and then released,” he said.
Beckner-Carmitchel said that once the citations were issued, everyone was allowed to leave the kettle. He estimated that they were detained for an hour and a half and released around 9:30 p.m.
Shortly before midnight, Beckner-Carmitchel posted another video, noting, “They are threatening to arrest me. AGAIN- I was already cited today.”
In a recent internal memo shared by Beverly Hills Courier reporter Samuel Braslow, the LAPD explicitly stated that members of the press — regardless of whether they have media credentials — have a right to document protests.
“The intent of this message is to remind supervisors and line personnel that the Department WILL recognize individuals who self-identify as media representatives and will NOT require specific media credentials,” the memo from Deputy Chief Dominic Choi reads.
“The inability to produce identification does not preclude an individual from acting as a member of the media,” the memo says in boldface type.
The Los Angeles Police Department did not respond to an email requesting comment.
Beckner-Carmitchel was detained by LAPD officers in another law enforcement kettle the following night, Nov. 4, alongside at least three other journalists, and was arrested on charges of failure to disperse. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented those detentions here.
New York City police tackled and arrested photojournalist Chae Kihn as she covered protests in the New York borough of Manhattan on Nov. 1, 2020, according to a video of the incident and the general counsel of the National Press Photographers Association.
Kihn was covering a Make America Great Again demonstration near 10th Avenue and W. 24th Street when officers in New York City Police Department uniforms tackled Kihn to the ground, handcuffed and then arrested her. Some of the police action can be seen in a video of the incident that was posted to Twitter, and additional details were confirmed by Mickey Ostrreicher, general counsel of the NPPA, who said he had corresponded with Kihn after her arrest.
In the video, a man in plainclothes who was carrying a camera can be seen taking Kihn’s camera from the journalist as she was being handcuffed. A voice heard in the video tells police “She’s a reporter.”
Kihn was issued a Criminal Appearance Ticket for a violation of NYS Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1156A “Pedestrians on roadways” for disregarding sidewalks, according to Ostrreicher. Her court appearance is scheduled for Jan. 29, 2021, the NPPA general counsel told the Committee to Protect Journalists.
After reports of Kihn’s arrest appeared on Twitter, stating that police had arrested a journalist, the NYPD tweeted that “these reports are false” and that “all arrested individuals from today’s protests have been verified to not be NYPD credentialed members of the press.”
“I don’t have an NYPD [credential] but I have other news accreditations and have been working as a photographer for over 20 years,” Kihn told the news site Gothamist. “Just because I don’t have an NYPD badge doesn’t make me less of a journalist,” she added. “Why do the police get to decide who is a journalist and who isn’t?”
Kihn’s work has appeared in the New York Times, the art magazine Bomb, and the New York City news website The Village Sun, according to the online art publication Hyperallergic.
The NYPD did not immediately respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment. CPJ is a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
Tomas Murawski, a reporter for The Alamance News, was arrested while covering a march to the polls in Graham, North Carolina, on Oct. 31, 2020.
The “I Am Change” march and rally was organized to encourage people to vote in the 2020 general election and included calls for accountability echoing recent protests against racial injustice. The News & Observer reported that approximately 200 demonstrators marched from the Wayman Chapel AME Church to Court Square, where the Alamance County Courthouse and a Confederate monument are located.
The Washington Post reported that once there, participants took part in a moment of silence for George Floyd, a Black man, who died during an arrest in Minneapolis in May.
Moments later, the Graham Police Department ordered the protesters to disperse and began pepper spraying the crowd. Reports compiled by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker details 11 journalists affected by the chemical irritant.
A police officer also grabbed the camera of News & Observer photojournalist Julia Wall to push her back while she filmed a march, which the Tracker documented here.
The Graham Police Department said in a statement that it issued multiple orders to relocate or disperse before using crowd control measures.
At least 12 individuals were arrested during the march, The News & Observer reported, including Murawski.
Alamance News Publisher Tom Boney Jr. told The News & Observer that Murawski was photographing the scene from the street when he was suddenly placed under arrest.
ALAMANCE NEWS REPORTER ARRESTED AMID THE PROTEST – Tomas Murawski, a staff writer for The Alamance News, was arrested at Saturday's protest. Murawski had taken a photo of the day's first arrest when he himself was arrested. See News & Observer video here: https://t.co/8L2P13QaZD pic.twitter.com/wYnLb8Ofug
— The Alamance News (@AlamanceNews) October 31, 2020
“When I spoke to him on the street, while he was in police custody, he said they ordered them to move out of the roadway,” Boney said. “He was doing so, while still taking photos, but apparently not fast enough for [the police].”
In footage of the arrest published by The News & Observer, four officers can be seen taking Murawski’s camera and camera bag and leading him away from the crowd before placing him in handcuffs. Video from a second angle published by Triad City Beat shows that officers bent his left arm far behind his back and toward his head while leading him away, causing Murawski to double over.
Boney told the Tracker that Murawski was held in police custody for approximately three hours before he was released, and that all of his equipment was returned to him.
According to a Facebook post published by the Alamance News, Murawski was charged with resisting, delaying or obstructing a public officer — a Class 2 misdemeanor punishable by up to 60 days of community service, supervised probation or imprisonment.
Murawski has a hearing scheduled for Dec. 14, Boney told the Tracker, but they hope to have the charge dismissed before then.
Boney expressed his concerns over Murawski’s arrest in a statement to the newspaper: “Tomas has been an outstanding reporter and photographer for many years, and has always demonstrated a high standard of professionalism in all his work,” Boney said. “I cannot imagine that he did anything warranting his treatment at the Graham rally.”
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper condemned the police response in a tweet that evening.
“Peaceful demonstrators should be able to have their voices heard and voter intimidation in any form cannot be tolerated,” Cooper wrote.
The Graham Police Department immediately responded to requests for comment.
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include additional comment from Alamance News publisher Tom Boney Jr. and to reflect the reporting of an additional journalist affected by tear gas.
While covering a march to the polls in Graham, North Carolina, Alamance News reporter Tomas Murawski was arrested by a Graham police officer on Oct. 31, 2020.
",arrested and released,Graham Police Department,None,None,True,None,[],None,None,False,None,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, election, Election 2020, protest",,, 2021-03-08 18:48:38.141484+00:00,2023-08-07 14:19:37.582861+00:00,Journalist receives failure to disperse charge months after documenting Dodgers win,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-receives-failure-to-disperse-charge-four-months-after-documenting-dodgers-celebrations/,2023-08-07 14:19:37.458405+00:00,rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2021-03-09),,"(2021-03-09 08:39:00+00:00) City attorney declines to charge multimedia journalist, leaves case 'open' for later prosecution",Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Lexis-Olivier Ray (L.A. Taco),,2020-10-27,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"Four months after covering celebrations in Los Angeles, California, following the Dodgers’ World Series win on Oct. 27, 2020, multimedia journalist Lexis-Olivier Ray says he received a citation for failure to disperse that evening.
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 Dodgers celebrations took place mainly downtown and in Echo Park, a neighborhood near Dodger Stadium. Ray was on assignment that evening for L.A. Taco, a digital-only outlet focused on the city.
Ray told the Tracker that while documenting the scene he was assaulted by LAPD officers, who tackled him to the ground and beat him with batons just after midnight, damaging his equipment — an incident which the Tracker has documented here — but he was not detained or issued a citation.
It was a surprise, Ray said, when he got a letter from the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office on March 3, 2021, notifying him that the office had received a report alleging that he had “violated Section PC409 Riot — remaining after warning to disperse on Oct. 27, 2020.”
Failure to disperse is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.
The letter ordered him to appear for a hearing on March 8, stating that should he fail to appear, criminal charges may be brought against him.
“I spoke to a public defender that said if I appear it will likely get thrown out,” Ray said, “but I have a lot of questions about why I received this notice in the first place.”
Neither the city attorney’s office nor the Los Angeles Police Department responded to requests for comment as of press time.
A 9NEWS producer was arrested alongside a private security guard hired by the TV station, after the guard was involved in a shooting at the site of dueling right- and left-wing protests in Denver, Colorado, on Oct. 10, 2020.
A “Patriot Rally” was organized for 2 p.m. at the park next to the state Capitol; a counterprotest “BLM-Antifa Soup Drive” was planned for 1:30 p.m. at the Civic Center to “drown out” the rally, 9NEWS reported.
As the protests were winding down at around 3:30 p.m., there was a confrontation between opposing protesters near the courtyard of the Denver Art Museum, according to the channel’s report. An unnamed 9NEWS producer was filming as a man attempted to de-escalate the fight. One of the men, later identified as Lee Keltner, eventually pulled out a can of pepper spray, threatening to spray a protester wearing a “Black Guns Matter” T-shirt.
At the 1:30 mark in the producer’s footage of the incident, Keltner appears to notice the producer filming and Denver Post photojournalist Helen Richardson documenting the scene. Keltner walks toward them and out of the frame, and someone can be heard saying, “This is not the place for a camera.”
“Get the cameras out of here or I’m going to fuck you up,” the man continues. It is unclear in the footage that follows whether the speaker was Keltner and whether he then pushes the 9NEWS producer or immediately begins a confrontation with the crew’s security guard, Matthew Dolloff. As the producer backed away from the scuffle, Keltner aimed his spray can at Dolloff as the security guard reached to his belt, according to a police affidavit.
According to the footage posted by 9NEWS, the producer stopped recording on his phone for the next 12 seconds, during which Keltner pepper sprayed Dolloff, who had drawn a handgun, and Dolloff shot Keltner. Those moments, however, were captured by Richardson.
Both Dolloff and the 9NEWS producer were arrested by Denver Sheriff Department deputies, who arrived at the scene within seconds. The producer resumed filming after the shooting, and can be heard identifying himself as a member of the press to officers and informing them that he had a press pass and a 9NEWS hat in his pocket.
The producer also said that the man who was shot “was going to get me.”
“That guy [Dolloff] just saved my fucking life, you know that, right?” the producer can be heard telling officers.
Dolloff can also be heard identifying himself as security for 9NEWS.
Keltner was transported to a local hospital where he died later that day.
After initially being placed under arrest, the 9NEWS producer was released from police custody that evening without charges and is not considered a suspect, the outlet reported.
The station did not respond to an email requesting comment and identification of the producer.
9NEWS management released a statement concerning the incident that read, in part: “9NEWS continues to cooperate fully with law enforcement and is deeply saddened by this loss of life.”
“For the past few months, it has been the practice of 9NEWS to contract private security, through an outside firm, to accompany our personnel covering protests. Pinkerton, the private security firm, is responsible for ensuring its guards or those it contracts with are appropriately licensed. 9News does not contract directly with individual security personnel.”
The station’s management also stated that the news crew Dolloff was accompanying was unaware that he was carrying a firearm, and the station had instructed the security firm that security guards for its news crews should not be armed.
Pinkerton told The New York Times in a statement that Dolloff was not an employee of the firm, but a contractor from Isborn Security. Both Pinkerton and 9NEWS said they had no knowledge that Dolloff was not licensed to work as a security guard.
Independent social media journalist Brendan Gutenschwager was one of four journalists arrested or detained while covering a protest in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin on Oct. 8, 2020.
The protest followed a Milwaukee County prosecutor’s Oct. 7 announcement that his office would not bring charges against a Wauwatosa police officer who shot and killed Black teenager Alvin Cole on Feb. 2. Cole, 17, had refused to put down a gun and ran away from police following a disturbance at a Wauwatosa mall. The Wauwatosa protest came amid demonstrations against police brutality and racism that had swept for months across the country, including in Wisconsin.
Gutenschwager, who is based in Michigan, said he works as an independent videographer, filming protests and other events to post on social media platforms, then distributing his footage to mainstream media outlets such as CNN, Newsweek, The New York Times and Fox News, all of which have used his footage.
Gutenschwager told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that on the day after the prosecutor’s decision was announced, he followed protesters as they marched several miles from the Milwaukee County Public Safety Building to the suburb of Wauwatosa.
While there had been some confrontations and destruction of property the previous night, Gutenschwager said, the march on the second day was peaceful. However, when marchers encountered National Guard officers deployed in Wauwatosa, he said, demonstrators became anxious about a confrontation; some decided to get in cars to continue to protest by driving through the area. The demonstrations continued after a 7 p.m. curfew in Wauwatosa took effect.
Gutenschwager said he got in a car with other journalists, including Shelby Talcott and Richie McGinniss of the news website the Daily Caller, to follow the protest caravan. The journalists stopped in the parking lot of the St. Matthew Evangelical Lutheran Church, on North Wauwatosa Avenue, to cover a confrontation between police and protesters, he said. Gutenschwager said he stayed in the vehicle, but McGinniss, one of the Daily Caller journalists, got out.
When McGinniss returned to the car, police tackled him to the ground, Gutenschwager said. Officers then surrounded the vehicle and ordered Gutenschwager and others to get out, he said. Gutenschwager said he was trying to exit, but it was difficult to move quickly because he was in the back seat of a two-door car. A video of the encounter posted on Twitter by WISN 12 reporter Caroline Reinwald shows a police officer yanking Gutenschwager from the car and slamming him to the ground, where he struck his head on the pavement. An officer then flipped him over and pinned him face down on the ground as Gutenschwager shouted that he was a member of the press, the journalist said.
What appears to be National Guard arresting protesters at 77th and Milwaukee. It’s a church parking lot. @WISN12News pic.twitter.com/0gcg70jTGQ
— Caroline Reinwald (@WISN_Caroline) October 9, 2020
McGinniss and Talcott both described in interviews and on social media that police beat them with night sticks during the encounter. They were both detained, but released without being arrested after they were identified as credentialed press. Blair Nelson, a freelance journalist who has worked for Scriberr News and Campus Reform, was also arrested.
The Tracker is documenting all arrests here.
Gutenschwager said that he does have press credentials, but they were in his vehicle, which was parked a short distance away. He said he continued to identify himself as press at multiple other times throughout the night.
Gutenschwager said his arms were restrained in zip ties before he was loaded into a police vehicle. He and others who had been arrested were transported to a parking lot, transferred to another van belonging to police in neighboring Waukesha County and then taken to the Waukesha County Jail, he said.
Gutenschwager said that he was processed and held in the jail. When he was released at around 3 a.m., he said police provided no way to get back to where he and others had been arrested. He was able to borrow a cellphone to get a ride from one of the journalists he was with at the time he was arrested, he said.
Gutenschwager was cited for violating an emergency curfew order, with a fine of $1,321, according to a document he provided. He was initially given a court date in November, which has been postponed to Dec. 10.
Gutenschwager said police confiscated his cellphone, saying it could be used for evidence, but did not explain what type of evidence. He said he retrieved his phone a week after he was arrested. When he got it, he said it had been put into airplane mode.
Gutenschwager said that he had significant pain in his back and neck the day after the arrest and went to a hospital in Michigan, where he was given a CT scan and diagnosed with a concussion that likely resulted from his fall during the arrest. He said he was treated for his injuries and told to avoid computer screen time, which he noted was difficult because of his work
Wauwatosa Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Abby Pavlik told the Tracker in an email that Gutenschwager was not wearing anything that identified him as a member of the press and did not show police any credentials when police asked. She did not respond to a question about the use of force during the arrest.
On Oct. 9, the police department posted on Twitter contradicting the reports that four credentialed journalists had been arrested. “Two individuals were arrested and they showed no press credentials at the time of their arrest,” the department wrote.
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.
This article has been updated to include comment from the Wauwatosa Police Department.
Richie McGinniss, video director for the national news site the Daily Caller, was beaten and detained by police while covering a protest in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin on Oct. 8, 2020.
The protest came one day after a Milwaukee County prosecutor announced that his office would not bring charges against a Wauwatosa police officer who shot and killed Black teenager Alvin Cole on Feb. 2. Cole refused to put down a gun and ran away from police following a disturbance at a mall. The protests came as demonstrations against police brutality and racial injustice had been held for months across the country, including in Wisconsin.
On the day after the prosecutor’s announcement, protests continued past a 7 p.m. curfew that was in effect in Wauwatosa, a suburb of Milwaukee. McGinniss was detained while he was filming police arresting Tracy Cole, Alvin Cole’s mother, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. McGinniss did not respond to a request for an interview, but described the incident on Twitter.
Video McGinniss posted on Twitter shows that an officer approached him as he was filming the arrest. McGinniss can be heard telling police that he has press credentials and identifying himself as working for the Daily Caller.
Video of @ShelbyTalcott and my detainment.
— Richie🎥McG🍿 (@RichieMcGinniss) October 9, 2020
As I was recording arrests, one officer told me to (quickly) clear the area.
Upon arriving to the car, I was forcibly detained (with press cred in hand) and as you can hear in the video, I tried my best to comply with police orders. pic.twitter.com/2I6GNH2CNX
Officers told him to leave, and as he moved away, someone shouted, “Don’t let me catch you,” the video shows.
The video continues as McGinniss crossed a parking lot to his car, where several officers suddenly shouted to “get down on the ground,” as McGinniss repeated that he had press credentials.
Blair Nelson, an independent journalist who had been accompanying McGinniss, was also ordered to the ground and restrained, Nelson told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. Police also detained McGinniss’s Daily Caller colleague Shelby Talcott and independent journalist Brendan Gutenschwager, who were in the car. The Tracker is documenting all arrests here.
Officers hit McGinnis multiple times with a club, Talcott tweeted in a description of the encounter with police.
Talcott wrote that she and McGinniss were both detained but were released after police determined they were journalists. Gutenschwager and Nelson were both arrested and cited for violating an emergency order.
Photos Talcott posted showed that McGinniss was cut on his forehead during the encounter, and the pair sustained other scrapes and bruises during the encounter.
We’ll have some nice cuts and bruises in the coming days... pic.twitter.com/wSsnumUeCA
— Shelby Talcott (@ShelbyTalcott) October 9, 2020
In response to the incident, Daily Caller publisher and co-founder Neil Patel said in a statement reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that “there is a definite problem” in the Wauwatosa Police Department. “They were brutally beaten with clubs for no reason,” he said.
A spokesperson for the Wauwatosa Police Department did not return requests for comment about 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 these protests across the country. Find these incidents here.
Shelby Talcott, media reporter for the news website the Daily Caller, was detained and hit with a club by police while covering a protest in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin on Oct. 8, 2020.
The protest followed a Milwaukee County prosecutor’s Oct. 7 announcement that his office would not bring charges against a Wauwatosa police officer who shot and killed Black teenager Alvin Cole on Feb. 2. Cole, 17, had refused to put down a gun and ran away from police following a disturbance at a Wauwatosa mall. The Wauwatosa protest came amid demonstrations against police brutality and racism that had swept for months across the country, including in Wisconsin.
Talcott told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she was following a car caravan protest through Wauwatosa, a Milwaukee suburb, the day after the prosecutor’s announcement. The caravan protest continued after a 7 p.m. curfew went into effect.
Talcott was in a car with her Daily Caller colleague Richie McGinniss, as well as independent social media reporter Brendan Gutenschwager and freelancer Blair Nelson. She said they parked the car when they came upon police making arrests. McGinniss and Nelson left the car to film the scene, but Talcott said she stayed inside because the situation seemed tense and she had a “bad feeling” about it.
McGinniss was filming police as they arrested Tracy Cole, Alvin Cole’s mother, when police confronted McGinniss and told him to leave, video he posted on his Twitter shows. When he jogged toward the car, police ordered him to the ground and hit him with night sticks, Talcott said.
As McGinniss was being detained, Talcott said officers surrounded the journalists’ car, pointed a taser at her head, and ordered her and Gutenschwager to get out and get on the ground. During the interaction, she said, an officer struck her on her upper left arm with a club.
Talcott said that she repeatedly identified herself to officers as a journalist. She did not have her press credentials out at the time she was arrested because she had been riding inside the car, she said. According to Talcott, McGinniss had his displayed, but an officer tossed aside his credentials when the journalists were being detained.
Talcott said her wrists were restrained and she was loaded into a police van. After about 10 minutes, she said she heard an officer outside the van ask if there were any credentialed press inside. When Talcott and McGinniss identified themselves as press, she said, they were released, but Gutenschwager and Nelson, who did not have any form of press credentials with them, were arrested and cited with violating the emergency curfew order.
The Tracker is documenting all arrests here.
The incident in Wauwatosa was the third time this year that Talcott had been arrested or detained while covering protests in 2020. In September she was arrested while covering a protest in Louisville, Kentucky, and in June she was briefly detained at a protest in Washington, D.C.
In response to the Wauwatosa arrests of his journalists, Daily Caller publisher and co-founder Neil Patel said in a statement reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that “there is a definite problem” in the Wauwatosa Police Department. “They were brutally beaten with clubs for no reason,” he said.
A spokesperson for the Wauwatosa Police Department did not return a request for comment about Talcott’s detention.
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 journalist Blair Nelson was arrested while covering a protest in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, on Oct. 8, 2020.
Demonstrations began after a Milwaukee County prosecutor said on Oct. 7 his office wouldn’t bring charges against a Wauwatosa police officer who shot and killed Black teenager Alvin Cole on Feb. 2. Police said Cole refused orders to put down a gun after he ran away from police following a disturbance at a mall. The protests came as demonstrations against police violence and racial injustice had been held for months across the country, including in Wisconsin.
Nelson, who has reported for the conservative national college news site Campus Reform and news site The RF Angle, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he decided to go to Wauwatosa from his base in central Illinois to cover protests sparked by a lack of charges in Cole’s death. He wasn’t on assignment for a particular outlet, he said.
On the second day of demonstrations following the prosecutor’s announcement, protesters were driving through Wauwatosa in a car caravan, he said. The protest continued after a 7 p.m. curfew in Wauwatosa took effect.
Nelson said he was following the caravan in a car with three other journalists — Daily Caller reporters Richie McGinniss and Shelby Talcott, and independent social media journalist Brendan Gutenschwager. At one point the group saw police were making arrests, so they parked the car. Nelson said he got out and started filming the scene from the sidewalk. He said he and McGinniss were filming police as they arrested Alvin Cole’s mother when police “swarmed us,” Nelson said.
Nelson said a National Guardsman took his phone and pulled Nelson’s hands behind his back. McGinniss told the officer they were journalists, Nelson said, and the officer released him, returned his phone, and told him to leave.
As they left, Nelson said local police officers chased them. Video McGinniss posted on Twitter shows that police shouted at the journalists to “get down on the ground” as they returned to their car.
Nelson said he followed police orders, got down on the ground and told police he was a journalist, but didn’t have any form of credentials with him.
He said he was handcuffed, loaded into a police van and transported to jail in neighboring Waukesha County. He said he was released at around 2:30 a.m. the following morning.
Nelson was cited for violating an emergency order. He pleaded not guilty at a hearing on Dec. 10, and his attorney told the judge that he was at the protest as press, Nelson said. A date hasn’t yet been set for the next court hearing.
Gutenschwager was also arrested and cited for violating an emergency order. Talcott and McGinniss were detained, but released when police identified them as journalists.
Nelson said police confiscated his phone when he was arrested, and that it was not returned to him until Dec. 1.
Wauwatosa Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Abby Pavlik told the Tracker in an email that Nelson wasn’t wearing anything that identified him as a member of the press and didn’t show police any credentials when police asked.
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.
Social media journalist Chris Khatami was arrested while covering protests in Portland, Oregon, on Sept. 28, 2020. The journalist was held for several hours and charged with interfering with a peace officer and disorderly conduct.
That night, protesters gathered outside the Portland Police Union building in North Portland as part of ongoing demonstrations against racial injustice and police violence. Khatami hosts an entertainment show on the platform Twitch and has been documenting and livestreaming the city’s protests on social media for several months. He told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was on North Lombard Street filming on his phone what had been a “very uneventful night.”
I am almost at the Portland Police Association for tonight’s BLM protest. I will be covering it here and on Facebook. This is my twitter thread. (Running late of course) pic.twitter.com/fpt76wFV4L
— Ra's Al Crood (@ChrisKhatami) September 29, 2020
At around 11 p.m., Khatami said he was walking across an intersection and filming when he was grabbed from behind by police officers and told he was under arrest because the street had been declared off limits. A police statement said law enforcement declared the gathering an unlawful assembly after protesters started throwing objects at officers, according to news reports.
Khatami told the Tracker he had printed out papers that said “press” and taped them to his sleeves and vest. He said he also told the officers he was a member of the press. The officers asked if he was affiliated with any organization and Khatami told them he was an independent journalist, he 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.
Despite identifying himself as a member of the media, the officers placed him in zip ties and put him in the back of a police van, he said. About an hour later, he and others arrested at the protests were taken to a police precinct in downtown Portland.
After being held for several hours, he was released early the next morning, Khatami said. He was one of 24 people charged with “Interfering with a Peace Officer” and “Disorderly Conduct in the Second Degree,” according to government records. At an arraignment the next day, officials declined to prosecute him for the charges, Khatami said.
When asked for comment, a PPB Public Information Officer directed the Tracker to the city attorney's office. The city attorney's office did not respond to an email requesting 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 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.
Independent reporter Lynn Murphy, who said she reports on social media about protests, was arrested while covering a demonstration in Richmond, Virginia, early in the morning of Sept. 24, 2020.
The Richmond event was held in response to a Kentucky grand jury’s decision on Sept. 23 not to bring charges against police officers for the shooting death of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman who was killed in her home in Louisville on March 13, 2020.
Murphy is one of three activist journalists who recently told Virginia Public Media they believe Richmond police have targeted them for their coverage of racial justice protests in 2020. She told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that on the day of the grand jury decision in Kentucky, she had been covering a march in Richmond that turned into an hours-long standoff at the police headquarters, continuing past midnight.
Murphy said when she approached one part of a police line outside the building, an officer greeted her by name. Murphy, who was taking photographs, said the officer said she would help Murphy get a better photo. According to Murphy, the officer then stepped up close to her face, grabbed her arm and pulled her through the line of police in order to arrest her. Murphy said she was pulled through the line just as police advanced toward protesters. Richmond activist Jimmie Lee Jarvis tweeted at 1:44 a.m. that police had “snatched” Murphy from the crowd; a video Jarvis posted shows police officers moving toward protesters.
Murphy said she dropped her phone as the officer pulled her. Her glasses were also knocked off and broken, and her arm was bruised, she said.
A Richmond police sergeant told Murphy that she was being taken into custody for an outstanding arrest warrant, but Murphy said the sergeant couldn’t tell her any specific information about the warrant. She said she later learned that the warrant was for a charge of “obstructing free passage” on Sept. 14, when Murphy had been reporting on another protest in Richmond. Murphy said that on that day, she had been covering the protest from the sidewalk with other reporters and was never spoken to by police.
Murphy said police restrained her wrists with zip-ties and transported her to the Richmond City Justice Center, where she was held for 12 hours. At 2:45 a.m., while she was in custody, a magistrate set bond for her at $1,500, according to Murphy. But when a bail bond representative arrived later, the representative was told bail had not been set, Murphy said.
Murphy said she was released after her arraignment on the morning of Sept. 24. At a Nov. 19 hearing, the case was continued until March 2021. Murphy said the charges are still pending while her lawyer seeks to probe whether police unlawfully searched her phone.
Murphy said she got her phone back from police on Nov. 6. When she retrieved it, the case was missing, the screen protector cracked, and the SIM card had been removed, she said. Murphy believes police searched her phone, but she said there was no way for her to determine whether the device had been searched. She said police asked for her passcode, which she did not provide.
According to Murphy, a detective told her multiple times that police were keeping the phone because they had a sealed warrant for it, but she has not been able to locate any warrant in either the circuit or district court.
Murphy said she was wearing a press badge at the time of her arrest. She said that she did not identify herself to police as a reporter, but she believes officers with the police department are familiar with her because they refer to her at protests as “Lynn from Twitter.”
“I really just see them as malicious, the way they target us like this,” Murphy said.
The Richmond Police Department confirmed to the Tracker that detectives had held her phone “due to the ongoing investigation.” The department did not respond to further questions about a warrant.
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.
Lynn Murphy reports on a protest in Richmond, Virginia, on Sept. 1, 2020.
",arrested and released,Richmond Police Department,None,None,False,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,,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, court verdict, protest",,, 2020-11-08 17:51:21.176946+00:00,2022-08-05 18:56:24.874072+00:00,"Reporter arrested, held for 16 hours while covering Louisville protests",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-arrested-held-16-hours-while-covering-louisville-protests/,2022-08-05 18:56:24.812345+00:00,"curfew violation: breaking curfew order (charges dropped as of 2020-10-20), rioting: unlawful assembly (charges dropped as of 2020-10-20)",,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Shelby Talcott (Daily Caller),,2020-09-23,False,Louisville,Kentucky (KY),38.25424,-85.75941,"Daily Caller reporter Shelby Talcott was held in police custody for 16 hours after she was arrested while covering protests and unrest in Louisville, Kentucky, on Sept. 23, 2020.
Protesters marching daily for months in downtown Louisville were inflamed anew that day after a grand jury decided not to charge police officers for the shooting death of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, in her home on March 13, 2020.
Talcott and Jorge Ventura, her colleague at the right-leaning news and opinion outlet, were reporting from the city center late on Sept. 23 when police began using a controversial crowd control technique called kettling that restricts people from dispersing.
Talcott tweeted at 10:44 p.m. that police were moving in on a scattered crowd at a park. Video she posted showed a line of officers with shields advancing along a street. A few minutes later she tweeted that police had everyone on the ground, and had begun zip-tying people’s wrists.
In a video Talcott posted on Twitter at 11:06 p.m., she can be heard trying to tell police that they were journalists. “Sir, we’re press,” she repeats twice. “Stay where you’re at,” an officer responds. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented Ventura's arrest here.
We are all on the ground right now and police are taking people and putting them in zip tie cuffs pic.twitter.com/eIJJF1t1Ub
— Shelby Talcott (@ShelbyTalcott) September 24, 2020
Talcott wrote in a Daily Caller article that she identified herself as a journalist to several other officers as she was taken into custody. One officer asked for her credentials, which Talcott didn’t have, but she offered to verify that she was a journalist by calling people who could vouch for her.
When she asked another officer if she was being detained, he told her she was being arrested, she wrote. The officer told her that members of the press weren’t exempt from the city’s curfew or the unlawful-assembly order, she wrote, contradicting previous statements from the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department. Police had emailed reporters that day saying they wouldn’t be subject to curfew or unlawful-assembly orders, according to correspondence shared on Twitter by a Louisville Courier-Journal reporter.
The LMPD didn’t respond to a request for comment about why the reporters were arrested.
Police took Talcott’s backpack, zip-tied her wrists behind her back, and patted her down, before she was taken into a garage where police were processing arrests, she wrote.
Geoffrey Ingersoll, editor in chief of the Daily Caller, tweeted at 11:37 p.m. that he had notified the LMPD that the two reporters were press, and expected they would be released swiftly. A short time later he posted he learned that they would be processed and charged.
Talcott wrote that she underwent a second, more invasive pat-down as she was processed. She wrote in a second account of her experience that she was held in a cell with approximately 28 women, no room to social distance, and not everyone was provided with a mask. She said she was in custody for 16 hours before she was released.
Talcott was charged with unlawful assembly and failure to disperse. She pleaded not guilty to the charges on Sept. 30. A court dropped the charges against both Talcott and Ventura on Oct. 20, the Daily Caller reported.
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.
Police stand guard in Louisville, Kentucky, as people react to a Sept. 23, 2020, decision in the criminal case against officers involved in the shooting death of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman, earlier in the year.
",arrested and released,Louisville Metro Police Department,2020-09-24,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,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, court verdict, kettle, protest",,, 2020-11-08 18:00:04.001915+00:00,2022-08-05 18:57:09.505149+00:00,"Reporter arrested, held 12 hours while covering Louisville protests",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-arrested-held-12-hours-while-covering-louisville-protests/,2022-08-05 18:57:09.448801+00:00,"failure to obey (charges dropped as of 2020-10-20), rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2020-10-20)",,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Jorge Ventura (Daily Caller),,2020-09-23,False,Louisville,Kentucky (KY),38.25424,-85.75941,"Daily Caller reporter Jorge Ventura was arrested while covering protests and unrest in Louisville, Kentucky, on Sept. 23, 2020, and detained more than 12 hours.
Protesters marching daily for months in downtown Louisville were inflamed anew that day after a grand jury decided not to charge police officers for the shooting death of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, in her home on March 13, 2020.
Ventura and Shelby Talcott, his colleague from the right-leaning news and opinion outlet, were reporting from the city center late at night when police began using a controversial crowd-control technique called kettling that restricts people from dispersing, according to an account of the arrests Talcott later published. The U.S. Press freedom Tracker has documented Talcott’s arrest here.
Video Talcott posted on Twitter shortly before the two journalists were arrested shows she told nearby police officers that they were members of the press several times.
Geoffrey Ingersoll, editor in chief of the Daily Caller, tweeted at 11:37 p.m. that he had notified the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department that the two reporters were press, and expected they would be released swiftly. A short time later he posted that he learned that they would be processed and charged.
While he was held in the police processing center, Ventura was called over to a supervising police officer who told him that Ingersoll had called, Ventura said in an interview with Fox News. He said he thought then that the two journalists would be released, but the officer briefly left, and when he returned, told him that they would be arrested and held overnight.
Ventura was released early in the afternoon on Sept. 24.
Released from jail in Louisville after being detained for +12 hours. My colleague @ShelbyTalcott is still detained at the moment, as well as journalist @livesmattershow. Thank you to everyone for the support , I am truly grateful! pic.twitter.com/E6Ooau4viQ
— Jorge Ventura Media (@VenturaReport) September 24, 2020
Ventura was charged with violating a county ordinance and failure to disperse, CNN reported.
The LMPD didn’t respond to a request for comment about why the reporters were arrested. In an email to members of the media earlier on Sept. 23, the department said journalists wouldn’t be subject to curfew or unlawful-assembly orders, according to correspondence shared on Twitter by a Louisville Courier-Journal reporter.
A court dropped the charges against both Talcott and Ventura on Oct. 20, the Daily Caller reported.
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 man in Louisville, Kentucky, holds up a sign during a Sept. 23, 2020, protest for Breonna Taylor, a Black woman shot dead by local police earlier in the year.
",arrested and released,Louisville Metro Police Department,2020-09-24,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,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, court verdict, kettle, protest",,, 2020-11-23 17:20:31.448993+00:00,2022-08-05 18:57:31.982817+00:00,Independent reporter arrested while covering Louisville protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-reporter-arrested-while-covering-louisville-protest/,2022-08-05 18:57:31.913152+00:00,"rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2020-11-24), rioting: unlawful assembly (charges dropped as of 2020-11-24)",,(2020-11-24 14:54:00+00:00) Charges dropped for reporter arrested while covering Louisville protest,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Ian Kennedy (Freelance),,2020-09-23,False,Louisville,Kentucky (KY),38.25424,-85.75941,"Social media reporter Ian Kennedy was arrested while covering a protest against police violence in Louisville, Kentucky, on Sept. 23, 2020.
Racial-justice demonstrations, which had been occurring daily in Louisville for months, were reinvigorated when a grand jury decided not to bring charges against police officers for the shooting death of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, in her home on March 13, 2020.
Kennedy, who reports for his independent media outlet Concrete Reporting, streams unedited video footage of protests live to social media.
Kennedy told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was following a large group of protesters who continued to demonstrate in downtown Louisville after a 9 p.m. curfew went into effect. Near midnight, city police officers used a crowd-control technique called kettling, in which police block protesters from leaving the area.
Video Kennedy posted of the protest on Periscope shows police lines blocking both directions of a wide city street, firing pepper balls toward the ground and ordering protesters to sit down. As police moved in toward the group of protesters Kennedy had been following, he crossed the street to stand on the opposite sidewalk, where he and others were also ordered to sit on the ground.
He said he identified himself to police as a reporter multiple times. On his video, he can be heard telling one officer that he had just arrived from Seattle to cover the protest for his work. “I’m not a protester, I’m just doing my job. I’m press,” he tells the officer.
A short time later, another officer searches through his backpack and pulls out a copy of Kennedy’s press pass, which Kennedy said includes his name, Concrete Reporting, and a QR code that links to the website.
“Yeah, that’s fake,” the officer says.
Kennedy told the Tracker he was held in jail for 18 hours after he was arrested. Court documents show he was charged with failure to disperse and unlawful assembly. A hearing in his case is scheduled for Nov. 24.
The Louisville Metro Police Department didn’t respond to requests for comment about Kennedy’s arrest.
Two Daily Caller reporters, Jorge Ventura and Shelby Talcott, were arrested covering the same protest in Louisville on Sept. 23.
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.
Jefferson Public Radio reporter April Ehrlich was arrested while covering police evictions of a homeless encampment in a public park in Medford, Oregon, on Sept. 22, 2020.
Medford police arrested JPR reporter April Ehrlich as she was covering the MPD's operation this morning removing campers from the city's Hawthorne Park. She was one of 11 people arrested during the police action. We'll have more details as they become available.
— JPR News (@JPRnews) September 22, 2020
JPR Executive Director Paul Westhelle said in a statement that Ehrlich had arrived at Hawthorne Park near downtown Medford in the early morning to interview some of the nearly 100 unhoused people who had taken up residence in the park. Police arrived at approximately 8 a.m. to enforce a 24-hour eviction notice.
Officers directed members of the press to a “media staging area” located at one of the entrances to the park, Westhelle said. He added that “it was not possible to adequately see or hear interactions between police officers and campers, or gather audio” from the staging area.
MPD’s Lt. Mike Budreau told the Committee to Protect Journalists, a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, that Ehrlich was arrested after reportedly refusing to go to the media staging area. Budreau added that members of the press “had full access to the park up until the public closure and the media staging location was well within view of the officers’ interactions with campers.”
JPR reported that Ehrlich was released later that afternoon with charges for criminal trespassing, interfering with a peace officer and resisting arrest.
If convicted, Ehrlich could face more than a year in prison and fines up to $7,500.
“April is a professional journalist and part of her job is being present during charged situations that sometimes involve law enforcement,” Westhelle wrote. “She knows how to be close enough to report without interfering.”
“JPR stands by April’s award-winning journalism and supports the courage it can take to tell compelling stories that don’t echo the narratives the institutions we cover sometimes lead us to.”
The Oregon Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists issued a statement condemning the arrest, as did CPJ and Reporters Without Borders.
JPR News Director Liam Moriarty told the Tracker that Ehrlich has a preliminary court appearance on Oct. 22.
In police body camera footage obtained by her attorneys, Medford Police officers confront and arrest then-Jefferson Public Radio reporter April Ehrlich during an encampment sweep on Sept. 22, 2020.
",arrested and released,Medford Police Department,None,None,True,1:22-cv-01416,['ONGOING'],Civil,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,encampment,,, 2021-01-06 16:34:20.024191+00:00,2023-12-08 20:02:15.471979+00:00,Independent filmmaker arrested while covering anti-ICE protest in New York City,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-filmmaker-arrested-while-covering-anti-ice-protest-new-york-city/,2023-12-08 20:02:15.231614+00:00,obstruction: disorderly conduct (charges dropped as of 2021-09-20),,(2021-09-20 00:00:00+00:00) Charge dropped against New York filmmaker documenting protest,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault",,,,Ronald Weaver II (Independent),,2020-09-19,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"Ronald Weaver II, an independent filmmaker, was arrested while covering a protest against immigration policy and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in New York City on Sept. 19, 2020.
The protest, which began in Times Square, was prompted by a whistleblower’s allegation that immigrant women held at a privately run detention center in Georgia were forced to undergo hysterectomies. Weaver, a New York-based filmmaker, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker the protest was part of a broad protest movement against racial injustice that swept across the country over the summer.
Weaver said he began documenting racial justice protests in New York City in June. He said he initially attended protests as a participant with his camera, but by late June he said he was primarily attending to photograph and video the protests with the goal of making a documentary project. He has worked in the past as a commercial videographer and photographer, and has been documenting protests in New York and in other parts of the country on Instagram. He said he has sold his footage to outlets including the Daily Mail and NBC News.
Weaver said there was a heavy police presence as the protesters gathered midday in Times Square. When protesters on bicycles started to lead a march, Weaver said police began stopping and arresting them. In response, he said, other protesters moved off the sidewalk and sat in the middle of Seventh Avenue, prompting police to make more arrests.
Weaver said he left Times Square for police headquarters in Lower Manhattan to film the release of arrested protesters from One Police Plaza. However, he said, as more protesters started showing up, police started to restrict movement. Weaver said it appeared police were preparing to block the street, a tactic known as “kettling,” to restrict protesters’ movements.
Around 3:30 p.m., Weaver said he was filming police as they physically restrained a young woman, when a New York Police Department officer in riot gear suddenly shoved him in the back. Weaver said he kept his balance, despite holding his heavy equipment at the time. He said he then noticed a second officer, who was about 10 feet away from him, had started to run toward him.
“It was obvious that they were targeting me because of what I was filming,” Weaver said.
Weaver said he believed he was about to be tackled, so he ran away. As he ran, he said he shouted, asking what he did wrong. A group of about five other police officers came around a corner in front of him, he said, and stopped him. Weaver said the officers allowed him to put down his camera, and then arrested him.
Weaver said the officers asked if he had press credentials, which he didn’t. He said he explained to his arresting officer that he was there to observe, not participate, and had been documenting and filming protests through the summer.
New York Police Department didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Weaver said police took his camera equipment when he was arrested and returned it to him, undamaged, when he was released after 8 p.m.
Weaver was charged with disorderly conduct. He said his original court hearing scheduled for Dec. 18 was postponed because of court closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and a new date hasn't been scheduled.
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.
Freelance journalist Talia Jane was arrested while covering a police raid of a protest camp in Los Angeles on Sept. 13, 2020.
Los Angeles law enforcement officers moved in to break up the encampment in the city’s Grant Park, across from City Hall, early on the morning of Sept. 13, the Los Angeles Times reported. The encampment had been established in June by activists, in part to support protests for racial justice and against police brutality that began following the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minnesota on May 25.
Jane told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she was reporting on the police action for social media. Jane has freelanced for publications including VICE, Elle, and Mic. Before her arrest, Jane said, she was following a standoff between law enforcement officers and protesters involved with the group Black Unity LA.
At around 8:30 a.m., police ordered protesters to disperse, she said. Jane said she continued to film a line of police officers forming across a street, as she walked about half a block in front of the police.
Video she posted on Instagram shows four officers suddenly running toward her. “Put your hands behind your back,” one said repeatedly.
“You’re arresting me?” she asked.
According to Jane, she was identified as press on her hat and backpack and had a digital press badge from the Freelance Journalists Union on the lock screen of her phone. She said she told arresting officers multiple times that she was a journalist.
Jane said she was held for eight hours before she was released without bail. She said she faces a misdemeanor charge of failure to disperse and was given a citation for $5,000. According to Jane, she was given a court date in January 2021.
A spokesperson for the LAPD told the Tracker the department would not 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 these protests across the country. Find these incidents here.
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,,,,, 2020-12-01 21:09:18.138672+00:00,2024-02-29 17:35:07.516417+00:00,"Student photojournalist arrested, equipment seized during LA protest",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-photojournalist-arrested-equipment-seized-during-l-protest/,2024-02-29 17:35:07.366429+00:00,rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2021-03-01),LegalOrder object (238),"(2021-03-01 19:07:00+00:00) Charges dropped against LA student photojournalist; some equipment still not returned, (2022-09-18 13:57:00+00:00) LA photojournalist receives $90,000 settlement in lawsuit against the county, sheriff’s department, (2023-05-18 16:08:00+00:00) Photojournalist’s phone searched after arrest, warrant confirms, (2021-10-22 00:00:00+00:00) LA student photojournalist sues the county, sheriff’s department following arrest and loss of equipment","Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Search or Seizure, Subpoena/Legal Order",,"camera: count of 1, cellphone: count of 1, storage device: count of 1",,Pablo Unzueta (Daily Forty-Niner),,2020-09-08,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"Pablo Unzueta, a freelance photojournalist and video editor for California State University, Long Beach’s newspaper, the Daily Forty-Niner, was arrested while documenting protests in the South Los Angeles area on Sept. 8, 2020.
Unzueta told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was following a group of protesters as they gathered for the fourth consecutive night outside the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department following the fatal shooting of Dijon Kizzee, a Black man, by deputies on Aug. 31.
At approximately 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 8, Unzueta said, deputies declared the protest unlawful and ordered the crowd to disperse. Following the order, Unzueta said he saw deputies firing tear gas and flash-bang grenades into the crowd around the intersection of Normandie Avenue and West Imperial Highway.
Unzueta said officers pushed the crowd north on Normandie as they advanced, and that many of the protesters began splitting off and dispersing.
“I didn’t know the area that well so I made a left into this neighborhood on this very narrow street,” Unzueta said. “The sheriffs would get on the trucks and then the truck would speed up through the street and then they would start firing more [flash-bang grenades] and then more tear gas.”
“I kept ducking behind cars while I’m running so I wouldn’t get hit.”
Unzueta said a few minutes passed as he kept looking for a way to get back to his car, which was parked near the Sheriff’s Department, but realized that he was stuck on a long, narrow block.
Two sheriff’s vehicles pulled up at approximately 9:30 p.m., Unzueta said, and deputies began arresting the demonstrators that remained.
“This was sort of a ‘holy shit’ moment for me, and I immediately identified myself as press just to avoid getting tackled or being shot with a rubber bullet,” Unzueta said.
He said that after a couple of deputies saw his credentials and camera and didn’t stop him, he thought he would be allowed to leave and began to head back the way they had come to return to his vehicle.
“I start walking on the sidewalk and that’s when an officer from up above in the truck said, ‘Hey! Grab that guy!,’” Unzueta said. “Again I yelled, ‘Press, press, press!’ And that’s when the officer...just grabbed me, threw my camera on the ground and ripped my backpack off my back.”
Unzueta told the Tracker he was wearing press credentials from Mt. San Antonio College, where Unzueta used to be a student, and his College Media Association badge, and repeatedly told the deputies to call the newspaper’s adviser.
During the course of his arrest, Unzueta said that officers tightened his metal handcuffs so tightly that he lost all feeling in his hands, and that they called him demeaning names and slurs. Unzueta said deputies then pushed him into the back of a department van, causing him to fall on and rupture multiple pepper balls. The officers left him to struggle to breathe amid clouds of pepper powder, he said.
Unzueta also alleges that some of the officers used their personal cellphones to photograph him and other detainees.
“The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department values the media and highly respects the freedom of the press,” Department spokesperson Deputy Trina Schrader told the Tracker in an emailed statement. “Please be aware an administrative investigation has been launched into the circumstances surrounding this incident. A lieutenant from South Los Angeles Station has been assigned and will be contacting Mr. Unzueta to investigate these allegations.”
Unzueta said deputies seized his iPhone and Nikon D800 camera. He said he was handcuffed for about two hours. He was transported to the South Los Angeles Sheriff’s Station where he was booked at 10:30 p.m., and then transferred to the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown Los Angeles.
Unzueta estimated he was in police custody for 10 or 11 hours. His booking data, reviewed by the Tracker, shows he was released the following day with a citation. A copy of the citation shared with the Tracker shows Unzueta was arrested for unlawful assembly, a misdemeanor, and was ordered to appear in court two days later.
Unzueta said his equipment and cellphone weren’t returned to him upon his release.
The Student Press Law Center, a Tracker partner organization, connected Unzueta with the Criminal Justice Clinic at the University of California, Irvine School of Law. LAist, part of Southern California Public Radio, reported that the clinic was able to secure the release of Unzueta’s camera, but the memory card — which Unzueta told the Tracker contained two years worth of freelance work — had been removed.
Unzueta said deputies first claimed that the camera hadn’t contained an SD card and then that it may have fallen out when the deputy threw it to the ground during the arrest. Unzueta disputed both of these assertions, and said the design of the camera makes it nearly impossible for the memory card to fall out.
In a letter sent on Unzueta’s behalf, the clinic asked that the cellphone and memory card be returned and for assurance that the case wouldn’t be presented to the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office for prosecution, a copy of his arrest report and an apology from the department.
“Sheriff’s deputies had no basis to arrest Mr. Unzueta,” the letter reads. “A truck full of deputies passed by, and a deputy pointed at Mr. Unzueta and said, ‘Get him.’ Mr. Unzueta repeatedly identified himself as a member of the press and as a student journalist, displaying his student press badge, but the deputy who arrested him ignored him.”
Unzueta confirmed to the Tracker that he still hasn’t regained complete feeling in his palms more than two and a half months later, attributing the numbness to the overly tight handcuffs.
The Long Beach Press Telegram reported on Nov. 17 that the department hadn’t responded to the letter, according to one of Unzueta’s lawyers.
“I’ve been photographing protests since the Trayvon Martin protest, which was in 2013 and I was 17 at the time. I’ve been doing this a long time, and I never thought I’d have to experience something like I experienced on September 8th,” Unzueta said.
Unzueta told the Long Beach Post that while he has always had a passion for photography, he was shaken by the incident.
“I don’t feel safe going out anymore,” Unzueta said. “This is the last thing I want to do.”
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.
An independent photojournalist says police fired pepper balls at him and detained him on Sept. 5, 2020, while he was covering protests in Rochester, New York.
Mustafa Hussain said he was detained after photographing protesters getting tackled during a demonstration protesting the death of Daniel Prude, whose killing in Rochester was ruled a homicide after police physically restrained him. Prude died by asphyxiation in police custody in March 2020, but details surrounding his death only came to light after police body camera footage was released by his family on Sept. 2.
Sept. 5 was the fourth straight night of protests in Rochester, and the scene was chaotic, Hussain said, as police officers clashed with protesters downtown near the Blue Cross Arena.
“On video...from what I saw, RPD [Rochester Police Department] fired the first round and engaged first...at that point they opened fire on the protesters,” Hussain told the Tracker. According to the Rochester First news site, police said some in the crowd had fireworks and threw bottles at officers. In response, the site said, police fired pepper balls and tear gas at protesters.
“Then they deliberately were aiming at press as well, we were getting shot at, there was tear gas everywhere,” Hussain told the Tracker.
Hussain said he was within a group that should have been easily identified as press, because they wore press helmets and badges and some carried large, professional cameras.
Despite all the markings, he said he was hit numerous times by pepper balls, resulting in welts and bruises on his arms and legs. Hussain said his torso was protected by a ballistic vest. He said he received first aid from street medics for the effects of tear gas and pepper balls.
“I do believe RPD intentionally fired upon press to prevent us from doing our job,” Hussain told the Tracker.
Later on that evening, Hussain said he watched as police “were chasing young protesters and tackling them to the ground.” He said he moved to the middle of the street to get a better photo angle, “and it was at that point that two officers came and grabbed me and took me to the ground and arrested me,” Hussain told the Tracker.
Hussain said he was near the Kodak Tower downtown, with two other journalists, one of whom captured Hussain’s detainment and posted it on Twitter. Georgie Silvarole, from USA Today, took pictures that showed Hussain lying on the ground with officers hovering over him, Hussain in handcuffs and another picture that showed an officer confiscating Hussain’s backpack and camera.
He went across the street to get a better angle of the protesters standing in the intersection and was tackled by police. They put him in the back of a squad car, and placed his cameras and backpack in a plastic tote. pic.twitter.com/00F2I6lCSD
— Georgie Silvarole (@gsilvarole) September 6, 2020
“They dragged me to the ground,” Hussain said, describing the event as “very abrupt” and “very shocking.”
Hussain said he was not wearing press credentials, but he had his cameras with him and told police he was press.
Officers put Hussain in the back of a police car, he said, and while he was detained, they drove around and tried to arrest someone else. When the car headed to the police station, “They got a call from a supervisor, or a Rochester Police public relations officer,” Hussain said. “They were pretty much given an earful for arresting a member of the press.” Hussain said he believes that someone from the Democrat and Chronicle, a Rochester newspaper, had called the police department on his behalf. “So they let me go,” he said, releasing him from custody near his car and returning his photo equipment.
Hussain said he opted not to file a complaint about his detainment. “As a journalist this is not about me,” he said. “I wasn’t beaten, they could have tackled me and they could have put their knee on my neck.” But they did not, he said, “so I didn’t feel that I needed to bring more attention to it.”
The Rochester Police Department did not respond to a request for comment on Hussain’s case.
Daniel Prude’s death on March 30 took place almost two months before the death of George Floyd 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 aftermath of these and other killings.
Police officers in riot gear fire pepper balls during a protest over the death of Daniel Prude in Rochester, New York on Sept. 5, 2020.
",detained and released without being processed,Rochester Police Department,None,None,True,None,[],None,None,False,None,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",,, 2021-08-24 19:49:59.038607+00:00,2022-09-09 17:08:37.559769+00:00,"ACLU files for ‘false imprisonment’ against Washington, D.C., police after photojournalist arrested, equipment seized",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/aclu-files-for-false-imprisonment-against-washington-dc-police-after-photojournalist-arrested-equipment-seized/,2022-09-09 17:08:37.461961+00:00,rioting (charges dropped as of 2020-08-31),,"(2022-08-29 13:08:00+00:00) Judge dismisses photojournalists’ lawsuit against DC government, police","Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Search or Seizure",,"camera: count of 1, cellphone: count of 1",,Oyoma Asinor (Independent),,2020-08-31,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"Oyoma Asinor, an independent photographer, was covering a Black Lives Matter protest in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 31, 2020, when he was arrested by D.C. police and his camera and other equipment seized.
According to an ACLU of DC lawsuit filed on Asinor’s behalf in August 2021, Asinor arrived around midnight at Black Lives Matter Plaza to cover a BLM protest and found Metropolitan Police officers with shields and helmets standing in front of St. John’s Church, where barricades had been set up.
Protesters stood directly in front of the barricades, chanting, as Asinor moved around the intersection of 16th and H Streets taking photographs.
A group of MPD officers formed a line in the intersection of 16th and H Street, across H Street, blocking people from moving east. These officers wore helmets, and several were equipped with gun-shaped weapons attached to small tanks, according to the lawsuit.
Asinor continued photographing the officers, standing with another photojournalist at the northwest corner of the intersection of 16th and H Streets.
As Asinor continued photographing, he saw a small item — believed to be a water bottle — thrown from behind him toward the officers at the barricades, the document stated.
Moments after the water bottle was thrown, an officer behind the 16th Street barricade walked up to the barricade and rolled a smoke munition onto 16th Street. The munition produced a large cloud of smoke on 16th Street, the ACLU said.
Around the same time, a police officer deployed at least one stun grenade near where Asinor was standing. The stun grenade produced smoke and a loud noise that Asinor found “terrifying and disorienting.”
Asinor walked north on 16th Street, where he found several small concrete blocks across the street and police officers lined up “and pointing, but not firing, cannon-shaped weapons at Mr. Asinor and the others near him,” according to the document.
Asinor and a few other journalists and demonstrators stopped around ten feet away from the blocks.
Demonstrators standing about five to seven feet behind Asinor threw two water bottles at the officers, which either missed them or landed near them harmlessly.
Officers responded by shooting rubber bullets at the demonstrators. After that, Asinor did not see the demonstrators throw anything else or attack or threaten the officers in any way, according to the ACLU document.
Then officers ran between the blocks, charging at Asinor and others who had stopped. Asinor had been facing the officers and taking photos, but he turned around to run north on 16th Street as soon as he saw them charge.
“A police officer sprayed liquid chemical irritants at Mr. Asinor and others running away. The spray hit Mr. Asinor, causing him to feel a burning sensation on his skin as he was running. He additionally felt a burning sensation in his nose, his eyes watered, and he had trouble breathing. Mr. Asinor had goggles with him, but he was not wearing them so that he could better use his camera,” according to the legal document.
As Asinor was running up 16th Street, Asinor and others became boxed in between officers moving north and south.
Asinor attempted to leave the area, but “one of the bike officers struck him in the chest with her arm and stopped him, before forcing him to the ground and handcuffing him.”
According to the document, Asinor told the officer that he was a member of the press multiple times, repeatedly telling her that he was carrying a camera for journalistic purposes; however, she did not allow him to leave.
Another officer later told Asinor that he was being arrested for “felony rioting.”
The ACLU document said “nothing Mr. Asinor did on August 30 or 31, 2020 provided probable cause to believe that he violated D.C. Code § 22-1322 or any other law.”
After the arrest, an officer removed Asinor’s camera, cellphone and goggles. He was then taken to the second police district, where he remained in police custody overnight. He continued to feel the effects of the chemical irritants with which he had been sprayed.
According to an MSN report, the ACLU said: “MPD did not return these items for almost a full year, even though he requested them multiple times, and MPD had no lawful basis to keep them.”
Asinor was released after about 17 hours in custody, at which point he was informed that he would not face any charges, according to the document.
The ACLU has filed a lawsuit against the D.C. government and the MPD officers claiming false imprisonment, assault and battery and unlawful use of chemical irritants, based on this incident and another with independent photojournalist Brian Dozier.
MPD told the Tracker they did not comment on ongoing cases.
Journalist Sam Richards, a freelancer who writes for Vice News and other outlets, was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor for breaking curfew while covering civil unrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Aug. 27, 2020.
On the night of the 27th, Richards said he was documenting the effects of the second night of a city-wide curfew, posting reports on Twitter. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey had imposed the curfew the day before in the wake of civil unrest.
Richards told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that shortly after the curfew went into effect at 8 p.m., he was on Nicollet Mall, a shopping and dining district in downtown Minneapolis, when he saw a man being arrested. Richards began filming the man, and approached the group of law enforcement officers to ask them about the situation, he told the Tracker. Moments later, he said, several officers surrounded him, constrained him in zip ties, and put him under arrest for violating the curfew.
Oh hey, I know that young man https://t.co/ulOg9VQMrE
— Sam Renegade BLM (@MinneapoliSam) August 28, 2020
Richards said he was not wearing any press credentials, but told the officers several times that “I am a reporter and we are exempt from the curfew.” He said he also gave them the name of the outlets he works for, as well as his Twitter handle, in hopes they would look up his work online. But they did not, according to Richards. The city’s declaration of local emergency states that members of the news media are exempt from curfew.
Richards and the man he’d been filming were taken to the Hennepin County Jail, where they were processed and then released shortly after 9 p.m., he told the Tracker.
Was just arrested for violating curfew, already booked and released. Uploading video in a hot second. #Minneapolis
— Sam Renegade BLM (@MinneapoliSam) August 28, 2020
After being released, Richards said he took “the long route home,” and continued to document what he saw along the way. In a video he posted to Twitter on his walk he said he was told “If I was spotted out here again then I would be arrested, which was confusing because I was under the impression that I was already arrested.”
Video of my curfew arrest didn't save, here is a quick summation. #Minneapolis pic.twitter.com/5EQeo64vHm
— Sam Renegade BLM (@MinneapoliSam) August 28, 2020
According to a citation notice that Richards shared with the Tracker, the journalist was charged with violating an imposed curfew and was called to appear at an arraignment on Dec. 28. Violation of curfew is a misdemeanor offense in Minneapolis and “is punishable by a fine not to exceed $1,000.00 or imprisonment for not more than 90 days, pursuant to Minnesota Statutes, Section 12.45, and MCO Section 1.30,” according to the City of Minneapolis website.
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.
MLive reporter Samuel Robinson was arrested while covering a rally in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on Aug. 15, 2020.
Robinson, who did not respond to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s requests for comment, was livestreaming from a downtown rally organized by members of the far-right group the Proud Boys and which drew counterprotesters, MLive reported. Violence between the two groups began to escalate around 1:30 p.m., according to a tweet posted by Robinson.
Hell has broken loose pic.twitter.com/SBj5GqdhFq
— Samuel J. Robinson (@samueljrob) August 15, 2020
In a subsequent tweet, Robinson noted that as violence broke out, he was caught in pepper spray deployed by members of the Proud Boys amid the melee.
After about half an hour, dozens of police officers arrived at the rally, MLive reported. In a Facebook Live broadcast captured by Robinson, who is Black, he can be heard identifying himself as a reporter as officers took him to the ground. As he repeatedly states that he is being arrested, the video feed abruptly cuts out.
Robinson was charged with impeding traffic and released from police custody on a $100 bond shortly after 5 p.m., according to a tweet he posted.
Apologize for the delay. Police arrived as Proud Boys retreated to a parking garage nearby the Raddison HotelI. I was arrested and charged with impeding traffic while reporting live on Facebook for @MLive. pic.twitter.com/KcGL7v2crg
— Samuel J. Robinson (@samueljrob) August 15, 2020
John Hiner, vice president of content for MLive Media Group, condemned Robinson’s arrest in a statement to the outlet.
“The working press must be assured the right to cover public events that clearly are in the public interest, without reprisals,” Hiner said.
At a press conference on Aug. 16, Kalamazoo Mayor David Anderson announced that the charge against Robinson had been dropped and the city’s police chief issued a public apology.
“I want to make an apology here and I want to address the arrest of the MLive reporter who they believed to be interfering and obstructing with their operations to restore the order,” Public Safety Chief Karianne Thomas said.
“I personally want to apologize for that event. The reporter was wearing a visible credential and should not have been arrested. I apologize for the trauma that it caused this young man.”
MLive reporter Samuel Robinson was arrested while covering a rally in downtown Kalamazoo organized by members of the far-right group Proud Boys and which drew counterprotesters on Aug. 15, 2020.
",arrested and released,Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety,None,None,True,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"chemical irritant, protest, white nationalism",,, 2020-11-23 17:09:49.866610+00:00,2023-11-03 18:12:56.269391+00:00,"Journalist arrested, cameras seized while covering protests in Washington, D.C.",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-arrested-cameras-seized-while-covering-protests-washington-dc/,2023-11-03 18:12:56.096454+00:00,rioting (charges dropped as of 2020-08-14),,"(2021-04-14 10:32:00+00:00) Settlement reached in suit brought by freelance journalist who was arrested, his cameras seized while covering protests in DC","Arrest/Criminal Charge, Equipment Search or Seizure",,"camera: count of 2, cellphone: count of 1",,Kian Kelley-Chung (Freelance),,2020-08-13,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"Freelance journalist Kian Kelley-Chung was arrested while covering protests in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 13, 2020, and held overnight in jail. Although police dropped felony riot charges against him, the journalist’s two cameras and cellphone were seized by law enforcement officers and were not returned for over two months, Kelley-Chung told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
On the evening of Aug. 13 and into the morning of Aug. 14, protesters demonstrating against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement marched through the neighborhood of Adams Morgan, according to local news reports. Protesters said they were surrounded and corralled on 18th Street NW, between Florida Avenue and Willard Street, by police officers who then began arresting people in the crowd, according to news reports. In a statement, the Metropolitan Police Department said that officers arrested 41 people on charges of “Felony Riot Acts and Assault on a Police Officer offenses” and alleged that protesters had also been involved in acts of arson and destruction of property.
Kelley-Chung, who has been covering Black Lives Matter protests for several months as an independent photographer and filmmaker, was among those arrested and charged with felony rioting, according to police records. The journalist told public radio station WAMU/DCist that he was arrested while trying to photograph the aftermath of an altercation between police and a protester. Kelley-Chung said his camera was clearly visible and that he told officers he was documenting the protests as a journalist, according to television network WUSA 9. “I just remember asking constantly, ‘Why am I being arrested? Why am I being arrested?...I’ve been here for months...You’ve seen my work,’ ” he was quoted as saying. Kelley-Chung told WAMU/DCist that he was taken into custody and held at the 7th District police precinct overnight and then detained at Superior Court before being released on the evening of Aug. 14, when the charges were dropped.
“What am I out here doing ‘rioting’. I’m a documentarian. I’m a photo journalist. I’m a member of the media. And they violated my 1st Ammend. rights. And that’s why we’re out here. That’s why they had to let me go”
— ChuckModi (@ChuckModi1) August 14, 2020
My media colleague Kian @uncleiso after release at #DCProtests pic.twitter.com/vBKIfJivY0
In a brief video interview posted to twitter by Deadspin journalist Chuck Modi the day after his release, Kelley-Chung said, “they thought they could stop me, they can’t stop me. I’m going to continue to be out here.” But the journalist said he was using his father’s camera because the two cameras he had been using, in addition to his cellphone, were still in police custody.
Kian in action. Despite being fellow journalist, he is one of 41 arrested Thurs. Didn’t know til now, police have not given him back his camera or phone yet (which explains arrest).
— ChuckModi (@ChuckModi1) August 16, 2020
He is back out w/father’s camera. Would be nice if corporate media showed solidarity #DCProtests pic.twitter.com/X8iw2mV3MD
I just did the math and MPD confiscated over $3000 worth of equipment. Thank you so much to everyone who has donated and shown support. Please keep sharing. I still don't have my stuff. https://t.co/8ik7AKBX2V
— kian (@uncleiso) August 16, 2020
DC Police still have Kian’s cameras they seized in illegal kettle arrests 10 days ago. He is press. He shares story of deep “sentimental value” of them #DCProtests pic.twitter.com/l9btqsVpW9
— ChuckModi (@ChuckModi1) August 23, 2020
Seven weeks later, in a letter dated Oct. 6 that Kelley-Chung shared with the Tracker, Acting United States Attorney Michael R. Sherwin wrote that the MPD, in conjunction with the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, was conducting an investigation into the events in Adams Morgan on Aug. 13-14 and that they believed that the journalist’s cameras “may contain information relevant to the investigation. We are writing to inquire whether you would voluntarily turn over data in the above-described cameras or produce such information voluntarily in response to a subpoena.”
After objections from Kelley-Chung’s lawyer, Sherwin wrote the journalist in another letter, dated Oct. 22, that his “Office has indicated to MPD that we have no objection to its disposition of Mr. Kelley-Chung’s property,” but that, “we are formally requesting the preservation, pending potential legal process and until further written notice, of all photographs, videos, audio recordings, and other evidence, created or captured on August 13-14, 2020.” However, the letter concluded, “this request does not obligate Mr. Kelley-Chung to produce any materials to the government at this time." Kelley-Chung told the Tracker that his possessions were released to him the following day, Oct. 23.
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.
Freelance journalist Andrew Jasiura was detained and held for two hours by law enforcement while covering protests in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 13, 2020. Jasiura was released without charges after a Metropolitan Police Department lieutenant recognized him, the journalist told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
On the evening of Aug. 13 and into the morning of Aug. 14, protesters demonstrating against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement marched through the neighborhood of Adams Morgan, according to local news reports. Protesters were surrounded and corralled on 18th Street NW, between Florida Avenue and Willard Street, by police officers who then began arresting people in the crowd, according to news reports. In a statement, the Metropolitan Police Department said that officers arrested 41 people on charges of “Felony Riot Acts and Assault on a Police Officer offenses” and alleged that protesters had also been involved in acts of arson and destruction of property.
Jasiura, who has been covering Black Lives Matter protests for several months as an independent photographer and filmmaker, was among those detained. Jasiura told the Tracker that he repeatedly told police officers he was a member of the press and showed them his press credential, but they ignored him. He said he also received no answer when he asked repeatedly if he was being detained or arrested, but when he asked if he could leave, he was told no. After about two hours, Jasiura said police officers began taking people one by one into custody, including his colleague Kian Kelley-Chung, and driving them away to jail. The Tracker has documented Kelley-Chung’s arrest here.
Jasiura said he was told to put his hands behind his back, and an officer was putting zip ties around his wrists, when another officer recognized him. That officer “knew I was press, and I had my press credentials, so he let me go,” Jasiura told the Tracker. The officers returned Jasiura’s possessions to him and released him without charge in the early hours of Aug. 14.
BREAKING: Cops have arrested dozens of the activists they illegally kettled at 18th and S St, including press & medics. They finally released one person--journalist @PhotoJazzy--who explained what happened and how they took his colleague @uncleiso. pic.twitter.com/GA8DnuFeKN
— Wyatt Reed (@wyattreed13) August 14, 2020
#FreeKian #FreeIso https://t.co/GWZBDczLfJ
— DrewJazzyPhoto (@PhotoJazzy) August 14, 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.
Police arrested freelancer Veronica Coit, who was covering protests in Asheville, North Carolina, on Aug. 9, 2020, and charged the journalist with “failure to disperse on command” and impeding the flow of traffic with a vehicle.
The Aug. 9 demonstration was held to protest police brutality and the death of John Elliott Neville, who died in 2019 after a medical episode led to him being restrained in handcuffs by corrections officers in a North Carolina jail. Video of Neville in custody with the corrections officers was not released until August 2020.
Coit arrived at the protest around 6 p.m., the journalist wrote in an account on the local website The Asheville Blade. According to a published note from editor David Forbes, Coit had been working for the news outlet since June as a freelance journalist and videographer, helping to document local events and protests in the city.
Around an hour after arriving, Coit wrote, the demonstrators began to march and the journalist followed them by car because of a medical condition that makes walking difficult. Coit was following the protesters along Haywood Street near the intersection with College Street, with car hazard lights flashing, when a police siren sounded. “There was a large crowd in front of me, parked cars on the street, and other cars beside me too, I couldn’t exactly go anywhere at that moment,” Coit wrote. “I was moving, but slowly. The next thing I see is a cop at my passenger door, ripping it open with no warning.”
In a video of the incident posted to YouTube by a bystander, a police officer is seen pulling Coit out of the car by the arm as Coit says, “I haven’t done anything illegal…I’m press, you want my press credentials?” Coit repeatedly yells “you are arresting a member of the press” as police zip tie the journalist’s hands and lead Coit away. After being arrested and spending five hours in jail, Coit was released and charged with failing to disperse on command and impeding the steady flow of traffic, the journalist wrote.
In a statement by the Asheville Police Department that was reported by local media outlets, the department said that it had “asked organizers to follow traffic laws, not block or obstruct streets, and remain on the sidewalks. Organizers were notified that individuals violating these laws would be arrested.” The APD said it had arrested five people, including Coit, on charges of failing to disperse on command and for traffic infractions. Police officials said Coit was “asked by law enforcement several times to not block the intersection,” according to the local daily the Citizen-Times.
In the account for the Blade, Coit wrote of being left with bruises after the incident and of being mistreated by officers and subjected to an unnecessary body search during detention. According to the Citizen-Times, representatives of the APD later called to ask if Coit wanted to make a complaint. The paper said Coit declined to do so, believing it would not have any effect. The department also said Coit was welcome to review body cam footage of the incident, the Citizen-Times reported. Coit told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an email that a hearing on the charges is scheduled for early 2021.
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.
Joseph Rushmore, a freelance documentary photographer, was arrested by police officers and charged with two misdemeanors while covering a demonstration in the early hours of Aug. 8, 2020, in northeast Portland, Oregon.
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.
Rushmore was covering a protest that began at around 9 p.m. in Laurelhurst Park. Protesters then marched about a half mile to the Penumbra Kelly building, a repeated focus of demonstrators because it houses the Multnomah County Sheriff's office and some Portland Police Bureau units.
Protesters blocked the road in front of the building while chanting, making speeches and yelling at officers, Rushmore told the Tracker. At one point, police officers rushed into the crowd, driving protesters into the surrounding residential neighborhood.
At some point after midnight, about 50 protesters regrouped to head back to the Kelly building, said Rushmore, who was following them. When the group was about a block from the building, officers blocked the way and started pushing protesters and journalists west along East Burnside Street.
Footage of Rushmore’s arrest, taken by an observer sometime after 1 a.m. and shared with the Tracker, shows officers rushing into the street and knocking down Rushmore and several protesters. Rushmore can be seen getting grabbed from behind and thrown to the ground. A group of officers then restrains Rushmore and arrests him.
“I have two very large cameras around my neck at all times so it is quite obvious I am press,” said Rushmore, though he wasn’t wearing any press credentials or clothing marked as press.
“During this rush, an officer with Portland Police Bureau grabbed me from behind, spun me around and threw me to the ground, slamming my head hard into the pavement,” said Rushmore, adding that his helmet protected him from injury. “At least one more officer got on top of me, and they held me down while zip-tying my hands behind my back. I yelled to the officer that I was press multiple times. He told me, `Now you're part of the riot.’ And when I told him again I was just press, he said, ‘Then you shouldn’t have been rioting.’”
The officers searched Rushmore and seized his helmet, cameras, backpack and phone before being taken to the Kelly building, he said. He was then sent to the jail at the Multnomah County Justice Center downtown, where he was detained in a general holding area. By noon, Rushmore was released, he said. He got all his equipment back two days after his arrest.
Rushmore was charged with two misdemeanors, interfering with an officer and disorderly conduct, but the charges were dropped sometime in the weeks after the arrest, he said.
Portland City Attorney Tracy Reeve 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.
Daily Mail photographer Michael Arellano was arrested on Aug. 7, 2020, while covering a protest in northeast Portland, Oregon.
The protest was one of many that broke out across the U.S. in response to police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the May 25 death of George Floyd. 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 in late May, 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.
The protesters began at Laurelhurst Park in southeast Portland and marched to the Penumbra Kelly Building on East Burnside Street and 47th Avenue, according to The Oregonian. The building, which houses the Multnomah County Sheriff's office and some Portland Police Bureau units, has been a repeated focus of demonstrators.
Within a few minutes of the crowd’s arrival, police declared an “unlawful assembly.” Officers moved toward a group of journalists standing near the Kelly building, The Oregonian reported. “The journalists, including an Oregonian/OregonLive photographer, were staying behind a line of orange cones that police had set up. Police moved in and detained one photographer working on behalf of The Daily Mail,” the paper reported, identifying him as Arellano.
In a statement about the night’s police actions, the PPB said it had announced that anyone remaining on the Kelly building property would be arrested for trespassing. “People who remained standing on the property after multiple public address announcements were arrested,” the PPB said. Arellano was booked for criminal trespassing in the second degree.
At 9:48 p.m., independent journalist Griffin Malone tweeted a video of Arellano’s arrest from across the street. In the video, Arellano doesn’t appear to be behind the cones with the other members of the press, but it’s also not apparent that he was on the Kelly building property. Officers can be seen pulling him backwards toward the building during the arrest.
Arrested press and retreated. pic.twitter.com/maH2Dd9NUG
— Griffin - Live Protest News (@GriffinMalone6) August 8, 2020
Photojournalist Nathan Howard retweeted the video and added, “Here's Michael Arellano photographer with the @DailyMail getting arrested for no apparent reason tonight. He has been covering this for weeks. No warnings, no dispersal order (which press are immune to anyway).”
The Oregonian reported that police “were keeping the loudspeakers farther away from the crowd than usual,” making it difficult for protesters to hear announcements.
The PPB has said it wouldn't comment on incidents involving journalists covering the protests, citing continuing litigation in the ACLU case. Arellano didn’t respond to a request for comment.
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!”’
Independent reporter Madeleine “Molly” Conger was arrested when she arrived at Monroe Park to cover a protest against police brutality in Richmond, Virginia, on July 26, 2020.
Conger — whose work has appeared in local Charlottesville outlet C-Ville Weekly and The Guardian — told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that when she arrived shortly after 10 p.m. no more than 15 people were present.
“There was no active protest at that point,” Conger said. Instead, those assembled were discussing where to go or what to do that evening, she said. “Then, all of a sudden, 30 cops appeared out of the night, didn’t say anything, didn’t make any announcements, and just descended upon us.”
Conger said she was tackled to the ground by two police officers and placed under arrest. She added that though she was not wearing any “PRESS” identifiers or a press pass, officers referred to her by name and were aware that she was a journalist.
In a press conference the following morning, Richmond Police Chief Gerald Smith said that the department had acted to break up the small gathering because police did not want violence akin to that seen during a protest the night before, when several hundred protesters had gathered in the same area.
"We have to take action when we know that violence is coming," said Smith. "What we did last night, we took a proactive stance, and when the group gathered in Monroe Park and congregated there after 10 p.m., RPD moved in and began to affect arrest."
"In intense situations like this, we also have to look at the bigger picture. We have to look at individuals who claim to be members of the press and we have to look at them very carefully," Smith added.
Conger told the Tracker that the police chief’s press conference the next morning specifically focused on how they were targeting people they felt were not “real” members of the press. “It felt very personal,” Conger said.
Conger said she and more than a dozen others were arrested for allegedly trespassing in the park after nightfall. Conger denied that the group was violating a dusk curfew for the park, noting that they were standing on the steps of the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart across the street from the park when they were arrested. She also noted that officers tightened her zip-tie cuffs to the point that she lost all feeling in her left hand.
The group was held for an hour in a police transport van at the protest site, according to Conger, and then held another hour in the parking garage of the city jail before being booked at approximately 12:30 a.m.
Conger said that after she was processed officers took her before a magistrate for an initial hearing on whether police had probable cause to bring charges.
The magistrate determined that there was sufficient evidence, Conger said, and informed her that she would be released on her own recognisance.
As officers led her away, Conger said she thought the door she was walking through was to the outside.
“Imagine my surprise when it closed behind me and it was a cell. Nobody explained to me why this was happening or how long it would be happening for,” she said.
Conger said she was held for eight hours without explanation, either during her detention or after her release. When she was released at approximately 9 a.m., Conger said she was able to retrieve her belongings from the police department’s property department.
When asked about the detentions of several journalists over the weekend, Chief Smith said during the press conference that he will work on the department’s partnership with the media, but that members of the press must abide by the same laws as everyone else.
The Tracker is documenting all arrests here.
Conger said when she appeared for her initial trial date in September, the prosecutor and her attorney reached an agreement that if she performed 24 hours of community service within the following eight weeks, the charges would be dropped.
“Initially they wanted me to sign an admission of guilt in exchange for this agreement, and I said I’d rather take it to trial than admit I did anything wrong. Because I didn’t,” Conger said. “I moderately pushed back on signing it and they didn’t press the issue.”
Conger said she appeared in court on Dec. 3, having completed the community service, and the charges were dropped.
The Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find these incidents here.
Andrew Ringle, the executive editor of the Commonwealth Times, the independent student newspaper of Virginia Commonwealth University, was detained by police while covering a protest against police violence in Richmond, Virginia, on July 26, 2020.
Ringle told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in a phone interview that he and his news editor, Eduardo Acevedo, had heard about the protest in Richmond’s Monroe Park after seeing a flyer online. Richmond Police Chief Gerald Smith would later describe the flyer as using the “same tone, same intimidation, same wanting to produce fear into the city of Richmond, and calling for a repeat of Saturday night,” which had be notably violent.
Ringle said that, while several hundred showed up on July 25, very few people were in attendance the following night, and as such, he and Acevedo decided to leave the area, anticipating that the protest would peter out within half an hour. But just past 10 p.m., as they were walking out of the park, which had technically been closed as of sundown, the police showed up. The Daily Progress, a paper based in Charlottesville, reported the police presence at the park was 100 officers, responding to a protest of 50 people.
Ringle told the Tracker that the officers organized into a line and proceeded to arrest every individual in the park related to the protests. Another reporter at the park that night, NBC12 reporter Olivia Ugino, tweeted that she had been told by the police to move or get arrested.
Ringle said that he and Acevedo had made it to the sidewalk circling the park when they heard, “Get ’em!” According to Ringle, police then rushed toward the two journalists. Acevedo sprinted across the street, while Ringle was put into handcuffs.
Acevedo started to livestream the detainment, in which he can be heard screaming at officers that Ringle was a member of the press.
Ringle explained to the Tracker that the first words out of his mouth once he was in handcuffs were “I’m not resisting,” but the officers responded by shouting, “Stop resisting!” Ringle said he understood this as an attempt to escalate the situation. The arresting officer, Ringle said, made Ringle say his name back to him because he suggested Ringle “was getting too excited or acting crazy.”
Ringle tweeted afterward that officers first checked his Capital News Service-issued press badge, but did not initially accept it as enough proof that he was not a protester. Officers then searched his wallet for a driver’s license, which he did not have.
Officers checked my state press ID, then searched my wallet for a drivers license (which I did not have) and finally demanded I say my SSN (twice). I told them I was there to work, not to protest, and that I was trying to leave. They said city parks are closed after dark.
— Andrew Ringle (@aeringle) July 27, 2020
“They asked for a lot of personal information that I was not comfortable giving, but then they mentioned that there were paddy wagons on the way and that they were going to start taking people to the jail,” Ringle told the Tracker.
Ringle said he then gave the arresting officer his Social Security number, which was relayed over the radio to confirm his identity. Ringle believes that the officers also checked his press badge on an online database to confirm his identity. After 25 minutes, Ringle said, he was released and admonished for not knowing of the park’s closure.
Police Chief Smith referenced Ringle’s detainment in the next day’s press conference, stating, “In tense situations like this ... we have to look at individuals who claim to be members of the press, and we have to look at them very carefully … For those who claim to be the media, you must abide by the laws just as well. If you are in a location that you are not supposed to be in, you can be held accountable for that as well.” Smith also stated that he thought that the protesters knew they were trespassing, because they started moving out of the park when the police came.
According to the Daily Progress, six people were charged that night with trespassing. The Richmond Bail Fund counted 10 arrests in the park. The Richmond Police Department did not respond to the Tracker’s requests for comment on Ringle’s detainment.
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 Black Lives Matter protests across the country. Find these incidents here.
Video journalist Jazari Kual was detained by police officers while covering protests in Omaha, Nebraska, on July 25, 2020, according to news reports and the journalist’s statements on social media. Kual said he was held for more than an hour by officers who doubted his professional status, but he eventually was released without charge.
On the night of July 25, protesters had been marching for several hours in downtown Omaha while police officers accompanied them and redirected traffic, Kual told the local television network KETV 7. The demonstrators were protesting against the killing of a Nebraska man, James Scurlock, who died during Black Lives Matter protests in May, as well as in solidarity with widespread protests in Portland, OR, against police brutality.
Once protesters reached the city’s Farnam Street bridge, police officers announced that the demonstration was an “unlawful assembly and you’re all subject to arrest,” Kual told KLKN- TV in an interview. Kual, who founded the independent media company Kualdom Creations and frequently livestreams protests in Nebraska, said the officers gave no prior warning or order to disperse before making arrests. The Omaha World-Herald later reported that of 120 people arrested at the protest, 30 were subsequently charged with criminal violations.
This took place on 07/25/20 on the bridge approaching the intersection of 29th & Farnam in Omaha, NE. Minors were in the crowd. #Omaha #Nebraska #Peaceful #Protest in solidarity with #Portland #Oregon pic.twitter.com/sOYUMQAjtL
— Jazari Kual 🇸🇸 (@JazariKual) July 26, 2020
When asked by KETV about the arrests, a spokesperson for the Omaha Police Department told the network that "The protesters started walking in the street against the direction of traffic, then there were announcements made advising the crowd that they were unlawfully assembling before arrests were made."
Kual said in the KLKN interview that he “had my media badge on, I had everything on me. I had my company shirt on.” But police officers “didn’t believe I was media,” he said, and detained him for more than an hour. In a video Kual posted to Twitter days later, he can be heard telling an officer that he owns a media company. The officer responds that media are supposed to report from “certain locations” and tells Kual that he’ll be going to jail along with the other protesters.
@OmahaPolice , please provide comment on if you train your officers to use this kind of “de-escalation”.
— Jazari Kual 🇸🇸 (@JazariKual) July 29, 2020
For those who say “not all cops are bad” ... the other officers that allowed this interaction to happen, passed up the opportunity to show that they are a “good cop”. pic.twitter.com/MK0Km5yQg5
In footage from the bridge later that evening that Kual livestreamed to Facebook, the journalist, constrained in zip ties, can be heard having an extended conversation with another police officer about his status as a member of the media. “We don’t usually arrest media, so I don’t know what’s going on,” the officer says. “Do you have any proof you’re part of a media team?” At about 16:48 into the livestream, Kual and the officer (who later identifies himself and gives his badge number) discuss Kual’s work and professional status.
As the officer scrolls through Google results for his name, Kual describes himself as a social media influencer, saying that “no one wanted to hire me as a reporter, so I started my own media company and got a million views.” The officer then releases Kual after telling him to get more “official” looking credentials, and to “try to delineate yourself better from the crowd.” Police then walk with Kual to his car and cut off the zip ties.
An Oct. 16 article in the Journal Star newspaper in Lincoln, Nebraska, where Kual lives, says “He’s covered dozens of marches since April [2020]. Maybe 100. He travels to Omaha to livestream marches there.”
Kual’s detainment was mentioned in a Twitter post by journalist Melanie Buer. Buer was also detained that evening, which the Tracker has documented here.
@Kualdom was another independent journalist who was detained on the bridge last night - they didn’t believe he was a journalist. Another journalist with Noise was actually arrested and hasn’t been released yet
— Mel Buer (@coldbrewedtool) July 27, 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.
Journalist Melanie Buer was detained by police officers while covering protests in Omaha, Nebraska, on July 25, 2020.
Buer told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she was held for more than two hours by officers who doubted her professional status, but she eventually was released without charge.
On the night of July 25, protesters had been marching for several hours in downtown Omaha while police officers accompanied them and redirected traffic, according to local news reports. The demonstrators were protesting against the killing of a Black Nebraska man, James Scurlock, who was shot dead by a white bar owner during a Black Lives Matter protest in May. They also marched in solidarity with protests in Portland, Oregon, and many other cities against police violence following the May 25 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Once protesters reached the city’s Farnam Street bridge, police officers announced that the demonstration was an “unlawful assembly and you’re all subject to arrest,” according to local news reports. Buer, who is a freelance journalist and an associate editor at Protean Magazine, which describes itself as a nonprofit leftist media collective, told the Tracker that when protesters reached the end of the bridge shortly before 10 p.m. they were corralled by police officers who began wide-scale arrests. The Omaha World-Herald later reported that of 120 people arrested at the protest, 30 were subsequently charged with criminal violations.
In a timeline of the events on July 25 later published by the Omaha Police Department, the department said the protesters were marching without a permit, were putting others in danger by walking against oncoming traffic and ignored repeated warnings that they were subject to arrest. Many protesters said they heard no prior warnings, according to news reports.
Buer and two colleagues from the magazine were on the sidewalk on the northwest side of the bridge when police officers began firing pepper balls at protesters in the street, she said. The protesters then began jumping back on to the sidewalk, so they were surrounded and had nowhere to move out of the way as officers began making arrests. The other journalists, Ashley Darrow and Kristofer Nivens, declined to comment on the incident.
Buer was filming the events on her cellphone when she was shoved by a police officer and fell to the pavement, she said. In a video she posted to Twitter the next day, police officers can be heard yelling “get on the ground!” and approaching the sidewalk area where Buer and others are gathered. The camera then shakes and the image is blurred and momentarily goes black, before resuming filming from a lower vantage point.
The first couple of minutes of the police escalation, featuring me getting shoved violently pic.twitter.com/yYxvQdMOXz
— Mel Buer (@coldbrewedtool) July 26, 2020
Buer can then be heard yelling that she is a member of the press, to which the officer says “I don’t see anything right now.” Buer yells, “Are you kidding me? I have a press pass!” The officer responds “I don’t know that that’s real, I have no idea that that’s valid. Right now you’re getting detained.”
The journalist’s wrists were then constrained in zip ties and she was made to sit on the bridge for more than two hours, she said.
Been detained pic.twitter.com/YSrdPhOmQh
— Mel Buer (@coldbrewedtool) July 26, 2020
Buer said she had a press badge clearly displayed around her neck and that she repeatedly told the police officers she was a journalist, but that they didn’t believe her.
“It would defy logic,” that they didn't realize she was press when they shoved and detained her, she said. In another video Buer posted to Twitter in the days after the incident, a police officer can be heard telling another officer that “she is saying she’s press, but I can’t verify that. We’ve got intel that they have fake press cards.”
“This is not a fake press card,” Buer responds.
Going back through footage from the bridge the other night - here’s more of the conversation where this cop didn’t believe I was press.
— Mel Buer (@coldbrewedtool) July 28, 2020
“We’ve got intel that they’ve got fake press cards.”
Fuck you buddy, that’s not for you to decide. pic.twitter.com/ZR0imZfydg
Shortly before midnight, Buer and her colleagues spoke with a lieutenant who asked them about the media outlet they worked for and told them they “needed to wear hi-vis safety vests in order to not be confused for protesters,” Buer said in an email.
The lieutenant told his officers to cut off the journalists’ zip ties and take down their personal information, as well as that of the outlet they worked for. But “there was no attempt to verify our assignments with our editor or anything of that nature (though we offered it),” Buer wrote.
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.
Eduardo Acevedo, news editor for The Commonwealth Times, an independent newspaper run by Virginia Commonwealth University students, said he was detained by police while covering a protest in Richmond, Virginia, the night of July 25, 2020.
Protests against racial inequality and police brutality were held in Richmond throughout the summer in response to the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other Black people at the hands of police.
Acevedo told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he and two colleagues from the Commonwealth Times were covering a protest outside of the Richmond Police Headquarters, where police had formed a riot shield wall and declared the demonstration an “unlawful assembly.” According to Acevedo, someone in the crowd threw a flaming object into a Humvee that had been parked to block protesters. Acevedo said police responded by firing tear gas and flash-bang grenade canisters.
At that point, Acevedo said, he became separated from his Commonwealth Times colleagues. He said he was disoriented and “running blind” because of the tear gas. A journalist from another Virginia paper, Sabrina Moreno of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, helped him around the corner of a building and began pouring milk in his eyes to help him recover from the gas, he said.
Acevedo said a group of at least five police officers came around the corner of the building and suddenly moved in to restrain the two journalists. Video posted on Twitter by activist Jimmie Lee Jarvis shows officers swarm Acevedo and Moreno while they can be heard screaming, “We’re press.” Officers pushed Acevedo face down on the ground, despite his shouts identifying himself as a journalist. Moreno's detainment is documented here.
After he had shouted his identity at least a dozen times, the officers released Acevedo, the journalist said. When Acevedo stood up, he said he was feeling claustrophobic from the lingering effects of the tear gas and the officers in riot gear crowded around him, so he asked an officer to give him some more space. The officer responded “no” close to his face, he said.
Police let Acevedo go after he showed them his press badge identifying him with his photo as working with The Commonwealth Times, he said. Acevedo said he was released less than 10 minutes after police first restrained him.
Acevedo said he has not communicated with the Richmond Police Department about the incident. However, his experience was one of several incidents referenced in a Sept. 1, 2020 letter to Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney and the chief of the Richmond Police Department from the Student Press Law Center and other press freedom groups raising concerns about police treatment of journalists during protests.
In an email responding to the Tracker’s request for comment, a police spokesperson wrote: “The Richmond Police Department has a long history working with our media partners and will continue to do so, with the common goal of public safety in mind.” The spokesperson asked if Acevedo had filed a complaint; told that he had not, the spokesperson said a formal complaint would have given police more details about the incident, but that in general, members of the media are not exempt from a declaration of unlawful assembly.
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.
This article has been updated to include the identity of the second journalist detained.
Richmond Times-Dispatch reporter Sabrina Moreno was detained by police officers while covering protests in Richmond, Virginia, on July 25, 2020.
On the day and into the night of the 25th, Moreno had been covering protests against racial injustice and police brutality that had moved through the city of Richmond and ended up outside the headquarters of the Richmond Police Department. 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.
Shortly after 11 p.m. on the 25th, law enforcement declared the gathering an unlawful assembly, creating a “tense scene” in which protesters taunted police officers and shattered the windows of Humvees, Moreno wrote in a message on Twitter.
About 10 minutes later, a flash-bang grenade was thrown into the middle of a parking lot across from the police station where she and other members of the media were gathered to the side of the protesters, Moreno told the Tracker. She said she became disoriented trying to leave the area and dropped her press pass. Eduardo Acevedo, the news editor of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Commonwealth Times, ran to retrieve her press pass and was hit by tear gas. The two journalists ran to another parking lot, where Moreno poured milk into Acevedo’s eyes in an attempt to counteract the effect of the tear gas.
As Moreno leaned down to return the bottle of milk to her backpack, several police officers appeared around the corner of the wall where they were standing, she said. One officer threw Moreno up against the wall while the others grabbed Acevedo, pulled his hands behind his back, and pushed him to the ground, according to Moreno and a video of the incident shared to Twitter.
I captured footage of @RTDNEWS reporter @sabrinaamorenoo and @theCT news editor @edace2936 being violently manhandled police. You can hear them ID themselves as press multiple times. RPD has repeatedly targeted reporters covering protests over the past couple months. https://t.co/Q1QrBA4dXp pic.twitter.com/WfFiPaPwii
— Jimmie Lee Jarvis (@JLJLovesRVA) July 26, 2020
Moreno’s retrieved press pass fell from her hands as the officer pulled her hands behind her back, she said. She and Acevedo both repeatedly verbally identified themselves as journalists, she said, and they can be heard yelling in the video “I’m press.” The officers eventually released the journalists a few minutes later after inspecting their ID cards, but told them to leave the scene immediately, adding they would be arrested if seen again, Moreno said.
Everything moved quickly. Tear gas and flash bangs landed in the middle of the crowd. I ran with @edace2936 and when I was pouring milk into his eyes in a private parking lot, more than five cops surrounded us and threw us against the wall as we shouted “I’m press”
— Sabrina Moreno (@sabrinaamorenoo) July 26, 2020
Moreno and Acevedo went to a nearby convenience store parking lot to decompress. A few minutes later, some of the same officers appeared and “were making jokes about how they almost arrested members of the press and told us to go home,” Moreno wrote in a message shared on Twitter.
Moreno told the Tracker the officers didn’t believe her when she said members of the media were exempt from rules dictating an unlawful assembly.
According to an article by Moreno published in the Times-Dispatch the next day, Richmond Police Chief Gerald Smith said he would “make a thorough inquiry into the incident and that it will be under review.” Moreno filed a complaint with the police department several weeks later, she said. In March 2021, Moreno was told in a letter that the Internal Affairs investigation had concluded that her claims were unsubstantiated, but that in the course of the investigation other issues were discovered that weren’t in accordance with RPD policy. The letter provided no further details, citing the department’s confidentiality policy, she said.
The Richmond Police Department initially didn’t respond to requests for comment. On April 7 a spokesman said the department had “pulled the file for review,” but wouldn’t be able to comment immediately on the incident.
Acevedo told the Tracker he hadn’t communicated with the Richmond Police Department about the incident. His detainment is documented here.
This article has been updated to include comment from the Richmond Police Department.
Freelance journalist Andrew Jankowski was arrested by police officers while covering protests in Portland, Oregon, on July 17, 2020, a day after a judge issued a preliminary injunction to block the Portland Police Bureau from arresting or targeting journalists.
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.
Photographer Mel D. Cole was documenting police-protester clashes from the Brooklyn Bridge footpath in New York City when officers arrested him, confiscated his equipment and detained him for seven hours on July 15, 2020, according to a federal lawsuit.
Cole is one of five news photographers who filed a federal lawsuit on Aug. 5, 2021, “seeking to hold the New York Police Department [NYPD] accountable for its violation of their First Amendment rights.” The suit is being led by the National Press Photographers Association, of which four of the journalists are members, in partnership with Davis Wright Tremaine LLP.
Cole was covering the protests that broke out in New York in response to police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement after the death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020.
According to the complaint, Cole was on the Brooklyn Bridge footpath, preparing to photograph a pro-police march that was scheduled to cross the bridge into Manhattan. At approximately 10:30 a.m., counterprotesters arrived and clashes erupted between demonstrators and police.
“Cole had not participated in the counter-protests, had been peacefully photographing from a position outside the conflict, and was wearing multiple professional cameras around his neck and shoulder, making his status as a photojournalist visibly apparent,” according to the complaint. However, NYPD Lieutenant Richard Mack approached Cole and directed another officer to arrest him despite his status as a journalist and documentarian, the complaint noted, because he did not have a press pass.
The complaint said officers seized his cameras, brought him to One Police Plaza in Manhattan where he was processed, transported him to the 5th Police Precinct and placed him in a holding cell. “Sergeant Quigley told Mr. Cole that the NYPD knew that Mr. Cole had not been involved in any criminal act and should not have been arrested,” according to the complaint. “Sergeant Quigley also told Cole that he was ‘lucky’ that he was ‘not going to be locked up all weekend’ and indicated Mr. Cole should ‘thank’ Sergeant Quigley and the NYPD for ‘putting their necks on the line’ for him.” While maskless, Sergeant Quigley also pulled down Cole's mask at one point during the interaction, the complaint stated.
After several more hours, Cole was released without charge and his equipment returned to him with no documentation provided upon his release, according to the complaint.
“The reason why he was being arrested and the other journalists weren’t is because they had press passes and he didn't. When you're out in a traditional public forum, you don't need press passes if it's a matter of public concern,” Mickey H. Osterreicher, general counsel to the NPPA, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. “Very often, having a press pass is a detriment and many will have them around their neck rather than displaying for that very reason.”
Cole and the New York Police Department did not respond to requests for comment. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
Police officers in New York City, on July 15, 2020. Photographer Mel D. Cole was arrested while documenting clashes between police and counterprotesters at a pro-police protest that day.
",detained and released without being processed,New York Police Department,None,None,False,1:21-cv-06610,['SETTLED'],Civil,None,False,None,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, Blue Lives Matter, protest",,, 2021-02-09 20:56:24.102243+00:00,2023-01-30 19:20:30.648389+00:00,Independent journalist assaulted and detained by federal agents while covering a Portland protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalist-assaulted-and-detained-by-federal-agents-while-covering-a-portland-protest/,2023-01-30 19:20:30.540787+00:00,,,,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Damage, Equipment Search or Seizure",,camera equipment: count of 1,"camera: count of 1, camera lens: count of 1",Ari Taylor (Halospace Community Media),,2020-07-02,False,Portland,Oregon (OR),45.52345,-122.67621,"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.
Andrew Buncombe, the chief U.S. correspondent for British newspaper The Independent, was arrested while covering demonstrations in Seattle, Washington, on July 1, 2020.
In an account for The Independent, published July 9, Buncombe wrote that he was on assignment in Seattle to document the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest in Cal Anderson Park and the surrounding streets. For more than a month, the area had been a focal point for sustained protests following the May 25 death of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
On the day of Buncombe’s arrest, Seattle police were attempting to clear the park, following an executive order from Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan. Police Chief Carmen Best said in a press briefing later that day that the action was prompted by ongoing violence and public safety issues.
Due to ongoing violence and public safety issues in the East Precinct/Cal Anderson Park area. Mayor Jenny Durkan has issued an executive order to vacate the area. Seattle police will be in the area this morning enforcing the Mayor’s order. https://t.co/SpVRYIB8eg pic.twitter.com/JAt2AvUTCr
— Seattle Police Dept. (@SeattlePD) July 1, 2020
Buncombe wrote that less than five minutes after he arrived he was arrested at the northern edge of the park. An officer on the other side of a police tape line told Buncombe — who said he had not crossed the tape — to leave the area or face arrest. Buncombe said he showed the officer his State Department-issued press badge and told him he wanted to photograph what was happening inside the park.
“The officer again told me to retreat and said he was going to arrest me if I did not. I again told him I was a member of the media and intended to stay and do my work,” Buncombe wrote. “He then grabbed me and marched me towards several of his colleagues, who pinned my hands behind my back.”
Officers seized Buncombe’s phone and told him he was under arrest, but would not tell him on what charge, according to the journalist. He was then handcuffed, shackled and loaded in a van to transport him to the Seattle Police Department’s West Precinct. Once there, Buncombe again informed officers that he was a journalist and asked to contact his lawyer, his editor and the British embassy.
Buncombe wrote that officers informed him he was being charged with failure to disperse, a charge that has a maximum penalty of 364 days in jail and a fine of $5,000. The Seattle municipal code explicitly states that “failure to disperse” does not apply to members of the press “unless he is physically obstructing lawful efforts by such officer to disperse the group.”
After an hour in a holding cell, Buncombe was loaded into a van alongside other detainees and transported to the King County Correctional Facility on Fifth Avenue, according to his account.
Once there, Buncombe said he was informed that an officer needed to re-enter his information before he would be permitted to use a phone.
“The officer could not hear me [spell my name], so I explained it may have been my accent (I am British),” Buncombe wrote. “For reasons that were unclear, the woman took offense. ‘Get back in the cell. You’ve lost your chance. You’re being condescending.’”
“I tried again to spell my name but they were having none of it. Out of nowhere, a male prison guard leapt at me from behind, yanked hard on the collar of my jacket, pulling it with sufficient force into my throat to make me gasp,” Buncombe wrote. “He then manhandled me into the cell.”
Buncombe wrote that while he had been detained twice before — once in Cuba in 2006 and then in Pakistan in 2011 — this was his first time being arrested. He was released at 6 p.m., approximately six hours after his arrest, once he signed a paper agreeing to appear in court.
“If I am charged, I will be pleading not guilty. Journalism is not a crime,” Buncombe wrote in his account for The Independent. “At the same time I will be trying to explain why, supported by the right afforded by the First Amendment of the Constitution, I stood my ground.”
The Independent reported on July 15 that the Seattle City Attorney’s Office declined to press charges against Buncombe. It also noted that British Ambassador to the U.S. Karen Pierce had filed an official complaint about Buncombe’s arrest, and that the White House had been informed.
Christian Broughton, the editor of The Independent, said in a statement to the outlet: “We are delighted and relieved that Andrew Buncombe no longer faces charges — of course, he should never have been arrested in the first place.”
A spokesperson for the Seattle Police Department told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that Buncombe had been arrested for refusing to leave the area, not because he was a journalist.
“Had he worked with the department to get in contact with a [public information officer] we could have gotten him into the park to do the investigative journalism that he wanted to do,” the spokesperson said. “Without that, he had to play by the same rules as everybody else at that time.”
The spokesperson also said that while steps have been taken to remind officers of the rights of journalists covering demonstrations, it is challenging for officers in the field to verify claims that someone is a member of the press.
The Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists who were 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.
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.
Freelance journalist Lesley McLam was arrested on June 30, 2020, while covering a protest in Portland, Oregon. McLam — together with Cory Elia, a colleague at Village Portland and KBOO radio station who was arrested with her — has since filed a lawsuit against the city of Portland, the state, and law enforcement for their arrest and treatment afterwards.
McLam was covering one of the many protests 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.
In Portland, nightly protests over Floyd’s death began on May 29, prompting Mayor Ted Wheeler to declare a curfew that lasted three days. Even after the nightly curfew was lifted, journalists continued to be targeted by police, according to a class-action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon. McLam is part of that suit, as well, which resulted in a temporary restraining order and an agreement by the city in July not to arrest, harm, or impede any journalists or legal observers.
The June 30 demonstration took place the day before a planned vote to extend the city’s contract with the police union. Protesters marched over a mile from Peninsula Park to the Portland Police Association headquarters in the neighborhood of North Portland. Soon after protesters arrived at PPA offices around 9 p.m., the police declared an “unlawful assembly” and ordered them to disperse.
McLam was livestreaming when the police declared a riot around 11 p.m. and followed as they moved protesters east on North Lombard Street, further away from the PPA offices. About 22 minutes into the footage, she captures Elia’s arrest. She can be heard demanding that they release Elia and turn over his phone and other personal items to her. The tracker has documented Elia's arrest here.
About 11 minutes later, the video shuts off at the moment McLam gets arrested. After an officer tells her to “Get off the street,” she can be heard responding, “I’m a member of the press. I’m on the crosswalk.” Then an officer can be seen approaching her, and the camera goes askew and filming ends.
On July 8, Elia and McLam filed a civil lawsuit against the city, the state, and multiple law enforcement officers for allegedly violating their constitutional rights and for battery, assault, negligence and false arrest. They are also seeking compensation for their injuries and punitive damages.
According to the complaint, as McLam attempted to film the officers present at Elia’s arrest, she was rushed by approximately six officers. “McLam’s glasses flew off as she was tackled,” it said, adding that officers “hit and/or punched McLam in the legs and knees, causing contusions and muscle pain and spraining her ankle.” She also had swelling, bruising and tenderness from her handcuffs, according to the complaint.
In addition, due to the stress of her arrest, McLam experienced vomiting and urinary incontinence, according to the complaint. In a video posted on Twitter by a bystander, a handcuffed McLam can be seen vomiting as officers empty her pockets.
McLam was taken to Multnomah County Detention Center, where she was placed in an isolation cell “covered in what appeared to be dried, sticky vomit and smeared feces,” according to the complaint. When she started to feel cramping, McLam worried that the stress had started her menstrual cycle early. She called out for a menstrual pad which wasn’t brought to her until more than 30 minutes later, the complaint said.
While the police referred criminal charges to the Multnomah County district attorney’s office, attorneys in that office declined to file charges, resulting in a “no-complaint,” according to McLam’s defense attorney. But the police continued to hold her for several more hours before releasing her around 6:30 p.m. on July 1, the complaint said.
KBOO, where McLam and Elia voluntarily co-host a podcast, released a statement strongly condemning their arrest. “The nationwide trend of suppressing the freedom of speech or freedom of press by attack or arrest by police is disturbing and must be addressed,” the station said.
Asked by the Tracker about the civil suit in March 2021, McLam said there were no publicly available updates.
“I think it’s really important that people have a better understanding of the dynamics that are actually happening on the ground,” she said.
When reached by email about the incident, the Portland Police Bureau declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
Freelance journalist Cory Elia was arrested on June 30, 2020, while covering a protest in Portland, Oregon. Elia — together with Lesley McLam, a colleague at Village Portland and KBOO radio station who was arrested with him — has since filed a lawsuit against the city of Portland, the state, and law enforcement for their arrest and treatment afterwards.
Elia was covering one of the many protests 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.
In Portland, nightly protests over Floyd’s death began on May 29, prompting Mayor Ted Wheeler to declare a curfew that lasted three days. Even after the nightly curfew was lifted, journalists continued to be targeted by police, according to a class-action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon. Elia is part of that suit, as well, which resulted in a temporary restraining order and an agreement by the city in July not to arrest, harm or impede any journalists or legal observers.
The June 30 demonstration took place the day before a planned vote to extend the city’s contract with the police union. Protesters marched over a mile from Peninsula Park to the Portland Police Association headquarters in the neighborhood of North Portland. Soon after demonstrators arrived at PPA offices around 9 p.m., the police declared an “unlawful assembly” and ordered them to disperse.
Elia was livestreaming when the police declared a riot around 11 p.m. and followed as they moved protesters east on North Lombard Street, further away from the PPA offices. A little more than 17 minutes into the footage, Elia can be heard telling an officer that he recognizes him. Then the camera goes askew as the officer knocks it out of his hand.
Another livestream tweeted by Elia shortly after shows the police line pushing him back. “One of your officers just tried to break my phone,” he can be heard saying.
After the police stop at an intersection, Elia walks to the other side of a car to create more distance from the police. He can be heard getting into a verbal back and forth with an officer about whether the press is exempt from police orders, and the officer responds that the protest was a riot. Elia then returns to the police line and asks an officer for his name and badge number. “Are you Bartlett? I think I recognize you from the other night,” he says. A little after six minutes into the video, Elia is placed under arrest.
He was charged with two counts of assaulting a police officer, two counts of interfering with a peace officer, one count of resisting arrest, and one count of disorderly conduct. Elia’s phone was seized as part of the arrest, he tweeted after his release the next day. Elia tweeted on July 9 that most of his gear had been returned to him.
On July 8, Elia and McLam filed a civil lawsuit against the city, the state, and multiple law enforcement officers for allegedly violating their constitutional rights and for battery, assault, negligence and false arrest. They are also seeking compensation for their injuries and punitive damages.
The suit alleges that after Elia recognized PPB Officer John Bartlett, who is named as a defendant, the officer “turned to his fellow officer and said something.” Then Bartlett, along with other PPB officers and an Oregon State Police trooper, grabbed Elia and forced him to the ground, “dog-piling” him, according to the complaint. The suit also alleges that in the course of the arrest, an officer kicked him in the groin.
After Elia was taken to the Multnomah County Detention Center, his protective mask was taken from him, which the complaint alleges was a concern since “no officers were wearing masks,” despite the state’s COVID-19 mask mandate, according to the complaint.
Elia was placed in isolation twice, the suit alleges. The second time he “began suffering a panic attack, experiencing severe claustrophobia, heart racing, vomiting and mental anguish,” the complaint said. He was released after 10 hours in jail.
KBOO, where Elia and McLam voluntarily co-host a podcast, released a statement on July 1 strongly condemning their arrest. “The nationwide trend of suppressing the freedom of speech or freedom of press by attack or arrest by police is disturbing and must be addressed,” the station said.
While the police referred criminal charges to the Multnomah County district attorney’s office, attorneys in that office declined to file charges, resulting in a “no-complaint,” according to Elia’s defense attorney.
Because of Elia’s ongoing civil suit stemming from this incident, he declined to comment further to the Tracker. As of press time, McLam said there were no publicly available updates about the lawsuit.
When reached by email about the incident, the Portland Police Bureau declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Samantha Melamed was briefly detained by police while covering a protest inside the Philadelphia Municipal Services Building on June 23, 2020.
Protesters had gathered inside the building to demand a meeting with Philadelphia’s mayor and managing director to lobby for defunding and demilitarizing the local police department. The protest was part of a national movement against police brutality that began at the end of May following the death of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis.
Melamed captured the moments leading up to her detention in a video she later posted to Twitter.
In the footage, a group of officers places a demonstrator under arrest while a crowd can be heard chanting “Defund the PPD,” referring to the Philadelphia Police Department. A different officer then approaches Melamed to ask who she is, and Melamed can be heard responding repeatedly that she is a journalist.
Seconds later, an officer finishes zip-tying the demonstrator’s hands, turns to Melamed, grabs her notebook out of her hands and appears to pull her arms behind her back while informing her that she is under arrest.
So I just told a police officer wielding a baton that im a reporter. He told me to “put this on Twitter”. Then he tightly handcuffed me with zip ties and he and another one mocked me while dragging me backward down two flights of stairs along with few dozen others arrested in MSB
— Samantha Melamed (@samanthamelamed) June 23, 2020
Max Marin, a reporter for local NPR affiliate WHYY, tweeted at 4 p.m. that Melamed had just been arrested. He added that he asked PPD Deputy Commissioner Dennis Wilson, who was with police at the protest, why Melamed had been detained. Wilson responded that he didn’t know but that he would “correct that.”
Marin reported that after further questions about Melamed’s arrest, Wilson left to check on her status.
Melamed tweeted at 4:15 p.m. that she had been released. She said she believed it was because of Marin’s post. “I can only assume that, because [Marin] tweeted it, a captain came by and said ‘are you Samantha?’ and cut my ties off,” Melamed wrote.
Melamed was one of several journalists detained by police during Philadelphia protests in May and June. WHYY reporter Avi Wolfman-Arent was arrested while covering a protest in downtown Philadelphia on May 31. The following day three more journalists were arrested covering other Philadelphia demonstrations: Delaware Online reporters Jeff Neiburg and Jenna Margaretta Miller and Inquirer reporter Kristen Graham. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documented those cases here.
A few hours after Melamed was released, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney tweeted that he was disturbed by the video of Melamed’s arrest and concerned that the police officers’ actions were against the law and police policy.
“It will be fully investigated and addressed,” Kenney added.
I am extremely disturbed by the video of a reporter being detained while doing her job and covering one of today’s protests—and also very concerned that it may violate the law and @PhillyPolice policy. It will be fully investigated and addressed.
— Jim #PhillyVotes Kenney (@PhillyMayor) June 23, 2020
The Philadelphia Police Department did not respond to emailed requests for comment.
The Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find these incidents here.
Shelby Talcott, a staff reporter for the Daily Caller, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was briefly detained by police while covering protests against police violence in Washington, D.C., on June 22, 2020.
Talcott said she had been filming protests in the nation’s capital for much of the evening. At one point, she said, individuals in the crowd accused her of being an undercover cop, shoving her and trying to take her phone, an incident the Tracker has documented here.
Talcott said she was eventually shoved into a police line, and officers pulled her through to the other side. Once there, an officer from the Metropolitan Police Department placed her in handcuffs, walked her to an area about two blocks away where there were no protesters, and released her within five minutes, Talcott said.
While reporting on protests in D.C. the next day, Talcott said, she asked an officer to explain why she had been detained. She said the officer, who wasn’t present for the altercation the day before, told her that it was standard practice to handcuff anyone who breaches a police line “because they’re not sure who you are.”
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police Department for the District of Columbia said in a statement to the Tracker that officers consider “several factors and the information available to determine if an individual should be placed in handcuffs.”
“This applies to any situation involving MPD, including crossing a police line,” the spokesperson said.
Talcott told the Tracker that she had taken to dressing “low key” while covering protests and without clear identification as a journalist to avoid being targeted by individuals who “don’t want certain things getting out.” She said she told protesters at the scene multiple times that she was a member of the press and she was sure officers heard it.
“I’m not sure the officers handled it in the best way, but the protesters didn’t either,” Talcott told the Tracker.
Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Movement have been held across the country after a viral video showed a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
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.
Texas photojournalist Alan Pogue was arrested while documenting police arresting others outside of President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 20, 2020.
The Texas Observer confirmed to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that Pogue was covering the rally for the outlet. Pogue is also the owner of the Texas Center for Documentary Photography and was a combat medic in the Vietnam War.
Pogue told the Tracker that had already passed through security into the BOK Center when he heard somebody yell that something was happening with the police outside.
“So I grabbed my camera bag and ran out front, but by the time I got there the three people had already been arrested and were being led across some grass to a police van,” Pogue said. “I followed the police and the three people and took some photographs.”
After the individuals were in the van, however, Pogue said the officers from the Tulsa Police turned to him “almost in unison” and asked who he was.
Pogue’s arrest report, which was released to the Tracker, states that Pogue followed police into a restricted area of the Trump rally and refused to leave, stating that he was media. The report also states that Pogue was allegedly “unable to provide proof of being with the media.”
Pogue told the Tracker that the police narrative is completely inaccurate.
“One police officer told me to stand back just a little bit more,” Pogue said. “So, I took a couple of giant steps backward and he was satisfied, so I just kept taking pictures. No one else said anything to me. There was nothing to indicate that I shouldn’t be there and nobody told me I couldn’t be.”
Pogue said that when the officers turned to him and asked who he was, he identified himself as a photojournalist, showed them the wristband he received after passing through the rally’s security screening and handed them his business card.
“It was really generational: One of the younger police officers said, ‘Well, you’ve got your wristband, you’re obviously a photojournalist. I guess you can go now,’” Pogue said. “Then an older officer said, ‘No, no, no, you can’t go now.’”
Officers searched through his camera bag, which contained not only his equipment but a medical kit and a bulletproof vest that he had worn through security. Pogue told the Tracker that, during the search, one of the officers said, “It looks like he’s some kind of social justice advocate.”
When Pogue located his digital copy of a letter from the Observer verifying that he was on assignment for the news organization, he showed it to the older officer.
“[The officer] then grabs my iPhone and is flipping through my emails, and I said, ‘Officer, you do not have my permission to look through my iPhone,” Pogue said. “But, he saw that I’m also a member of the Veterans for Peace, and that pretty much nailed me.”
Pogue said that he was placed under arrest, but that the officers were not rough with him and didn’t zip-tie his hands too tightly.
A spokesperson from the Tulsa County jail told the Tracker that Pogue was arrested at approximately 5:40 p.m., and booked in the jail at 7:17 p.m. He was released on a $500 bond paid by the Tulsa Bail Project at around 11:20 p.m.
The Tulsa Police Department, the arresting agency, did not respond to requests for comment.
Pogue was charged with obstructing or interfering with an officer, the spokesperson said, which is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail, a $500 fine or both.
Pogue’s belongings — including his wallet, ID, phone and equipment — were not returned to him upon his release. He was told he would have to come back to the county jail at 8 a.m. on June 22; when he arrived that Monday officers informed him that his two cameras, three lenses, cellphone, memory cards, camera bag and bulletproof vest were all being held as evidence.
“Obviously all they would really need is my compact flash card, nothing else really matters,” Pogue said. “It’s just harassment. There’s no intel to be gathered from my lenses.”
“I am deprived of the tools of my trade for no good reason,” he added.
Tristan Ahtone, editor-in-chief for the Observer, told the Tracker, “We condemn the arrest of reporters by security forces and demand that Tulsa police release [Pogue’s] equipment immediately.”
Pogue said that his arraignment is set for July 10, but that he is hopeful the charges will be dismissed and his equipment returned before that date.
The exterior of Tulsa’s BOK Center, where President Donald Trump held his first re-election campaign rally in many months on June 20, 2020.
",arrested and released,Tulsa Police 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,[],,Donald Trump rally,,, 2020-06-29 20:08:10.489619+00:00,2021-11-19 16:53:09.493678+00:00,Dover Post journalist detained despite repeatedly identifying as press,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/dover-post-journalist-detained-despite-repeatedly-identifying-press/,2021-11-19 16:53:09.425964+00:00,,,,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault",,,,Andre Lamar (Dover Post),,2020-06-09,False,Camden,Delaware (DE),None,None,"Andre Lamar, a photographer and reporter for the Dover Post, was detained as he covered protests against police violence in Delaware on June 9, 2020, according to his outlet.
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 U.S. since the end of May.
The demonstrations continued in Dover on June 9, as protesters marched to nearby Camden along Route 13, according to news reports. Several dozen protesters blocked traffic near a Wawa convenience store.
In a Facebook Live video posted shortly after his release, Lamar explained the protesters had used the tactic of blocking traffic for several days as a way to engage the public with their message as the police stood by. There was tension between the protesters and police on June 9, Lamar said in his reporting on Facebook Live, but the protest remained non-violent.
The Dover Police claimed the protesters had become “more hostile” to motorists and pedestrians in recent days, leading to 911 calls and nearly missed traffic accidents. According to the Delaware State Police, the situation on June 9 escalated when a police vehicle was not allowed to pass and the officer exited the vehicle. Law enforcement warned the protesters to stop blocking traffic and get off the road, the state police statement said.
Lamar captured his detention on a Facebook Live video posted around 6:30 p.m. In the video, Lamar films as officers arrest protesters on the grass next to the road. The officers “slammed them down to the ground,” Lamar says in the video. “There are people laying down on the ground right now and we don’t know why.”
In the video, Lamar asks officers why they are arresting protesters. But he does not get an answer. He appears to place the camera down on the grass. Seconds later, Lamar begins to ask “Sir, why are people…” when a Dover Police officer grabs him suddenly.
“I’m with the press! I’m with the press!” Lamar yells as the camera shakes chaotically, capturing glimpses of several Dover Police officers placing him into custody.
Drone footage released by the Dover Police show officers completing the arrests of protesters on the side of the road. Lamar stands to the side and bends down to access his backpack. A Dover Police officer leaves one individual already in custody and begins to approach Lamar.
The Dover Police said the officer was concerned for public and officer safety, not knowing what Lamar was retrieving from his bag. Throughout the week some protesters had been armed, Dover Police said.
Suddenly the officer charges at Lamar and grabs him. Two other Dover Police officers nearby assist in restraining Lamar.
“I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!” Lamar says to the officers in his Facebook Live video. Officers tell him to stop resisting. “I have a press badge on,” Lamar says.
“You may, but you gotta listen to us, OK? Just relax,” an officer responds.
An officer picks up Lamar’s phone, which is still filming his Facebook Live video. Lamar addresses his audience. “You’ve got no help here,” an officer says. “The best thing you can do is be quiet, alright?”
For at least nine times in two minutes, Lamar identifies as a journalist. The livestream ends as an officer places Lamar’s camera into his bag.
Lamar and 21 others were taken into custody and transported to Delaware State Police Troop 3, the state and Dover Police said. Lamar was released without charge after police confirmed he was working as a journalist.
One other individual was released without charge. Twenty were charged with a combination of misdemeanor charges including disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and obstruction, state police said.
Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings said in a statement that "neither a prosecution of these protesters, nor an investigation into the police—both of which have been demanded, with equal volume—would serve a good purpose." Jennings added that her office asked Delaware State Police to release Lamar immediately upon learning he was in custody.
Delaware Governor John Carney condemned Lamar’s arrest on Twitter. “Reporters have a fundamental right to cover the demonstrations we’re seeing in Delaware and across our country,” he wrote. “They should not be arrested for doing their jobs. That’s not acceptable.”
After his release, Lamar continued to report on a livestream from outside the police station, where family members and supporters of the arrested protesters had gathered.
“Honestly, I’m pissed,” Lamar, who is Black, says in the live video. “I’m pissed because this should never have happened. And I’m more pissed because I’m privileged. I have a badge. That’s why I believe I’m still not inside Troop 3 right now.”
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.
Drone footage published on the Dover Police YouTube account shows officers detaining journalist Andre Lamar, on the left side of the image, while he was covering protests against police violence on June 9, 2020.
",arrested and released,Dover Police Department,None,None,True,None,None,None,None,False,None,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",,, 2021-03-22 19:51:42.741984+00:00,2023-12-18 22:11:05.520052+00:00,Journalist arrested in Portland after asking a police officer for his name,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-arrested-in-portland-after-asking-a-police-officer-for-his-name/,2023-12-18 22:11:05.256916+00:00,obstruction: interfering with a peace officer (charges dropped as of 2021-02-01),,"(2022-06-06 00:00:00+00:00) Journalist refiles federal lawsuit against City of Portland two years after 2020 arrest, (2023-10-12 00:00:00+00:00) Journalist reaches settlement with City of Portland following 2020 arrest",Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Bea Lake (iHeartMedia),,2020-06-07,False,Portland,Oregon (OR),45.52345,-122.67621,"Bea Lake, who works as a staffer for podcasts hosted by journalist Robert Evans on iHeartMedia radio network, was arrested in Portland, Oregon, while covering protests on June 7, 2020. A video of the incident shows an officer telling Lake to leave, Lake asking for the officer’s name, then Lake being arrested. Police and other records show Lake was charged with “interfering with a Peace Officer” and released several hours later.
Protesters gathered outside the Multnomah County Justice Center in downtown Portland the night of June 7 as part of ongoing protests against police brutality and racial injustice. Shortly before midnight, law enforcement declared the gathering an unlawful assembly after protesters threw water bottles, cans and other objects over a fence and in the direction of police officers, according to the Portland Police Bureau and live streams from the scene. The officers ordered anyone in the area to leave and fired flash grenades to clear the area.
Lake was filming officers dispersing the crowd when an officer approached and said to leave. At 17:45 into a video recording of the incident posted to Twitter, the officer is heard saying “press passes don’t matter.”
Lake then asks the officer for his name, to which he replies by pointing to a number written on his shirt. He then says “keep moving.” After Lake asks again for his name, the officer says “You want to go to jail? You’re under arrest.” As the officer grabs and arrests Lake, she can be heard shouting repeatedly “I am press, I am not resisting.”
One of my crew members, clearly labeled as press, was just arrested for asking an officer their name. https://t.co/E1zPepX4Ev
— Robert Evans (The Only Robert Evans) (@IwriteOK) June 8, 2020
iHeart Radio’s Evans posted the video on Twitter June 8, followed by the message “She is free with a citation, which we will fight.” The arrest of Lake is described, without giving Lake’s name, on page 21 of a complaint filed by the ACLU against the city of Portland; Portland police records note the arrest of Bea Lake, 31, charged with “interfering with a Peace Officer.”
The Tracker was unable to reach Lake and Evans for comment, and it is unclear if the charge is still pending against Lake. The Portland Police Bureau did not respond to an email seeking comment on the incident.
In July 2020, Lake and Evans joined a class action lawsuit against the city of Portland. In the complaint, the journalists alleged that police officers used unnecessary force and interfered with their abilities to do their jobs as members of the press during the protests, according to news reports. No information on the status of the lawsuit was available from any of the involved parties as of March 2021.
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.
Michael Harriot, a senior writer for the Root, was arrested while covering protests in Birmingham, Alabama, on June 4, 2020, according to published reports of the event.
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 an arrest on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. The incident sparked anti-police brutality and Black Lives Matter demonstrations across the country.
According to AL.com, approximately 100 people had assembled in Linn Park on the afternoon of June 4. At around 7 p.m., curfew in Birmingham at the time, police reportedly directed the crowd to disperse and told members of the media to have their press credentials clearly displayed. Many protesters had left the park by that point, according to AL.com, but the few who were willing to get arrested stayed, and they were.
According to the news site, officers then made their way to an area where members of the media had gathered, including Harriot, who was filming with his cellphone. Harriot did not respond to emailed requests for comment.
In a video shot by AL.com of Harriot's arrest, reporter Carol Robinson can be heard narrating the scene, saying, “They’re asking if he’s media. He says he is. But he says he does not have a credential.”
In an article for the Root, Harriot noted that multiple journalists had not been wearing credentials, citing a security advisory that warned that press badges had made some journalists targets.
“The cops asked if there was anyone they could call to verify that I was press,” Harriot wrote. “I pointed to the police officers and called them by their names but my arresting officers did not bother to verify the information.”
Harriot also said that he advised the officers to call the mayor’s office, as he had conducted an interview with Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin less than 24 hours earlier. The officers also would not allow Harriot access to his phone so he could show them his digital credential.
According to AL.com, the officers then zip-tied his hands and directed him into a police van.
Later that day, Harriot tweeted succinctly about his arrest and that he was still being held in the Birmingham City Jail. In a tweet posted a little over an hour later, he said that he had been released.
Arrested. Was covering protests. Still in Birmingham City Jail.@TheRoot @JoyAnnReid @rolandsmartin
— michaelharriot (@michaelharriot) June 5, 2020
In his account of the arrest and his time in custody, Harriot wrote that in the three years he has covered protests, activism and police brutality in Birmingham — in addition to other Black Lives Matters protests across the country — he had never before been arrested.
“Even after local reporters were attacked while covering the recent protests, I was not worried,” he wrote. He also noted that by the time he was arrested, the protest had entirely dispersed.
But despite standing entirely apart from the park and surrounded by other members of the press, Harriot was arrested.
“I informed them that I was with the media and I knew they were about to be in some deep shit when they rounded up those of us who didn’t have visible credentials,” he wrote. “Locking me up was one thing, but arresting journalists for doing their job was another thing.”
“They did not arrest ‘journalists.’ They arrested the only black journalist.”
While at a staging area a few blocks away, Harriot said, an officer leveraged his knee against Harriot’s thigh in order to secure the zip cuffs as tight as possible. Harriot wrote that despite his efforts to keep blood flowing, he eventually lost all feeling in his hands.
After arriving at the city jail, Harriot said, multiple officers attempted and failed to remove the cuffs, as his hands had swollen. Ultimately, he recounted, officers had to dig into Harriot’s skin in order to cut the zip ties.
Harriot said officers then directed him to put on a jail uniform, took his mug shot and fingerprinted him. He said he was then informed that someone was waiting to speak with him.
“‘Finally,’ I thought. ‘It’s probably the mayor or one of his highest level administration officials who is here to make sure I’m ok,’” Harriot wrote. “Nah. It was the FBI.”
The agents, Harriot said, read him his Miranda rights and said they “just wanted to talk.” Harriot says he declined.
Shortly thereafter, he was able to retrieve his cellphone and was released to a lobby where activists waited to bail out and welcome those who had been arrested.
On June 5, Mayor Woodfin commented on the Birmingham Police Department’s treatment of journalists. Two other reporters — Howard Koplowitz and Jonece Starr Dunigan — had been detained on June 3.
“Our curfew was not intended to stifle the voices of our people or our press,” Woodfin wrote on Twitter. “We need them more now than ever.”
BPD Public Information Officer Sergeant Rod Mauldin advised the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker to direct all questions about Harriot’s arrest to the mayor’s office, which did not respond to emails requesting 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 journalist Ashoka Jegroo was pushed and hit with a baton by a police officer while covering a racial justice protest in the Bronx borough of New York on June 4, 2020.
The protest, in the Mott Haven neighborhood in the Bronx, was one of many demonstrations organized across the city in response to the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others in 2020. Jegroo regularly reports and films video footage of protests, which he sells to media outlets.
In a phone interview, Jegroo told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was at the front of the demonstration, near some of the organizers, as they began marching through the neighborhood on the evening of June 4. A few minutes before a citywide 8 p.m. curfew went into effect, said Jegroo, city police officers moved to break up the protest using a crowd control tactic called kettling, in which police block demonstrators from leaving. As police advanced on the crowd, Jegroo and organizers at the front of the march were separated from the “kettle” and pushed across the street by police, the journalist said.
Jegroo said that police appeared to target an organizer near him who was using a megaphone to communicate to the larger group.
In a video Jegroo posted on Twitter, a line of NYPD officers is seen standing on the street. An NYPD officer in a yellow helmet approaches another officer and points into the crowd. “You want her locked up?” the second officer asks. “OK.”
The second officer then moves swiftly, striking at protesters and swiping toward Jegroo. “Get the fuck back, I’m not fucking with you, get the fuck back,” the officer says.
NYPD cops are making violent arrests & beating people with batons at the #FTP4 march in the Bronx. I just got hit with a baton & pusher by cops. pic.twitter.com/w6YOxXssvj
— Ash J (@AshAgony) June 5, 2020
Jegroo said that the police officer struck him with a baton on his abdomen between his belly button and his groin. Jegroo said he then ran away from the line of police, following two protest organizers as they sought to see what was happening to the larger group of demonstrators cordoned off by police. When they encountered more police, officers grabbed the organizers, Jegroo said, then threw him against a fence, where he slid down to the ground.
Jegroo said that as he attempted to get up, a police officer pulled him up, turned him around and pinned him against a gate, holding one of the journalist’s arms behind his back. A second officer questioned Jegroo, asking why he was there and where he lived, while another officer rifled through his backpack, Jegroo said. After searching through his bag, the police freed Jegroo. He said he collected his belongings, which the police had dropped on the ground. He reported that none of his reporting equipment was damaged.
Jegroo said he did not identify himself to police as a journalist at any point during the protest. He said that in past encounters with police, he had found that identifying himself as a reporter did not help. “I've tried to do that before, but … they don't give a damn,” he said.
NYPD did not respond to a request for comment about Jegroo’s experience.
The march was the fourth organized by a coalition of grassroots groups under the name FTP4, initials that various group members say can stand for “For the People,” “Feed the People,” or “Fuck the Police.” Police tactics during the Mott Haven march came under criticism in a report released in September by Human Rights Watch. The group said that police conduct during the FTP4 march was “intentional, planned, and unjustified,” and that NYPD’s response violated international human rights law.
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.
Journalist Ashoka Jegroo was documenting a protest in the New York borough of the Bronx when he was shoved and hit with an NYPD officer's baton.
",detained and released without being processed,New York Police Department,2020-06-04,2020-06-04,False,None,[],None,returned in full,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",,, 2020-12-02 18:21:00.501744+00:00,2023-07-17 14:36:35.909487+00:00,Russian freelance journalist arrested while covering protests in Brooklyn,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/russian-freelance-journalist-arrested-while-covering-protests-brooklyn/,2023-07-17 14:36:35.741275+00:00,curfew violation: violation of mayor’s emergency order (unknown as of 2020-12-08),,(2020-12-08 14:31:00+00:00) Charges against Russian freelance journalist filed under incorrect name,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Yana Mulder (REN.TV),,2020-06-04,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"Russian freelance journalist Yana Mulder was reporting on protests in the New York borough of Brooklyn on June 4, 2020, when she was arrested while trying to intervene in the violent arrest of her husband. Mulder said she told police that she was press and that her husband was assisting the TV production crew.
The protest came one day after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio imposed an 8 p.m. curfew aimed at controlling escalating unrest in the city. Essential workers — who, in New York, include members of the media — were exempt.
In a phone interview with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, Mulder said that she was reporting that night on a post-curfew protest in Brooklyn for the Russian television channel REN.TV. She said she followed the protest through the streets of Brooklyn until it abruptly stopped at the intersection of Wythe Avenue and Penn Street.
Mulder said the protesters halted when they were just 10 or 15 steps away from a line of New York Police Department officers. She said she, along with her cameraman, her photographer, and her husband, stood off to the right side of the protest with another group of journalists. Mulder said her husband was helping the broadcast crew by holding up a light for the camera.
According to Mulder, police officers took out packs of zip-ties, which she reported on camera, noting that they were going to start arresting people. At this point, some at the rear of the group began to disperse, leaving about three layers of protesters facing the police, Mulder told the Tracker.
Daniel Verde, a journalist who was also at the intersection when the police charged forward to arrest protesters, posted a video on Twitter at 9:21 p.m. showing police pursuing and grabbing protesters as they tried to flee.
In a video taken of the advance on her phone, Mulder can be heard warning her camera operator to be careful while moving toward an armored police car.
One policeman shouts, “Let’s go!” and Mulder directs her crew to capture the officers charging the protesters. As Mulder spins to look around her, she sees her husband, Nick Mulder, on the ground being hit with a baton by an officer while in the process of being arrested. Mulder can be heard yelling to the officer, “Please, please don’t!” The officer responds, “Stay out of here, go back!” At this point, Mulder turns her phone camera off.
According to Mulder, her husband had come to pick her up from the protest and was helping the production crew by holding a light for the broadcast.
“I tried to explain to the police that I’m a reporter; I told him that my husband was part of the group,” she said. Despite identifying herself as press, “four other cops grabbed me, put handcuffs on me as well, and we were both escorted to the [bus].”
Mulder’s phone video showed that, as she asked police to stop, the crowd surrounding the journalist and her husband yelled repeatedly that they were press. One person tweeted about the arrests:
I was arrested here — along with a young female journalist. She was speaking on camera when they grabbed her. They knocked down, beat, and arrested her husband, who was part of the production crew, holding a light. Their sound and camera guys got away.
— Sarah Rose Kearns (@Persuasion_JA) June 5, 2020
Mulder said that police zip-tied her husband’s hands and hers, and they were brought to the 90th precinct in a bus full of protesters.
At the station, Mulder said, she offered to show her press pass from the IWW Freelance Journalists Union, as well as an email from her employer about her assignment. “They didn’t look at anything,” she told the Tracker.
In an Instagram post Mulder wrote that her bag was taken and the police officer in charge of searching bags asked her “Do you have anything in your bag that can hurt me?” When she replied in the negative, the officer returned her bag without searching it, she said. After five hours, the couple was released with a summons for a court date a month later, according to Mulder.
According to the summons slip, which the Tracker reviewed, Mulder was charged with “violation of Mayor’s emergency order,” a Class B misdemeanor that carries a fine of up to $500 and a maximum of three months in prison in the New York Penal Code. Neither Mulder nor her husband appeared in court on the day listed on her summons, since the Kings & New York Criminal Court had been closed indefinitely since March. Mulder told the Tracker that no one from NYPD followed up on the summonses issued to her and her husband, perhaps because their last name was spelled incorrectly as M-O-U-L-D-E-R.
Mulder said that the American Civil Liberties Union contacted her husband Nick shortly after the incident. According to the journalist, the ACLU is working with her husband to file a civil suit against the NYPD.
The NYPD did not 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 Black Lives Matter protests across the country. Find these incidents here.
Editor's Note: This article was updated to reflect the correct spelling of Nick Mulder’s name.
Mission Local reporter Julian Mark was briefly detained by San Francisco police while covering a Bay Area protest on June 3, 2020.
The protest was part of a wave of Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality demonstrations across the country. The demonstrations 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.
Mark told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he had been covering the San Francisco protests all day as about 10,000 people marched through the city. He had returned to Mission Local’s office at 2489 Mission St. to file his story when he saw dozens of officers outside the office window. The officers were moving down Mission Street and closing in on dozens of protesters, including 23 who were later arrested.
Mark said he went back outside wearing his press badge, issued by the San Francisco Police Department, around his neck. When he began filming police, he said he held his press badge up so officers could see it. While recording, Mark got in front of the officers as they closed in on some of the protesters.
“I was putting myself in the middle of the circle and as I was doing this I was making it known that I was press and I was also filming,” Mark told the Tracker. One of the officers told Mark to move back. “I tried to get out of the circle and I tried to get onto the sidewalk,” Mark said, but other officers – at odds with the original instruction – kept him in the circle of protesters on Mission Street.
“I was definitely forcibly moved into the circle of protesters and told to lay on my stomach even though I had clearly displayed my press badge,” Mark said.
At 10:53 p.m. Mark tweeted, “Lying on the ground here with a dozen protesters. Completely surrounded on mission st.” In the video accompanying the tweet, dozens of officers are visible. Capt. Gaetano Caltagirone of SFPD can be heard saying, “This is Capt. Gaetano from the San Francisco Police Department. You are all under arrest for unlawful assembly.”
Mark continued to tweet updates from the ground. “Show them my press pass and they just pushed me into the circle and made [me] lie down on my stomach,” he tweeted five minutes later. The last tweet in Mark’s thread was sent at 11:47 p.m. “I was detained and then released. I’m okay. Thanks, all, for following. There are around 20 seemingly peaceful protesters on their way to the police station, including a 14-year-old [boy].”
The certificate of release provided by the San Francisco Police Department lists Mark’s time in custody from 11 p.m. to 11:41 p.m. The next day Mark reported on his detainment, writing that he was released after an editor at Mission Local reached out to Capt. Caltagirone.
On June 4, Mark also received an invitation from San Francisco Police Chief William “Bill” Scott to come to his office and review the body camera footage from the incident.
“He explicitly said that he was sorry that it had happened,” Mark told the Tracker. “He asked for feedback from me about how the police department would improve its processes with how they deal with journalists in situations where officers feel they are under pressure to enforce the law. I really think that the effort was genuine on his part.”
SFPD spokesman Sgt. Michael Andraychak gave the following statement to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: “The Department is aware of these incidents and we have either met with or spoken to the journalists involved in order to gain a better picture of what transpired and how we can work to prevent similar events from happening in the future.”
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.
Howard Koplowitz, a journalist with AL.com, was arrested while filming protests in front of Birmingham City Hall, in Birmingham, Alabama, on June 3, 2020. After being taken to the city jail for processing, Koplowitz was released without charges.
Koplowitz was reporting that day with colleague Jonece Starr Dunigan, who was also arrested. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented her arrest here. Both journalists declined to comment.
The protest was held in response to a video showing a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, for more than eight minutes during an arrest on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital. The incident sparked anti-police brutality and Black Lives Matter demonstrations across the country.
Koplowitz had been tweeting during the evening, including just after the city’s 7 p.m. curfew. He told AL.com that he was recording video of Birmingham Police Department officers walking out of City Hall at around 7:30 p.m., when two officers approached him. An officer told Koplowitz he was under arrest, ignoring Koplowitz’s press pass and his verbal protestations that he was a journalist.
AL.com reported that Koplowitz was also carrying letters showing proof of employment for both himself and Dunigan, as required by the city in order for journalists to be exempt from the curfew order. However, the BPD officers who arrested him didn’t allow him to show them the letters.
Within seconds of approaching Koplowitz, officers also arrested Dunigan, who also was wearing media credentials and standing nearby.
Koplowitz told AL.com that he and Dunigan were zip-tied and put into a van, which transported them to the city jail. At the jail, he said they were photographed and chained to a bench for 10 minutes before BPD Public Information Officer Sergeant Rod Mauldin intervened and had them released. Neither Koplowitz nor Dunigan are facing criminal charges.
Koplowitz said he was later told by officers that they had been detained for their safety.
Mauldin advised the Tracker to direct all questions to the mayor’s office, which did not respond to emails requesting comment.
AL.com editors condemned the journalists’ arrests.
“Unacceptable,” tweeted Kelly Ann Scott, AL.com editor and vice president of content. “I’m so sorry that @HowardKoplowitz and @StarrDunigan had to endure this while just doing their jobs as journalists.”
“Watching video of a zip-tied reporter cry for someone to call me was agonizing,” tweeted Jeremy Gray, AL.com managing producer of breaking news. “I hired @StarrDunigan and have worked with @HowardKoplowitz ever since he joined our team. They were standing on a sidewalk when they were loaded into a van.”
On June 5, after another reporter was arrested by BPD officers, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin apologized for the BPD’s treatment of journalists.
“Our curfew was not intended to stifle the voices of our people or our press,” he wrote on Twitter. “We need them more now than ever.”
On June 6, Alabama Media Group, the publisher of AL.com and the Birmingham News, asked for an apology and investigation into the arrests, AL.com reported.
“Clearly, the police overstepped their legal authority in arresting, assaulting and otherwise mistreating members of the press with no inclination to use any but the most extreme measures,” said James Pewitt, attorney for Alabama Media Group, in a letter sent to Woodfin and others. Pewitt added that the explanations provided by the police “are, in our view, wholly inadequate, plainly false and pretextual.”
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.
Jonece Starr Dunigan, a journalist with AL.com, was arrested while filming officers outside Birmingham City Hall, in Birmingham, Alabama, on June 3, 2020. After being taken to the city jail for processing, Dunigan was released without charges.
Dunigan was reporting that day with colleague Howard Koplowitz, who was also arrested. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented his case here. Both journalists declined to comment.
The protest was held in response to a video showing a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, for more than eight minutes during an arrest on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. The incident sparked anti-police brutality and Black Lives Matter demonstrations across the country.
Koplowitz told AL.com that he was recording video of Birmingham Police Department officers walking out of City Hall at around 7:30 p.m., half an hour after the city’s 7 p.m. curfew, when two officers approached him. An officer told Koplowitz he was under arrest, ignoring Koplowitz’s press pass and his verbal protestations that he was a journalist. The officers then arrested Dunigan, who was standing near Koplowitz.
AL.com reported that Koplowitz was also carrying letters showing proof of employment for both himself and Dunigan, as required by the city in order for journalists to be exempt from the curfew order. However, the BPD officers who arrested him didn’t allow him to show them the letters.
Koplowitz told AL.com that he and Dunigan were zip-tied and put into a van, which transported them to the city jail. At the jail, he said they were chained to a bench for 10 minutes before BPD public information officer Sergeant Rod Mauldin intervened and had them released. Neither Koplowitz nor Dunigan are facing criminal charges.
Mauldin advised the Tracker to direct all questions to the mayor’s office, which did not respond to emails requesting comment.
“I never want to call my mom ever again to tell her I was arrested,” Dunigan tweeted after she was released. “It was a hard conversation to have. I’m still processing it all.”
I never want to call my mom ever again to tell her I was arrested. It was a hard conversation to have. I'm still processing it all.
— Jonece Starr Dunigan (@StarrDunigan) June 4, 2020
I appreciate all the kind texts and messages. I appreciate the protesters who were nothing but kind to me.https://t.co/3RCUUpZppr
AL.com editors condemned the journalists’ arrests.
“Unacceptable,” tweeted Kelly Ann Scott, AL.com editor and vice president of content. “I’m so sorry that @HowardKoplowitz and @StarrDunigan had to endure this while just doing their jobs as journalists.”
“Watching video of a zip-tied reporter cry for someone to call me was agonizing,” tweeted Jeremy Gray, AL.com managing producer of breaking news. “I hired @StarrDunigan and have worked with @HowardKoplowitz ever since he joined our team. They were standing on a sidewalk when they were loaded into a van.”
On June 5, after another reporter was arrested by BPD officers, Birmingham mayor Randall Woodfin apologized for the BPD’s treatment of journalists.
“Our curfew was not intended to stifle the voices of our people or our press,” he wrote on Twitter. “We need them more now than ever.”
On June 6, Alabama Media Group, the publisher of AL.com and the Birmingham News, asked for an apology and investigation into the arrests, AL.com reported.
“Clearly, the police overstepped their legal authority in arresting, assaulting and otherwise mistreating members of the press with no inclination to use any but the most extreme measures,” said James Pewitt, attorney for Alabama Media Group, in a letter sent to Woodfin and others. Pewitt added that the explanations provided by the police “are, in our view, wholly inadequate, plainly false and pretextual.”
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.
Tampa Bay Times reporter Divya Kumar was detained in the early hours of June 3, 2020, while covering a protest in Tampa, Florida.
Protesters had gathered in Tampa and in cities across the U.S. to denounce police brutality following the death of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25.
The Times reported that Kumar was arrested downtown when Tampa Bay Police Department officers declared an unlawful assembly near Joe Chillura Courthouse Square.
The outlet reported that Kumar held up her media credentials to identify herself as a member of the press as a line of bicycle officers advanced. However, one of the bicycle officers knocked Kumar to the ground, handcuffed her and then placed her in plastic zip ties for 10 to 15 minutes.
Luis Santana, a Times photojournalist, posted photos of her detention on Twitter.
@TB_Times @divyadivyadivya places in cuffs and detained by @TampaPD while covering the protests in downtown Tampa even after identifying herself as a Times reporter. She was eventually released. pic.twitter.com/4E9095kmcM
— Luis Santana (@TBTphotog) June 3, 2020
“I don’t know what I could have done differently,” Kumar told the Times. “I identified myself as a journalist and tried to get out of there safely.”
In a news conference held later that day, Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan defended the officers’ actions and emphasized that Kumar had been detained, not arrested.
“I think what happened was in their effort to cover the actions they ended up too close to it and ended up getting detained,” Dugan said, adding that Kumar was released after she was identified as a member of the media.
At the same press conference, Mayor Jane Castor suggested that many people attended the protest with fake media credentials, and declined to apologize for Kumar’s detention.
“We got bigger things out there than apologizing to a reporter that gets detained that didn’t leave when they were asked to leave three times,” Castor said.
The Times reported that later that day, Castor did call Kumar to apologize, as did Chief Assistant City Attorney Kirby Rainsberger.
Rainsberger said officers’ treatment of Kumar was “an overreaction,” and the city was reiterating the right of the press to the department during officer roll calls and via email.
In a statement published that day, Times Executive Editor Mark Katches objected to the detentions of Kumar and a second Times journalist, Jay Cridlin, in St. Petersburg the night before. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documented Cridlin’s arrest here.
“Journalists need to be able to do our jobs and report the news without being harassed, detained, intimidated or harmed by law enforcement,” Katches said.
The Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find these incidents here.
Independent photojournalist Aaron Guy Leroux was arrested while covering protests in Los Angeles, California, on June 2, 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.
Leroux told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was walking west on Sunset Boulevard with a colleague approximately 40 minutes after the Los Angeles County’s 6 p.m. curfew — which explicitly exempted credentialed members of the media — went into effect. He said that two Los Angeles Police Department officers had already checked his press pass and allowed him to continue reporting.
As they rounded the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street, where LAPD officers were arresting demonstrators, an officer asked if they were press, and they said they were.
“As we were exiting the scene, one last LAPD officer asked again, ‘You press?’’’ Leroux said. “I said, ‘Yes sir.’ He took a look at my credentials then grabbed my elbow and said casually, ‘You’re gettin’ arrested.’”
“I spent the next three hours getting arrested, searched, transferred, processed and cited for ‘curfew violation,’” Leroux told the Tracker.
Leroux noted that his camera bag was thoroughly searched by the officers, but he does not believe any of his photos were deleted. His colleague — whose identity could not be verified as of press time — was also arrested.
At around 9:45 p.m Leroux was released from police custody with a citation for curfew violation, a photograph of which he shared with the Tracker.
The LAPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On June 8, Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey announced that she will not prosecute citations for violating curfew or failing to disperse, while Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer said he would resolve cases involving peaceful protesters in a “restorative approach” outside of the court system.
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.
A previous version of this article misspelled Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer's name.
Anna Slatz, a reporter for the Canadian news website Rebel News, was arrested while reporting protests in New York, New York, on June 2, 2020.
Slatz told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she’d traveled to the U.S. to cover the protests that had spread throughout the nation after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody on May 25. Rebel News featured her coverage on a special page, stopantifa.com.
Slatz first reported from protests outside the White House in Washington, D.C. She said in a June 2 report that she was nearly arrested by a charging police officer, but he passed her by after she yelled out that she was a journalist.
On June 2, she was following a couple thousand protesters march through Manhattan when she stopped to film a chaotic scene at a Zara clothing store around 9 p.m., she told the Tracker. The glass entrance was shattered. Some were stealing. Others were throwing clothes in the air. One protester body-slammed someone emerging from the store with stolen goods. And then the police swept in making mass arrests.
In video of her arrest published by Rebel News after her release, Slatz was soon confronted by several officers screaming for people to go home. The video shows Slatz amid a group of people, including green-hatted National Lawyers Guild legal observers, being forcefully ushered off the block.
An officer pushed Slatz hard against her chest with his baton, she told the Tracker. An officer then grabbed her by the throat and shoved her into the street, she said. The video is unclear, but a hand of an officer can be seen reaching out toward Slatz. She shrieks as the footage shakes violently, then stumbles into the crosswalk.
An officer approaches and waves at her to keep moving, the video shows. She crosses to the other side of the street, where another officer orders two officers to arrest her. They don’t immediately react to the order, so the officer repeats it more aggressively.
“No! No! Media is exempted! Media is exempted!” Slatz yells in the video. An officer pulls out handcuffs as Slatz pleads, “Stop, stop, stop!” Then the video cuts out.
The officers brought her to the ground, breaking her glasses, she reported after her release.
In the face of the unrest, New York had imposed an 8 p.m. curfew, which excluded essential workers, including news media. Slatz told the Tracker she repeatedly identified herself as a journalist. But as a new reporter for Rebel News, she had yet to receive a hard press credential from the outlet, though she had a printed copy of it, she said.
She also said that the NYPD had stopped issuing press credentials. On June 6, Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted that “being in a crisis is no excuse” for the NYPD to stop processing applications for press credentials. He said he directed the NYPD to expedite applications.
Slatz was taken to Brooklyn Central Booking for processing, she told the Tracker. She was placed in a small cell with some 20 other women, packed “back to chest like sardines” without masks. She was told she would be given a summons and released.
Instead, she was transferred to Manhattan Central Booking around 3 a.m. She would remain there without soap, running water, or a bed until her release on June 4, she said. Other women in her cell had been held even longer.
Slatz managed to call her employer on the first night of her arrest, who hired several lawyers, including Michael Weinstock, a New Yorker currently running for Congress.
Weinstock filed papers declaring himself Slatz’s lawyer, but due to a likely clerical error, the court appointed a public defender to represent Slatz during her arraignment on June 4, Weinstock and Slatz told the Tracker. The precautions necessary for the coronavirus and the sheer number of recent arrests severely strained the system, Weinstock said.
Slatz said she was released on a charge of obstructing traffic. Her next court date was scheduled for Sept. 3, she said.
The NYPD and Mayor de Blasio’s office did not respond to requests for comment. The Manhattan district attorney announced in a press release on June 5 that his office would not prosecute unlawful assembly or disorderly conduct arrests. But Slatz told the Tracker on June 10 that her charges had not been officially dropped.
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 was amended to remove a misstatement about the duration of the penalty carried by an obstruction of traffic charge and to use clearer language about Slatz's scheduled court appearance.
Rebel News reporter Anna Slatz flashes a peace sign shortly after her June 4 release from Manhattan Central Booking.
",arrested and released,New York Police Department,2020-06-04,None,True,None,[],None,None,False,None,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",,, 2020-07-02 13:53:37.502620+00:00,2022-07-18 21:44:31.317815+00:00,Arkansas Democrat-Gazette journalist detained while covering Little Rock protests,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/arkansas-democrat-gazette-journalist-detained-while-covering-little-rock-protests/,2022-07-18 21:44:31.257903+00:00,,,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Josh Snyder (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette),,2020-06-02,False,Little Rock,Arkansas (AR),34.74648,-92.28959,"Arkansas Democrat-Gazette deputy online editor Josh Snyder was detained by police while covering protests in Little Rock on June 2, 2020.
Protests in Arkansas began four days earlier as demonstrations erupted across the country, sparked by the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota. Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, died when a white police officer kneeled on his neck for more than 8 minutes during an arrest.
Snyder was covering demonstrations in Little Rock on the evening of June 2 when he was caught up in a group of protesters detained by police on a pedestrian bridge, according to KATV. Police detained the group at around 10 p.m., two hours after a curfew went into effect.
Snyder was livestreaming the protests on the Democrat-Gazette’s Facebook page. In his video, a group of protesters can be seen being led by police to a pedestrian bridge, and Snyder identified himself as press to officers he passed. As they arrived, Snyder shouted out “press!” but no law-enforcement officers appeared to notice, and police ordered the group of protesters to the ground.
At one point in the video, Snyder takes a call from a colleague, telling them, “I think I’m being arrested.”
Several protesters are visible in the video around him, also on the ground. After more than 10 minutes, he can be heard identifying himself as a journalist to an officer.
“I just wanted to give a heads up, I’m press, I don’t know if anybody heard that during all the commotion,” he said.
The officer said that he would need to speak with a different officer. A short time later, after several other people can be seen being led away with their hands zip-tied behind his back, police appear in the video to let others in the group, including Snyder, disperse.
Snyder referred the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker to Democrat-Gazette Managing Editor Eliza Gaines for comment on the incident.
“I honestly think that the police did not hear him,” Gaines said, noting it was very loud.
Gaines said editors had verified with the city earlier in the day that reporters would be exempt from the curfew. Gaines said Snyder was carrying credentials and showed them to police after he had made his presence known.
In response to the incident, Gaines contacted the city the following day to establish a point of contact in case other reporters were detained. She said the city was “very responsive” and immediately gave a contact’s phone number for editors to call if it happened again.
Two other journalists, Paige Cushman and Kaitlin Barger of the local ABC affiliate KATV, also were detained on the bridge while they were streaming on Facebook Live.
Arkansas State Police spokesman Bill Sadler said in an emailed statement that the journalists were “embedded” with a group of protesters who police say were damaging public and private property, and didn’t notify police that they would be with the group. According to Sadler, police were told that at least one person among the protesters had a handgun.
Sadler said police became aware of the reporters after the group had been “cordoned off” and ordered to the ground.
“Only then were voices heard in the group...claiming to be news reporters,” he said. “Once the scene was secure, and guns were removed from two individuals, police did assist the reporters in being separated from the group as they requested.”
Gaines disputed Sadler’s characterization of Snyder as “embedded” with protesters. “He was covering the protests,” she said in an email.
In its report on the incident, KATV said the journalists “repeatedly identified themselves as reporters, showed their credentials and complied with officers' orders.”
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.
Paige Cushman, a journalist with KATV, the ABC affiliate in Little Rock, Arkansas, was detained by law enforcement while covering protests in the city on June 2, 2020.
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.
At about 10 p.m., two hours past the curfew that Little Rock’s mayor had set earlier in the day, a couple hundred protesters had assembled near the Pulaski County Courthouse. According to Cushman, a small number of them started throwing water bottles at a police car and kicking the car.
Suddenly, she said, officers from multiple law enforcement agencies emerged, telling the protesters to disband and steering them away from the courthouse. Cushman said that officers were telling people to leave, but weren’t allowing them a pathway to do so.
Cushman and KATV colleague Kaitlin Barger were caught in a group being ushered toward the Arkansas River. According to Cushman, they informed multiple officers that they were journalists. Under the terms of the curfew, people, including members of the media, who were out in order to do their jobs were permitted to be on the streets.
Cushman livestreamed the march on Facebook. The video shows that at one point, after Cushman identified herself as a journalist and asked where she should go, a line of officers began to move forward, apparently herding the protesters in one direction.
“You’re out here illegally. Move,” one officer can be heard saying.
“No, we’re not. We’re authorized to be here because we’re working,” Cushman said.
Once the group of protesters was on a pedestrian bridge, police blocked both sides, Cushman explained in the livestream. Police can be seen in the video ordering everyone to get on the ground, and an officer can be heard telling them they were under arrest for violating curfew and “whatever else we can think of.” About 20 people were on the bridge, Barger told the Tracker.
After a few minutes, one officer asked if there were TV reporters present. Cushman and Barger identified themselves again and were released. Cushman said the police appeared to have received a phone call letting them know that reporters were on the bridge.
Another journalist, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette editor Josh Snyder, was also detained on the bridge but was not released at the same time as the KATV reporters, according to Cushman.
The video shows law enforcement officials in a variety of uniforms. Cushman said it was unclear what authority was responsible for detaining them. Arkansas State Police, the Little Rock Police Department and the National Guard were all present that evening, according to Cushman.
Cushman and Barger were carrying credentials that clearly identified them as KATV journalists. However, they were not wearing any of the station’s logoed gear, a decision Cushman made after protesters had been hostile toward journalists, including assaulting one KATV reporter, during previous days of demonstrations.
Cushman said she was grateful for Facebook Live, because the video she streamed of the night gave “such an unadulterated view” of what happened. While Cushman said she didn’t feel targeted by police during the arrest, she was surprised by how the law enforcement officers responded to the journalists with their badges.
“The lack of listening kind of surprised me,” she said.
Bill Sadler, a spokesperson for the Arkansas State Police, said in an email that the journalists were embedded in a group of protesters that police say were destroying public and private property. He said the reporters had not told police that they planned to be with the group. Sadler said police cordoned off the group and ordered them to the ground.
“Only then were voices heard in the group ... claiming to be news reporters,” Sadler told the Tracker. “Once the scene was secure, and guns were removed from two individuals, police did assist the reporters in being separated from the group as they requested.”
When Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson was asked during a press conference on June 3 about the detention of the journalists during the protests in the capital city, he said that police need to protect journalists and that journalists have an “important” job to do.
“They should not be arrested, but they have to be identified, and when they’re identified as a journalist, obviously, they should go about their business,” he said.
A spokesperson for the Little Rock Police Department said that the department did not detain any journalists.
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.
KATV journalist Paige Cushman was detained while covering protests in Little Rock on June 2, 2020.
",detained and released without being processed,Arkansas State Police,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,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",,, 2020-07-02 14:09:57.876319+00:00,2022-07-18 21:43:44.382294+00:00,KATV reporter detained while covering Little Rock protests,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/katv-reporter-detained-while-covering-little-rock-protests/,2022-07-18 21:43:44.317497+00:00,,,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Kaitlin Barger (KATV),,2020-06-02,False,Little Rock,Arkansas (AR),34.74648,-92.28959,"Kaitlin Barger, a digital reporter with KATV, the ABC affiliate in Little Rock, Arkansas, was detained by law enforcement while covering protests in the city on June 2, 2020.
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.
After several nights of demonstrations in Little Rock, protesters again marched through the city on June 2. Barger, partnered with Paige Cushman, another KATV journalist, followed the march, which passed by the Governor’s Mansion and ended at the Pulaski County Courthouse. In an interview with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, Cushman described the march as peaceful.
At about 10 p.m., two hours past the curfew the city’s mayor had set earlier in the day, a couple hundred protesters had assembled near the courthouse when a small number of them started throwing water bottles at a police car and kicking the car, Cushman said.
Suddenly, she said, officers from multiple law enforcement agencies emerged, telling the protesters to disband and steering them away from the courthouse. Cushman said that officers were telling people to leave, but weren’t allowing them a pathway to do so.
Barger and Cushman were caught in a group being ushered toward the Arkansas River. According to Cushman, they informed multiple officers that they were journalists. Under the terms of the curfew, people, including members of the media, who were out in order to do their jobs were permitted to be on the streets.
Cushman livestreamed the march on Facebook. Once the group of protesters was on a pedestrian bridge, police blocked both sides, Cushman explained in the livestream. Police can be seen in the video ordering everyone to get on the ground, and an officer can be heard telling them they were under arrest for violating curfew and “whatever else we can think of.” About 20 people were on the bridge, Barger told the Tracker.
While sitting on the bridge, the two reporters spoke to an officer, identifying themselves as journalists. The officer can be heard on video responding, “I don’t know you.”
They told officers that under the rules of the curfew, they were allowed to be out because they were working. “We’re on the clock,” Barger told the officers.
After a few minutes, one officer asked if there were TV reporters present. Cushman and Barger identified themselves again and were released. Cushman said the police appeared to have received a phone call letting them know that reporters were on the bridge.
Another journalist, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette editor Josh Snyder, was also detained on the bridge but was not released at the same time as the KATV reporters, according to Cushman.
The livestream shows law enforcement agents in a variety of uniforms. Cushman said it was unclear what authority was responsible for detaining them. Arkansas State Police, the Little Rock Police Department and the National Guard were all present that evening, according to Cushman.
Cushman and Barger were carrying credentials that clearly identified them as KATV journalists. However, they were not wearing any of the station’s logoed gear, a decision Cushman made after protesters had been hostile toward journalists, including assaulting one KATV reporter, during previous days of demonstrations.
Bill Sadler, a spokesperson for the Arkansas State Police, said in an email that the journalists were embedded in a group of protesters that police say were destroying public and private property. He said the reporters had not told police that they planned to be with the group. Sadler said police cordoned off the group and ordered them to the ground.
“Only then were voices heard in the group ... claiming to be news reporters,” Sadler told the Tracker. “Once the scene was secure, and guns were removed from two individuals, police did assist the reporters in being separated from the group as they requested.”
When Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson was asked during a press conference on June 3 about the detention of the journalists during the protests in the capital city, he said that police need to protect journalists and that journalists have an “important” job to do.
“They should not be arrested, but they have to be identified, and when they’re identified as a journalist, obviously, they should go about their business,” he said.
A spokesperson for the Little Rock Police Department said that the department did not detain any journalists.
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.
KATV reporter Kaitlin Barger and a colleague were detained while covering protests in Little Rock on June 2, 2020.
",detained and released without being processed,Arkansas State Police,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,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",,, 2020-07-05 21:52:00.921787+00:00,2022-05-12 21:40:41.269198+00:00,"Journalists detained, one arrested covering protest against San Francisco curfew",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalists-detained-one-arrested-covering-protest-against-san-francisco-curfew/,2022-05-12 21:40:41.206078+00:00,"curfew violation: breaking curfew order (charges dropped as of 2020-06-19), obstruction: resisting (charges dropped as of 2020-06-19), obstruction: delaying or obstructing a public officer (charges dropped as of 2020-06-19)",,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Sakura Sato (Freelance),,2020-06-02,False,San Francisco,California (CA),37.77493,-122.41942,"Police arrested freelance journalist Sakura Sato as she covered a protest against a citywide curfew in San Francisco, California, on June 2, 2020, she told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
The curfew was imposed as the city struggled to manage protests in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the United States since the end of May.
After another day of protests against police violence, nearly 20 protesters led by the Democratic Socialists of America arrived at City Hall to protest the curfew, DSA member Hope Williams told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. After recruiting more participants at City Hall, the group marched to the Hall of Justice to perform a peaceful sit-in after the 8 p.m. curfew.
Sato covered the march on her social media accounts, she told the Tracker. The dual crises of the Floyd protests and the coronavirus pandemic had recently inspired her to pursue a career in journalism, she said. But she was not on assignment for an outlet that night.
San Francisco police followed the march and formed a cordon around the protesters after they arrived at the Hall of Justice, Sheraz Sadiq, a producer for local NPR and PBS affiliate KQED who was also covering the march, told the Tracker.
Sato and Sadiq were both stuck inside the cordon as they reported on the sit-in, now about 30 people strong. Around 9:30 p.m., police warned over a megaphone that the protesters were in violation of curfew and ordered them to disperse, Sadiq said. But protesters, ignoring the warnings, responded with chants like “I don’t see no riot here. Why are you in riot gear?”
In a video tweeted by Sadiq just before 10:30, police can be seen arresting the protesters one by one. Protesters cheer in support each time it is the next protester’s turn to stand, put their hands behind their back and walk away in the custody of the San Francisco Police Department.
Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez, Sadiq’s KQED colleague who was reporting from outside the cordon, tweeted a photo of the arrests. Sato can be seen observing police take away a protester.
Shortly thereafter, Sato was also arrested. She told the Tracker that a group of officers approached her, said she was under arrest and asked if she would resist. She responded that she was a journalist. She was placed in zip ties anyway and taken to a transport vehicle.
“I said I am a member of the press, and they ignored that,” Sato said.
The city’s curfew order excluded “authorized representatives of any news service, newspaper, radio or television station or network, or other media organization.”
“The thing that really upset me was that she was obviously functioning as a reporter,” protest organizer Williams said. “There was no reason why she should’ve been arrested alongside us. It’s insane to me.”
Footage from the protest filmed by the KQED journalists and protesters show Sato always standing apart from the protesters, observing and documenting, never participating.
“The police in San Francisco in my experience are loath to make allowances for citizen journalists or for journalists in training,” Fitzgerald Rodriguez, who is also the vice president of the Northern California chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists, told the Tracker. “They tend to only respect a credentialed journalist or a journalist with a SFPD-issued press pass.”
Sato had not yet acquired press credentials. Michael Applegate, the executive officer of the Pacific Media Workers Guild, said Sato had just joined the Guild Freelancers. The union expedited sending her a press card after her arrest.
Police officers also briefly detained Sadiq after the protesters and Sato were in custody, Sadiq and Fitzgerald Rodriguez told the Tracker. Sadiq, who had a KQED press ID, was released after officers verified his credentials.
Sato told the Tracker she began to feel sick as soon as she sat down in the police transport vehicle. The zip ties constricted the blood flow to her wrists, and she began to feel weak.
Williams, who was also arrested and placed in the van, said that the protesters asked the officers to take Sato out first when they arrived at Pier 50 for processing.
Sato was given a citation on charges of violating curfew and resisting, delaying or obstructing a public officer or peace officer. An officer warned her that if she was arrested again for the same reason, she could be put in jail, she said. Her possessions, which had been confiscated upon her arrest, were returned to her, and she was released after several hours in custody.
Williams said the protesters were released on the same charges.
Rachel Marshall, a spokesperson for San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, said Sato’s case was discharged. She said Boudin “deeply values the First Amendment—including its protection of the press,” adding that Boudin supports the protests against police brutality and will not prosecute peaceful activity.
As of June 19, Sato said she had not heard official confirmation that her case was dropped.
A SFPD spokesperson said the department was reviewing body camera footage but did not respond to specific questions about Sato's arrest and Sadiq's detention by press time.
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.
Freelancer Sakura Sato, left with backpack, watches as San Francisco police take protesters into custody shortly before her own arrest on June 2, 2020.
",arrested and released,San Francisco Police Department,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,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",,, 2020-07-05 21:59:24.334354+00:00,2021-11-19 16:43:40.834291+00:00,"KQED journalist briefly detained, another journalist arrested, covering sit-in against San Francisco curfew",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/kqed-journalist-briefly-detained-another-journalist-arrested-covering-sit-against-san-francisco-curfew/,2021-11-19 16:43:40.748570+00:00,,,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Sheraz Sadiq (KQED-FM),,2020-06-02,False,San Francisco,California (CA),37.77493,-122.41942,"Police detained Sheraz Sadiq, a producer for local NPR and PBS affiliate KQED, while covering a protest against a citywide curfew in San Francisco, California, on June 2, 2020, he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
The curfew was imposed as the city struggled to manage protests in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the United States since the end of May.
After another day of protests against police violence, nearly 20 protesters led by the Democratic Socialists of America arrived at City Hall to protest the curfew, DSA member Hope Williams told the Tracker. After recruiting more participants at City Hall, the group marched to the Hall of Justice to perform a peaceful sit-in after the 8 p.m. curfew.
San Francisco police followed the march and formed a cordon around the protesters after they arrived at the Hall of Justice, Sadiq told the Tracker.
Not wanting to be confused for a protester, Sadiq showed officers his credentials and told them he was working for KQED, he said.
Around 9:30, police warned over a megaphone that the protesters were in violation of curfew and ordered them to disperse, Sadiq said. But protesters, ignoring the warnings, responded with chants like “I don’t see no riot here. Why are you in riot gear?”
Sadiq said he tried to leave the cordoned area, but an officer blocked his exit. When he identified himself as a journalist, the officer called over a sergeant.
The sergeant said Sadiq was in a “sanitized zone” and could not leave, according to Sadiq. When Sadiq told the sergeant he was a journalist, the sergeant said they would “sort it out later,” according to Sadiq.
Rebuffed on one side, Sadiq said he tried to leave on the other side of the cordon. But there, too, he was turned back. Sadiq was stuck inside the cordon with the sit-in, now about 30 people strong.
In a video tweeted by Sadiq just before 10:30, police can be seen arresting the protesters one by one. Protesters cheer in support each time it is the next protester’s turn to stand, put their hands behind their back and walk away in the custody of the San Francisco Police Department.
The city’s curfew order excluded “authorized representatives of any news service, newspaper, radio or television station or network, or other media organization.”
But freelance journalist Sakura Sato, who was also inside the cordon, was arrested with the protesters despite identifying as a journalist, she told the Tracker. Sato, who recently decided to pursue journalism, had not yet acquired press credentials.
Sadiq, who had a press ID from KQED, was treated differently. With all the protesters and Sato under arrest, only Sadiq remained inside the police cordon. Two officers approached him.
“They looked a little bit confused. They had to check with each other. Like, should we get him?” Sadiq explained. “Then I stepped back and they said, ‘Sir, you are going to have to come with us.’”
Sadiq asked why, and the officers said that he was not under arrest but detained until they could check his credentials. The officers asked if Sadiq would resist. He said no, but voiced his disagreement about what was happening, he told the Tracker.
“Joe, I’m being arrested!” Sadiq yelled out to his KQED colleague Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez, who was reporting across the street. Fitzgerald Rodriguez remained outside the cordon but was flanked by officers.
“What did I tell you?” one of the officers responded, according to Sadiq. “You’re not being arrested. You’re just being detained.”
The officers took Sadiq to a staging area, where he was asked to provide his driver’s license. Sadiq removed the face mask he was wearing to help confirm his identity, he said.
Sadiq said he asked why he was being detained, and the officers responded that he disobeyed the dispersal order. When Sadiq said he was a working journalist exempt from the curfew order, the police said that protesters had falsely been claiming to be journalists in an attempt to evade arrest.
Sadiq said he was released after about 15 minutes.
Fitzgerald Rodriguez told the Tracker that he shouted across the street trying to vouch for his detained colleague. Eventually an officer, who he believes was a sergeant, crossed the street to talk to him before returning to Sadiq.
Sato and the protesters were released with a citation on charges of violating curfew and resisting, delaying or obstructing a public officer or peace officer, Sato and Williams, the DSA member, told the Tracker.
Rachel Marshall, a spokesperson for San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, said the cases were discharged. She said Boudin “deeply values the First Amendment—including its protection of the press,” adding that Boudin supports the protests against police brutality and will not prosecute peaceful activity.
A SFPD spokesperson said the department was reviewing body camera footage but did not respond to specific questions about Sato's arrest and Sadiq's detention by press time.
Sadiq said the police treated him politely but the incident left him questioning why his detention was necessary at all.
“It’s not like this was a melee, a chaotic scene that was unfolding, and in the scrum of the confusion, they swept up everybody,” Sadiq explained. “This was a very orderly, very well-organized demonstration.”
Yet once someone is inside the police cordon, Sadiq said, they seemed to be treated “almost like an enemy combatant” that the police must “screen and verify and go through their protocols, including detention and possibly arrest.”
Sadiq, who is of South Asian heritage, said he did not see any evidence of racial prejudice during his detention. But he worried throughout that his name would end up on a list that could cause trouble in the future.
“As a person of color, especially with the protests that are engulfing the nation around racial inequity, this is a conversation or a monologue sometimes people of color have, especially when being subject to interactions with law enforcement,” Sadiq said.
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 perform a sit-in at San Francisco’s Hall of Justice on June 2, 2020, as KQED’s Sheraz Sadiq, standing right, in white sweater, documents the scene. The protesters were arrested and Sadiq was detained.
",detained and released without being processed,San Francisco Police Department,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,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",,, 2020-08-05 16:14:05.872520+00:00,2023-07-17 20:16:09.903796+00:00,Freelance journalist detained until colleague vouches for her to Los Angeles police,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-journalist-detained-until-colleague-vouches-her-los-angeles-police/,2023-07-17 20:16:09.776878+00:00,,,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Samanta Helou-Hernandez (Freelance),,2020-06-02,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"Samanta Helou-Hernandez, a freelance multimedia journalist, was detained by Los Angeles police on June 2, 2020 while covering a protest near the mayor’s residence.
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 protest in central Los Angeles began at the Getty House, the mayor’s residence, before the city-wide curfew at 6:30 p.m., Helou-Hernandez told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. Some protesters wanted to continue demonstrating past curfew and Helou-Hernandez stayed to document them. Around 7:30 p.m., about 100 protesters marched through Hancock Park before turning onto Wilshire Boulevard where they were met by police in riot gear.
Helou-Hernandez followed the group of protesters onto a side street. Someone yelled, “they’re shooting,” and Helou-Hernandez said she followed a smaller contingent of around a dozen people onto another side street, where they were cornered by officers with the Los Angeles Police Department. Helou-Hernandez was cuffed with zip ties. When she told the police that she was press, they moved her aside. She explained that she didn’t have press credentials because she was a freelancer and offered to show LAPD her clips and website on her phone.
According to Helou-Hernandez, an officer said something to the effect of, “If you’re press, why did you run away from us? You should have run toward us” if you thought there was shooting. At this point, Helou-Hernandez and protesters were brought to a second location to join a larger group of about 20-30 handcuffed protesters. The officers called their names and directed them to form lines. The group was sent to a third location on 8th and Crenshaw where buses would take them to the precinct.
Lexis-Olivier Ray, a journalist for L.A. Taco, was at 8th and Crenshaw documenting arrests. Ray was already in touch with a police supervisor because he and an L.A. Taco colleague had been barred from crossing the police line. Ray heard Helou-Hernandez calling his name.
“I grabbed the attention of the supervisor who I had been talking to already ... and I bring his attention to the fact that my friend and fellow journalist Sami is in custody,” Ray said. He also showed the LAPD her website and clips.
At 9:36 p.m. Ray tweeted a video of Helou-Hernandez in zip ties with the caption, “My friend and fellow journalist @Samanta_Helou is currently in custody. @LAPDHQ is trying to verify her identity. We've shown them her work for @kcet @curbed @laist @lataco.”
My friend and fellow journalist @Samanta_Helou is currently in custody. @LAPDHQ is trying to verify her identity. We've shown them her work for @kcet @curbed @laist @lataco. pic.twitter.com/ttLPiynnGU
— Lexis-Olivier Ray (@ShotOn35mm) June 3, 2020
Ray was told that the media relations officer would make a decision regarding whether Helou-Hernandez would be taken into custody. After 20-30 minutes, the media relations officer arrived and Helou-Hernandez was released.
Helou-Hernandez was not given a certificate of release, but estimates that she was in custody for 90 minutes. At 10:02 p.m. she tweeted that she had been released. The LAPD did not respond to a request for comment.
“Had I not seen a colleague I would have ultimately been taken on the bus downtown,” Helou-Hernandez 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 Black Lives Matter protests across the country. Find these incidents here.
Detroit Free Press reporter Darcie Moran had her hands zip-tied and was flung to the ground by Detroit police while reporting on protests in the city on June 2, 2020, the reporter told the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Moran said that she was working on a story about police tactics and observed police blocking a line of protesters on Gratiot Avenue and an armored vehicle coming up from behind the protesters.
Moran said she was standing on a grassy area with other reporters near the Family Dollar store at 10950 Gratiot Avenue while the protesters were in the streets. She stepped slightly away from the group to get a better glimpse of the protesters.
“All of a sudden there was a rush to my right and I can’t say exactly what happened because it was a little bit of a blur,” she said, stating that protesters might have run up to the curb between the grassy area and the street.
“What I do know is that police started coming up from the side and not from the spots that we had been facing,” she said. “I turned and as I go to lift up my press badge that’s hanging on my chest, I am pushed to the ground and they start putting me in zip ties,” she said.
Moran said she had a respirator on at the time and so wasn’t sure if police could hear her yell, “I’m media, I’m media!” Moran said her colleagues behind her were yelling that she was a member of the media and for police to release her once she was on the ground.
Moran’s colleagues posted a video of the incident online. “You can see in the video that he allows me to put my phone in my back pocket,” Moran said.
Another officer walked up and instructed his colleague to release Moran, the journalist said. Moran said that until she saw the video, she didn’t realize that her second hand was in the process of being zip-tied when the police officer intervened.
“What’s interesting about this is they had released media passes for these events two nights prior,” Moran said. “[I] had a giant one printed out and used duck tape to strap it on my back, so it was a very large sign that a number of people pointed out would have been visible as I was on the ground being zip-tied,” she told CPJ, a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
Moran said that the officer who ended the confrontation helped her up from the ground, apologized and then found her later to apologize again. Moran said she had a scratch and some back and ankle pain the next day.
Detroit police did not respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment.
Tampa Bay Times reporter Jay Cridlin was detained on June 2, 2020, while covering a protest in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Protesters had gathered in St. Petersburg and in cities across the U.S. to denounce police brutality following the death of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25.
The Times reported that Cridlin was covering demonstrations outside police headquarters on First Avenue North when protesters were ordered to disperse. St. Petersburg police officers and Pinellas County sheriff’s deputies then advanced on the crowd to make arrests. Cridlin was detained by a sheriff’s deputy, who placed his hands in zip ties.
A St. Petersburg police spokesperson told the Times that Chief Anthony Holloway recognized Cridlin and had a deputy free him right away.
Cridlin told the Times that Holloway, Mayor Rick Kriseman and Sheriff Bob Gualtieri reached out to apologize the following day. Gualtieri also said he was looking into the incident.
“You guys have a role. This has nothing to do with the media,” Gualtieri said. “It was clearly accidental, and we just need to avoid it.”
In a statement the following day, Times Executive Editor Mark Katches objected to the detentions of Cridlin and a second Times journalist, Divya Kumar, in Tampa on June 3. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documented Kumar’s arrest here.
“Journalists need to be able to do our jobs and report the news without being harassed, detained, intimidated or harmed by law enforcement,” Katches said.
The Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find these incidents here.
Derrick Broze, co-host of Free Thinker Radio on 90.1 KPFT and a freelance reporter, was arrested in downtown Houston, Texas, while documenting protests on June 2, 2020, according to his and other news accounts of events.
Protests in Houston were held in response to the death of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd grew up in Houston’s Third Ward and lived in Texas until around 2014, Texas Monthly magazine reported.
In a video posted to Facebook, Broze narrates that protesters were near the intersection of McKinney Street and Avenida De Las Americas when some individuals began throwing bottles at a dense line of advancing officers.
A few minutes later, Broze can be heard saying, “They’re coming on both sides, they’re closing us in.”
In an account written for The Last American Vagabond, Broze said that he had been documenting the protests for approximately five hours before police declared the demonstration an unlawful assembly.
“The police – dressed in riot gear and armed with live ammunition – surrounded the protesters, medics, and yours truly using a tactic known as ‘kettling,’” Broze wrote. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented the arrests and assaults of other journalists within kettles here.
Houston police officers surrounded the group of around 50 protesters and began “violently rushing into the crowd and grabbing people,” according to Broze’s account.
“During the chaos I told several officers I was press documenting the situation,” he wrote. “I was told over and over that I should take it up with the courts.”
In Broze’s footage, he can be heard identifying himself as a member of the press multiple times and asking whether he can be released from the kettle or speak to a public information officer.
Broze tweeted the following day that he was among the individuals “snatched” and thrown to the ground when placed under arrest. His footage of the incident ends before he is placed under arrest.
Broze added that he was charged with “obstructing a highway/passageway.”
breaking the law. However, me and the other 2 dozen people I was kidnapped with were kettled in by the police as they violently snatched protesters, throwing some to the ground, including me. I was charged with "obstructing a highway/passageway" for being on the sidewalk.
— Derrick Broze (@DBrozeLiveFree) June 3, 2020
In his account of the incident, Broze wrote that he was taken to Harris County Jail and held there for 16 hours.
The Houston Police Department did not respond to a voicemail requesting comment.
Broze wrote, “As a journalist (and an opponent of police violence) I will continue to document the George Floyd protests and other important movements in the United States.”
The Harris County District Attorney’s Office dismissed nearly 800 charges on June 9 against individuals at demonstrations “in the interest of justice,” the Houston Chronicle reported. The DA’s office did not respond to a request to verify that the arrest charges against Broze were among those dropped, but the Tracker is marking as such barring further information.
The Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find these incidents here.
Protesters march at a rally for George Floyd on June 2, 2020, in Houston, Texas.
",arrested and released,Houston Police Department,2020-06-03,None,True,None,[],None,None,False,None,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, kettle, protest",,, 2020-12-01 20:58:13.299843+00:00,2022-11-08 21:08:24.310402+00:00,NBC Bay Area reporter detained by police while covering Oakland protests,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/nbc-bay-area-reporter-detained-police-while-covering-oakland-protests/,2022-11-08 21:08:24.242708+00:00,,,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Terry McSweeney (KNTV),,2020-06-02,False,Oakland,California (CA),37.80437,-122.2708,"NBC Bay Area reporter and anchor Terry McSweeney was handcuffed and temporarily detained by police while filming an arrest during a protest in Oakland, California, on June 2, 2020.
Protests in Oakland were held for several days in early June amid a national wave of demonstrations against racism and police brutality in response to the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other Black people at the hands of police.
McSweeney and an NBC Bay Area videographer were covering the demonstration as protesters started to march from City Hall to the Oakland Police Department, McSweeney told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. The videographer followed protesters on foot and McSweeney drove a station van up the street to meet him, he said.
As McSweeney turned onto 11th Street from Broadway, he came up behind a van that was stopped in the middle of the street, while police detained two people on the sidewalk next to the vehicle. McSweeney said he began recording the scene on his cellphone from inside the van.
McSweeney said an officer came up to the van — which was clearly marked as belonging to the NBC Bay Area news station — tapped on the hood, and told him to leave. McSweeney said he told the officer he was with the media, but the officer again directed McSweeney to leave and said he would be arrested if he didn’t. When McSweeney responded that he believed he had a right to be there, the officer told him to get out of the van.
The officer took McSweeney’s phone and put his wrists in handcuffs, McSweeney said.
He asked the officer why he was detaining him, and the officer replied, “I told you to move.”
The officer who detained him then asked another police officer to walk McSweeney up to a street corner about a block away, according to McSweeney.
McSweeney said the second officer asked if he was OK and offered to loosen the cuffs. After stepping away for a moment, the officer removed the handcuffs and again walked away. McSweeney said he waited at the corner for about 10 minutes on his own, before the second officer returned and told him he could go. Police returned McSweeney’s phone, and he drove away.
McSweeney said he immediately called NBC Bay Area’s news director to alert his colleagues to the incident, and the news station has been in contact with the Oakland Police Department. He didn’t file an official complaint with the department about the incident.
Oakland Police Department Public Information Officer Johnna Watson told the Tracker the department was made aware of the incident shortly after it happened, and said it was a concern for the department and the relationship between police and journalists. She said the department reviewed the incident and communicated with McSweeney and newsroom supervisors at NBC Bay Area about it, and met with other media outlets in the region about media policies.
“We fully support the journalism and the reporting of journalists. It is really important for us to allow the access to ensure that our media is able to report on what is going on. We want to have that access and that reporting without any barriers,” Watson said.
Watson said the vehicle stop McSweeney came across was associated with the investigation into the shooting death of a federal agent in Oakland on May 29, and was considered a “high risk” situation. She said no officers were disciplined related to McSweeney’s detention, however, the department did go over media policy training with officers involved with protests after the incident.
McSweeney said he was skeptical about the police department’s comments that officers needed more training, noting that the department deals frequently with protest coverage.
“There was no misunderstanding whatsoever,” McSweeney said. “I told him exactly who I was, who I was with, he knew who I was with and he understood that. And he detained me anyway and took me away from the scene.”
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.
Police briefly detained KPIX 5 News reporter Katie Nielsen while she was documenting protests in Oakland, California, on June 1, 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.
Nielsen told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was documenting a peaceful protest organized by Oakland Tech High School students. Approximately 15,000 people had gathered with a plan to march to the Oakland Police Department on 7th Street, but were stopped by a police barricade a block away.
“Protesters started yelling. Officers masked up, and as soon as a protester threw something across the police line, they fired back with tear gas and flash bangs,” Nielsen said.
Police gave dispersal warnings as the 8 p.m. curfew approached; Nielsen said that about a dozen protesters were still in the area at curfew, and police rushed in to make arrests.
“I was grabbed by an officer and told to put my hands behind my back. I kept repeating that I was a reporter and had my credentials right here, visible,” Nielsen said.
A second officer approached her, but walked away after he heard that she was a reporter. The initial officer continued to walk her into the middle of the intersection and handcuffed her.
“The photographer I was with, Erin Baldassari, was not just a few feet away shooting everything that was happening to me,” Nielsen said. “They just held me there standing in the middle of the intersection.”
Police rushed in and started arresting everyone present pic.twitter.com/jATY8xjasM
— Erin Baldassari (@e_baldi) June 2, 2020
Five to ten minutes later, a police lieutenant approached Nielsen, verified her credentials and released her without charges, she said. Nielsen said she was only in custody for a few minutes, but, “it was enough to keep us from reporting and shooting the arrests that were happening with the protesters.”
In an interview on KPIX 5 News after the incident, Oakland Police spokesperson Johnna Watson apologized to Nielsen for the arrest.
Here is the 11pm story about the protest, my detainment, and a statement from OPD regarding the incident. pic.twitter.com/mg9FRaYnz0
— Katie Nielsen (@KatieKPIX) June 2, 2020
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.
Police in Oakland, California, detain KPIX 5 News reporter Katie Nielsen on June 1, 2020. The interaction was captured by another photographer with whom Nielsen was documenting protests in the city.
",detained and released without being processed,Oakland Police Department,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,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",,, 2020-06-09 13:52:37.487049+00:00,2023-08-18 19:30:04.313530+00:00,"Asbury Park Press journalist arrested covering protests, released the next day",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/asbury-park-press-journalist-arrested-covering-protests-released-next-day/,2023-08-18 19:30:04.165304+00:00,rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2020-06-02),,"(2020-07-13 07:14:00+00:00) Reporter sues New Jersey police following investigation that cleared officers of wrongdoing, (2023-06-08 10:27:00+00:00) Reporter settles civil suit against New Jersey police","Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault",,,,Gustavo Martínez Contreras (Asbury Park Press),,2020-06-01,False,Asbury Park,New Jersey (NJ),40.22039,-74.01208,"Gustavo Martínez Contreras, a multimedia journalist with the New Jersey daily Asbury Park Press, was arrested while covering an anti-police violence protest in Asbury Park on the night of June 1, 2020. He was released after spending the night in custody.
The city of Asbury Park had imposed an 8 p.m. curfew ahead of planned protests, part of the national wave of unrest since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody on May 25. The curfew, which explicitly excluded credentialed media, did not stop protesters from marching, according to the Asbury Park Press.
Throughout the night, Martínez posted videos of the protest in Asbury Park on Twitter. In his last video, Martínez captured his own arrest while livestreaming.
The video, posted around 10 p.m., shows a suddenly tense scene compared to his previous footage. Asbury Park police began to enforce the curfew by advancing in riot gear and making arrests. A police officer shoved Martínez, apologized with no explanation, and returned attention to protesters.
Minutes later on the feed, Martínez filmed police arresting two young protesters when two police officers approached him shouting “Go home” and “This shit is fucking over.” A third police officer off-screen said “Fuck him, he’s the problem” and tackled Martínez to the ground. “You're under arrest. Put your fucking hands behind your back," the officer said. The video then cut out.
In a personal account on the Press website, Martínez wrote that one police officer yelled “take down his fucking phone” and slapped it out of his hand. Police escorted him to a van transporting arrested protesters.
On the way to the van, an officer asked Martínez what was hanging around his neck, Martínez wrote. His press badge, he replied. It was one of several times Martínez identified himself as a journalist to the police before, during, and after his arrest.
The van took the prisoners to Belmar Police Department. Martínez told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that a plainclothes officer asked him if he knew about or had any interaction at the protest with the radical left-wing activist movement antifa, a group President Donald Trump vowed to declare a terrorist organization, even though he reportedly may lack the legal authority to do so. Martínez said he was familiar with the group because of his work as a journalist. He said the officer warned him to avoid antifa because it is a terrorist organization.
Martínez was released the following morning after five hours in custody, he wrote. Police returned his belongings, including his phone, backpack, safety goggles, and helmet.
Martínez had been booked on charges of failing to obey an order to disperse, according to a summons posted on the Monmouth County Prosecutor Office’s Facebook page. The charges were quickly dropped by morning. The police request to dismiss the charge, also posted on the prosecutor’s Facebook page, claimed that Martínez had failed to identify as a reporter, which Martínez disputes.
The Asbury Park Police and the Belmar Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
On Twitter, New Jersey State Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal pledged to “figure out why this happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again [because] in America, we don’t lock up reporters for doing their job.”
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.
Kristen Graham, a reporter for the daily Philadelphia Inquirer, was temporarily detained on June 1, 2020, by police while returning home from reporting post-curfew, her paper reported.
Graham was one of three journalists similarly detained that night in Philadelphia. Reporter Jeff Neiburg and photographer Jenna Miller of Wilmington’s The News Journal and Delaware Online were also arrested by Philadelphia police as they attempted to return home after the 6 p.m. curfew, the outlet reported.
Their respective outlets said the three journalists were reporting on protests that began in Minnesota on May 26 and 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.
Graham, a Pulitzer Prize-winning education reporter, volunteered to cover the protests that day, she said in a personal account written for the Inquirer. Police deployed tear gas around 5 p.m. into a crowd near Graham. She continued to report despite the stinging in her eyes.
As the curfew set in by 6 p.m. and the protesters dissipated, Graham wrote that she decided to walk back to her car near the Inquirer office. After passing dozens of police officers, one approached her to ask where she was going. The officer urged her to keep her press credentials prominently displayed. So she did.
After she photographed some police buses near City Hall, another officer told her she was not allowed there. So Graham turned around to walk the other way around the building.
A minute later, she wrote, two officers confronted her and put her hands behind her back. Despite Graham trying to explain she was a reporter, the officers cuffed her in zip ties. Graham told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the officers placed her helmet and phone inside her backpack.
The curfew order explicitly excludes working media as essential personnel. But Graham told the Tracker that the officers “brushed aside” her explanation that she was working as a journalist.
Graham wrote in her account for the Inquirer that she was brought to an empty bus that soon was filled with more than 20 women, including Miller from The News Journal. Like Graham, Miller and Neiburg were detained near City Hall and brought to buses segregated by gender, Neiburg said in an interview with the local radio station 97.5 The Fanatic. The journalists, with the other detainees, were then driven to the 22nd District Headquarters.
Graham told the Tracker that she was brought into the station for processing. But a police supervisor told the officers there was no room and ordered her taken back to the bus.
For two hours, the journalists remained on the buses, their outlets reported. In her Inquirer account, Graham described how the buses were not air conditioned and one woman urinated herself after not being allowed to use the bathroom. Another woman had a medical emergency and was eventually taken to receive medical care.
An officer informed the detainees on Graham and Miller’s bus they would be issued citations for violating the curfew and released by the end of the night, both journalists said.
Graham wrote in the Inquirer that she was eventually able to maneuver her hands in order to send texts to her husband and editor on her smartwatch. A lawyer for the Inquirer contacted city officials. Around 9 p.m., the journalists were released without charge but with an apology from officials.
City spokesperson Mike Dunn told the Tracker that Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney is “extremely troubled” by the detentions and has called some of the journalists. Both Mayor Kenney and Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw “are strongly committed to allowing press access so the public can be fully informed,” Dunn said.
Toward that end, Dunn said Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw ordered an investigation into the detentions. And police protocols that ensure “properly credentialed press are essential workers and not subject to restrictions of a curfew, as long as they are not impeding public safety or police operations […] have been reiterated repeatedly in internal communications to officers.”
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. Find all of these cases here.
Cincinnati police temporarily detained Enquirer journalist Pat Brennan as he covered protests against police violence in the Over-The-Rhine neighborhood on June 1, 2020.
Brennan told the Tracker that he normally covers professional soccer but has reported on many police scenes in his career. With a short staff due to furloughs, he was recruited to help cover the protests that swept through Cincinnati and the rest of the nation after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody on May 25.
Cincinnati police began to enforce a curfew shortly after 8 p.m., the paper reported. A video provided by Brennan shows a SWAT vehicle advancing as a loudspeaker blares warnings to leave the streets or face arrest. Protesters run away from the police line. Brennan decided to stay put, identify as a journalist, and let the police pass, he told the Tracker.
His colleague Maddie Mitchell told the Enquirer that Brennan was separated from the group and she called out to him to rejoin. But he suddenly disappeared from view as he crossed behind a police vehicle.
Brennan had crossed behind the vehicle on the orders of the police, his video shows. Brennan records police arresting two people. One officer tells Brennan to “do what you want but back up.” Brennan says he is trying to reconnect with his crew. An officer says to go on the other side of the vehicle. So Brennan crossed to the other side of the street and sought a way to reconnect with his colleagues, he told the Tracker.
The detention was captured in two videos filmed by other media present.
Courtney Francisco, a senior journalist with the local ABC affiliate WCPO, posted on her social media a video that begins moments before police took Brennan into custody.
In the video, two police officers warn Francisco and the WCPO crew to leave the area. “Sir, we are with the news,” she says. “I know but we need space,” one officer responds before warning her again to get back.
Within a minute, the camera swings towards a commotion and records at least seven officers taking Brennan to the ground. As an officer pulls out plastic restraints to cuff Brennan, Francisco gets quickly caught up herself. The two police officers who previously warned her begin shoving her backwards. The officers force the crew around the corner of a building and out of sight of Brennan.
“They were pushing very hard and very fast. I couldn’t keep up,” she says to the camera.
Nick Swartsell, a journalist on furlough from the Cincinnati CityBeat, posted a video on Twitter showing Brennan walk by a police SWAT vehicle toward the police line. Police officers stop Brennan, who is wearing a mask, goggles, and a badge around his neck. A police loudspeaker blares “He’s been told” before the officers take him to the ground.
Brennan told the Tracker he did his best to avoid face-planting as one officer stuck his leg out to trip him. He collapsed to the ground with the officers, who shoved his cheek into the pavement and cuffed him. Police then brought him to a wall where others were being held.
The police released Brennan from custody without charge after 30 minutes, according to the Enquirer.
That night Brennan said on Twitter that he had a “respectful conversation” with Cincinnati’s chief of police, Eliot Isaac. Brennan told the Tracker that Isaac arrived on scene and immediately went to apologize to Brennan.
The police department apologized on Twitter for “any inconvenience” regarding Brennan’s detention and Francisco’s removal from the area. According to Swartsell, Isaac said Brennan “got mixed up in the crowd,” claiming he was wearing goggles and a mask without an obvious ID.
Lt. Steve Saunders, a spokesman for the Cincinnati police department, told the Tracker on June 10 that the department had entered ongoing conversations with media outlets to help better identify journalists and ensure they can report while not interfering in police operations. “If we can do things better, we want to do things better,” he said, while insisting that this applies to journalists, too.
Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley also apologized on Twitter, calling the arrest a “big mistake” and stating that reporters are crucial to democracy.
Francisco and Swartsell did not respond to emailed 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 related to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Find all of these cases here.
While documenting protests in Cincinnati, journalists with ABC affiliate WCPO captured multiple officers forcing Cincinnati Enquirer journalist Pat Brennan to the ground to detain him.
",detained and released without being processed,Cincinnati Police Department,None,None,True,None,None,None,None,False,None,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",,, 2020-06-16 13:50:58.737920+00:00,2021-11-19 16:10:55.106420+00:00,"Atlanta photographer detained, released after intervention by other journalists",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/atlanta-photographer-detained-released-after-intervention-other-journalists/,2021-11-19 16:10:55.043336+00:00,,,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Alyssa Pointer (Atlanta Journal-Constitution),,2020-06-01,False,Atlanta,Georgia (GA),33.749,-84.38798,"Officers from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources temporarily detained Atlanta Journal-Constitution photographer Alyssa Pointer as she covered protests in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 1, 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.
Pointer told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she’d been following a group of protesters marching near City Hall when she realized they intended to try to get on the interstate south of the state Capitol. She heard an officer instruct others to arrest any protester who tried to go down an embankment toward the interstate, she said.
As the Georgia State Patrol began to make arrests, Pointer said she continued to photograph the scene. After she captured the arrest of two young women, an officer from the DNR demanded to know what she was doing.
The department, which usually provides law enforcement for outdoor recreation, was one of several state and local agencies assisting the Atlanta Police Department that day, DNR spokesperson Mark McKinnon told the Tracker.
Pointer responded that she was a journalist with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and said she was heading back up the embankment. Pointer’s press badge hung clearly visible around her neck, she said.
“I don’t care. You’re being detained,” the DNR officer said, according to Pointer. Two other officers followed that order and proceeded to detain her.
McKinnon said that two Atlanta Police Department officers told DNR officers to arrest everyone in the area where protesters were blocking traffic on the highway. DNR officers detained Pointer as part of that group.
Pointer told the Tracker that the officers were not able to handcuff her due to all of her equipment. So they took her two cameras and backpack and placed her in plastic restraints. They then hung her cameras around her neck.
Journalists walking among the protesters found Pointer sitting with her back against the support of an underpass surrounded by several DNR officers. In a livestream video by NBC affiliate 11Alive, reporter Doug Richards spots Pointer and asks, “Whoa, is that Alyssa?”
Two other journalists were already filming Pointer and talking to the officers. “She’s with the AJC!” Richards shouts in the video. A DNR officer responds that he did not know who detained her or why.
“It’s as if the story of these guys is that someone cuffed her and then walked away,” Richards explains to his livestream audience.
A DNR officer, seeing Pointer’s press badge, asked her who detained her. She said she did not know, because the initial officer had left after giving the order. An officer then left to search for his colleague, she said.
Pointer told the Tracker that one officer offered to write down a phone number for her to call once she was taken to jail. “I kept telling him I’m not going,” Pointer said, repeating that she was a journalist. “But they weren’t listening.”
McKinnon said a DNR supervisor ordered her release after Pointer provided evidence that she was a journalist.
Pointer’s restraints were removed; she’d been detained for approximately 10 minutes.
“Bottom line, I was going to jail if the journalists weren’t there,” Pointer told the Tracker.
Pointer gathered her things and immediately headed up the street to catch up with the protest. She had a job to do, she said.
Pointer told the Tracker it was frustrating to know the officers were not listening to her as a journalist or as a black woman.
“I’m not afraid, but there’s all this legacy of why I possibly should be,” she said. “So listen to a journalist when they tell you who they are. Don’t detain us. Let’s have a conversation.”
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.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution photographer Alyssa Pointer was detained while covering protests in Atlanta on June 1, 2020. Three other journalists intervened on her behalf until she was released.
",detained and released without being processed,Atlanta Police Department,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,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",,, 2020-06-17 03:06:19.728001+00:00,2021-11-19 16:19:33.698204+00:00,News Journal photographer one of three journalists detained by Philadelphia police past curfew,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/news-journal-photographer-one-three-journalists-detained-philadelphia-police-past-curfew/,2021-11-19 16:19:33.636010+00:00,,,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Jenna Miller (The News Journal and Delaware Online),,2020-06-01,False,Philadelphia,Pennsylvania (PA),39.95233,-75.16379,"Two journalists working for Wilmington’s The News Journal and Delaware Online were temporarily detained on June 1, 2020, the outlet reported. Philadelphia police arrested photographer Jenna Miller and reporter Jeff Neiburg as they returned home from reporting around 7 p.m., after the 6 p.m. curfew, Miller said in a tweet.
A third journalist was similarly detained that night in Philadelphia. Kristen Graham, a reporter for the daily Philadelphia Inquirer, was also arrested by police as she attempted to return to her car soon after the curfew, the paper reported.
Their respective outlets said the three journalists were reporting on protests that began in Minnesota on May 26 and 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.
After the curfew set in by 6 p.m. and the protesters dispersed, Miller and Neiburg decided to go home and file their reporting, Neiburg said in an interview with the local radio station 97.5 The Fanatic. Miller’s bike was parked near police headquarters, so they headed in that direction.
They asked a police officer how to get there safely, who instructed the journalists to walk around the south side of City Hall, Neiburg said in the radio interview. As they walked, they saw police officers arresting people.
The journalists held their press credentials in the air, Neiburg said in the radio interview.
“They’re going to round you up, they’re going to round you up,” a group of officers warned the journalists. One of the police officers started to escort Miller and Neiburg out of concern they would be arrested, Neiburg said in the radio interview.
But two other officers interceded and overruled her, Neiburg said. The journalists were to be detained.
Miller said in a tweet after her release that they repeatedly identified themselves as journalists and showed their press credentials. But officers claimed they were under orders to detain everyone.
“I don’t believe you,” one officer told the journalists, in reference to their press credentials, according to Neiburg.
Miller and Neiburg were placed in plastic restraints and escorted to gender segregated buses, Neiburg said in the radio interview.
Graham wrote in her account for the Inquirer that she was also arrested near City Hall and brought to an empty bus that soon was filled with more than 20 women, including Miller from The News Journal. The journalists, with the other detainees, were then driven to the 22nd District Headquarters.
For two hours, the journalists remained on the buses, their outlets reported. In her Inquirer account, Graham described how the buses were not air conditioned and one woman urinated herself after not being allowed to use the bathroom. Another woman had a medical emergency and was eventually taken to receive medical care.
An officer informed the detainees on Graham and Miller’s bus they would be issued citations for violating the curfew and released by the end of the night, both journalists said.
Graham wrote in the Inquirer that she was eventually able to maneuver her hands in order to send texts to her husband and editor on her smartwatch. A lawyer for the Inquirer contacted city officials. Around 9 p.m., the journalists were released without charge but with an apology from officials.
City spokesperson Mike Dunn told the Tracker that Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney is “extremely troubled” by the detentions and has called some of the journalists. Both Mayor Kenney and Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw “are strongly committed to allowing press access so the public can be fully informed,” Dunn said.
Toward that end, Dunn said Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw ordered an investigation into the detentions. And police protocols that ensure “properly credentialed press are essential workers and not subject to restrictions of a curfew, as long as they are not impeding public safety or police operations […] have been reiterated repeatedly in internal communications to officers.”
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. Find all of these cases here.
Two journalists working for Wilmington’s The News Journal and Delaware Online were temporarily detained on June 1, 2020, the outlet reported. Philadelphia police arrested reporter Jeff Neiburg and photographer Jenna Miller as they returned home from reporting around 7 p.m., after the 6 p.m. curfew, Miller said in a tweet.
A third journalist was similarly detained that night in Philadelphia. Kristen Graham, a reporter for the daily Philadelphia Inquirer, was also arrested by police as she attempted to return to her car soon after the curfew, the paper reported.
Their respective outlets said the three journalists were reporting on protests that began in Minnesota on May 26 and 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.
As the curfew set in by 6 p.m. and the protesters dispersed, Miller and Neiburg decided to go home and file their reporting, Neiburg said in an interview with the local radio station 97.5 The Fanatic. Miller’s bike was parked near police headquarters, so they headed in that direction.
They asked a police officer how to get there safely, who instructed the journalists to walk around the south side of City Hall, Neiburg said in the radio interview. As they walked, they saw police officers arresting people.
The journalists held their press credentials in the air, Neiburg said in the radio interview.
“They’re going to round you up, they’re going to round you up,” a group of officers warned the journalists. One of the police officers started to escort Miller and Neiburg out of concern they would be arrested, Neiburg said in the radio interview.
But two other officers interceded and overruled her, Neiburg said. The journalists were to be detained.
Miller said in a tweet after her release that they repeatedly identified themselves as journalists and showed their press credentials. But officers claimed they were under orders to detain everyone.
“I don’t believe you,” one officer told the journalists, in reference to their press credentials, according to Neiburg.
Miller and Neiburg were placed in plastic restraints and escorted to gender segregated buses, Neiburg said in the radio interview.
Graham wrote in her account for the Inquirer that she was also arrested near City Hall and brought to an empty bus that soon was filled with more than 20 women, including Miller from The News Journal. The journalists, with the other detainees, were then driven to the 22nd District Headquarters.
For two hours, the journalists remained on the buses, their outlets reported. In her Inquirer account, Graham described how the buses were not air conditioned and one woman urinated herself after not being allowed to use the bathroom. Another woman had a medical emergency and was eventually taken to receive medical care.
An officer informed the detainees on Graham and Miller’s bus they would be issued citations for violating the curfew and released by the end of the night, both journalists said.
Graham wrote in the Inquirer that she was eventually able to maneuver her hands in order to send texts to her husband and editor on her smartwatch. A lawyer for the Inquirer contacted city officials. Around 9 p.m., the journalists were released without charge but with an apology from officials.
City spokesperson Mike Dunn told the Tracker that Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney is “extremely troubled” by the detentions and has called some of the journalists. Both Mayor Kenney and Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw “are strongly committed to allowing press access so the public can be fully informed,” Dunn said.
Toward that end, Dunn said Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw ordered an investigation into the detentions. And police protocols that ensure “properly credentialed press are essential workers and not subject to restrictions of a curfew, as long as they are not impeding public safety or police operations […] have been reiterated repeatedly in internal communications to officers.”
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. Find all of these cases here.
Michelle Renne Leach, a freelance journalist on assignment for the Daily Beast, was briefly detained by police in Omaha, Nebraska, while covering a protest against police violence on June 1, 2020, she told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
Leach was one of at least six journalists who were either detained, searched or aggressively confronted by law enforcement while covering the protest that evening, according to several journalists on the ground that night.
For days, Omaha officials had struggled to respond to escalating protests that began in Minnesota on May 26 and 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.
Protesters once again gathered on June 1 after Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine announced that a white bar owner would not be charged in the fatal shooting of a 22-year-old black man two days earlier, according to The Associated Press. Kleine said the bar owner had fired in self-defense.
The Daily Beast had contacted Leach to report on the developing story, she told the Tracker. When she arrived at the protest, Leach found a calm scene. But things escalated quickly as an 8 p.m. curfew drew close, she said.
Several hundred protesters peacefully engaged with police and National Guardsmen only a block away from the location of the bar shooting in the Old Market area, according to news reports.
After protesters and law enforcement took a knee together, Deputy Police Chief Ken Kanger attempted to escort a large group of the remaining protesters out of the area so they could return home for curfew, according to the Omaha World-Herald. But a water bottle was thrown, pepper balls were fired and the chaos of mass arrests quickly enveloped the block.
Leach told the Tracker she captured an image of police cuffing a kneeling protester right before she, too, was detained. She said one of the arresting officers knew she was a journalist because she had talked to him earlier to get estimates of the number of protesters and officers.
“I was just confused that I was even being arrested because he knew I was just trying to do my job,” Leach said.
The police cuffed Leach in plastic restraints and placed her phone and notebook into her bag. She said at least two officers then led her to a fenced area across the street where they were holding others in custody. They then searched her belongings.
Leach repeatedly insisted she was a journalist throughout her detention and search of her belongings.
At least five other journalists were caught up in the police action as well. The Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests here.
The incidents occurred despite the curfew explicitly excluding "members of the media.” As police waited to transport the arrested protesters, they asked members of the media to leave the area, World-Herald reporter Mike Sautter told the Tracker. The block was “like a crime scene,” the police said.
The detained journalists, including Leach, were eventually released.
Police took Leach away from the other protesters to investigate whether she was a journalist, she told the Tracker. She did not have press credentials.
“I don’t know how much it really would have mattered,” she said, citing the treatment of the other journalists. “The onus really fell on me to show them all of my work and prove who I was.”
After examining Leach’s online portfolio, officers found a National Guardsman to cut off her restraints, she said. The officers told her to hold onto them and gave her a slip of paper to show to any other law enforcement official who might try to arrest her for a curfew violation as she returned home.
Leach said that only upon returning home, her hands tingling and numb, did she realize how tight the restraints had been tied.
Lieutenant 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."
Major Scott Ingalsbe, a spokesperson for the Nebraska National Guard, told the Tracker, “Once National Guardsmen and law enforcement were able to quickly and correctly identify members of the news media, they were released without arrest.”
"We appreciate the work journalists do and the service they provide to our community," Ingalsbe said. He added that he had personally reached out to outlets covering the protests and has yet to hear any indications the National Guard harmed them or interfered with their work.
Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert did not respond to request for comment.
Two days after the protest, the prosecutor reversed course on the shooting case, according to news reports. A grand jury would review the case after all.
Freelance journalist Michelle Renne Leach reports on anti-police violence protests in Omaha, Nebraska, on June 1, 2020, before being detained later in the day.
",detained and released without being processed,Omaha Police Department,None,None,True,None,[],None,None,False,None,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",,, 2020-06-22 03:53:01.303842+00:00,2024-02-29 19:37:59.620713+00:00,Freelance journalist caught up in a wave of arrests in Omaha,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-journalist-caught-wave-arrests-omaha/,2024-02-29 19:37:59.496301+00:00,,,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Megan Feeney (Freelance),,2020-06-01,False,Omaha,Nebraska (NE),41.25626,-95.94043,"Freelance reporter Megan Feeney was briefly detained by police in Omaha, Nebraska, as she covered a protest against police violence on June 1, 2020, she told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
Feeney was on assignment for public outlets NET News and America Amplified, she wrote in an article for NET News, home to Nebraska’s PBS and NPR stations.
Feeney was one of at least six journalists who were either detained, searched or aggressively confronted by law enforcement while covering the protest that evening, according to several journalists on the ground that night.
For days, Omaha officials had struggled to respond to escalating protests that began in Minnesota on May 26 and 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.
Protesters once again gathered on June 1 after Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine announced that a white bar owner would not be charged in the fatal shooting of a 22-year-old Black man two days earlier, according to The Associated Press. Kleine said the bar owner had fired in self-defense.
Several hundred protesters peacefully engaged with police and National Guardsmen only a block away from the location of the bar shooting in the Old Market area, according to news reports.
After protesters and law enforcement took a knee together, Deputy Police Chief Ken Kanger attempted to escort a large group of the remaining protesters out of the area so they could return home for the city’s 8 p.m. curfew, according to the Omaha World-Herald. But a water bottle was thrown, pepper balls were fired and the chaos of mass arrests quickly enveloped the block.
Despite the media exemption to the curfew, Feeney knew she risked being detained for continuing to report past 8 p.m., she told the Tracker. She was especially at risk as a freelancer without credentials.
“I felt the need to witness what happened next despite the consequences,” she said.
Feeney was not the only journalist who faced consequences for continuing to report past curfew. At least five other journalists were caught up in the police action as well, including two who were briefly detained. The Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests here.
The incidents occurred despite the curfew explicitly excluding “members of the media.” As police waited to transport the arrested protesters, they asked members of the media to leave the area, World-Herald reporter Mike Sautter told the Tracker. The block was “like a crime scene,” the police said.
In videos by KMTV’s Kent Luetzen, who was nearly detained himself, and Omaha World-Herald’s Aaron Sanderford, a police officer escorts Feeney down the street. Feeney is wearing a yellow reflective vest with “PRESS” written on the front. She identifies as a freelancer for NET News and America Amplified, a microphone resting on her hip and a camera dangling from her zip-tied hands.
Feeney was escorted to a hot police van holding other people in custody, she wrote for NET News. She told the Tracker, “I had no way of verifying to the arresting officer that I was media other than my word.”
NET News learned of her detention on Twitter and contacted Omaha police, Feeney said. Michael Pecha, a public information officer for the Omaha police, tweeted just before 9 p.m. that another officer, Joseph Nickerson, was on his way “to sort this out.”
The detained journalists, including Feeney, were eventually released.
Lieutenant 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.”
Major Scott Ingalsbe, a spokesperson for the Nebraska National Guard, told the Tracker, “Once National Guardsmen and law enforcement were able to quickly and correctly identify members of the news media, they were released without arrest.”
“We appreciate the work journalists do and the service they provide to our community,” Ingalsbe said. He added that he had personally reached out to outlets covering the protests and has yet to hear any indications the National Guard harmed them or interfered with their work.
Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert did not respond to request for comment.
Two days after the protest, the prosecutor reversed course on the shooting case, according to news reports. A grand jury would review the case after all.
An Omaha police officer escorts freelancer Megan Feeney, a camera dangling from her zip-tied hands, on June 1, 2020.
",detained and released without being processed,Omaha Police Department,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,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",,, 2020-06-22 04:13:18.149675+00:00,2024-02-29 19:38:27.832225+00:00,KMTV journalists caught up in arrests in Omaha,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/kmtv-journalists-caught-arrests-omaha/,2024-02-29 19:38:27.753681+00:00,,,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Jon Kipper (KMTV-TV),,2020-06-01,False,Omaha,Nebraska (NE),41.25626,-95.94043,"Jon Kipper, a reporter for CBS affiliate KMTV, was briefly detained by police in Omaha, Nebraska, as he covered a protest against police violence on June 1, 2020, Kipper said on social media.
Kipper was one of at least six journalists who were either detained, searched or aggressively confronted by law enforcement while covering the protest that evening, according to several journalists on the ground that night.
For days, Omaha officials had struggled to respond to escalating protests that began in Minnesota on May 26 and 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.
Protesters once again gathered on June 1 after Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine announced that a white bar owner would not be charged in the fatal shooting of a 22-year-old Black man two days earlier, according to The Associated Press. Kleine said the bar owner had fired in self-defense.
Several hundred protesters peacefully engaged with police and National Guardsmen only a block away from the location of the bar shooting in the Old Market area, according to news reports.
Shortly before the city’s 8 p.m. curfew, Kipper shared a photo on Twitter of Deputy Police Chief Kanger kneeling with other law enforcement officers and protesters.
Kanger then attempted to escort a large group of the remaining protesters out of the area so they could return home for curfew, according to the Omaha World-Herald. But a water bottle was thrown, pepper balls were fired and the chaos of mass arrests quickly enveloped the block.
In a video Kipper posted on Twitter, police can be seen making arrests amid a chaotic chorus of pepper ball shots, screams and shouts of “On the ground!” Kipper swings the camera to the left to show an advancing line of riot police.
“I’m media,” Kipper says to the approaching officers. He repeats it again, and then a third time even louder.
“On the ground!” an officer orders Kipper, who appears to lower himself as the camera angle shifts. For a fourth and fifth time, Kipper says he’s media.
The officer reaches out and suddenly the camera—and Kipper—tumble to the pavement. For a sixth time, Kipper yells that he’s media—this time with an expletive for emphasis. Then the video cuts out.
At the same time on the same block, two of Kipper’s colleagues were also nearly detained. Reporters Maya Saenz and Kent Luetzen both recorded videos of a National Guardsman apparently attempting to detain them.
In the videos, Luetzen repeatedly says, “We’re fine. We’re fine,” as law enforcement make arrests all around them. Suddenly, a National Guardsman grabs Luetzen. Both journalists repeatedly scream, “We are media! We are media!” before the guardsman disengages.
Saenz films a protester shrieking as a police officer brings them into custody. Another officer screams, “Get out!” at the journalists. They then weave around several protesters on the ground in an attempt to find safety.
“OK, I think it’s time to go,” Saenz says in the video after leaving the block.
Both Kipper and Saenz were wearing polo shirts with a KMTV logo. It is not clear from the footage whether Luentzen was also displaying the logo.
Kipper said on Twitter he was released after an officer took him to the side of the action and confirmed his profession.
At least three other journalists were caught up in the police action as well, including two who were briefly detained. The Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests here.
The incidents occurred despite the curfew explicitly excluding “members of the media.” As police waited to transport the arrested protesters, they asked members of the media to leave the area, World-Herald reporter Mike Sautter told the Tracker. The block was “like a crime scene,” the police said.
The detained journalists were eventually released.
Lieutenant 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.”
Major Scott Ingalsbe, a spokesperson for the Nebraska National Guard, told the Tracker, “Once National Guardsmen and law enforcement were able to quickly and correctly identify members of the news media, they were released without arrest.”
“We appreciate the work journalists do and the service they provide to our community,” Ingalsbe said. He added that he had personally reached out to KMTV and other outlets covering the protests and has yet to hear any indications the National Guard harmed them or interfered with their work.
Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert did not respond to request for comment. The KMTV journalists also did not respond to requests for comment.
Two days after the protest, the prosecutor reversed course on the shooting case, according to news reports. A grand jury would review the case after all.
Police struck a Dallas journalist with projectiles, zip-tied his wrists and placed him under arrest while he was covering a protest march against police violence on a bridge over the Trinity River in Dallas, Texas on June 1, 2020.
Steven Monacelli, a freelance writer on assignment for the Dallas Voice, an LGBT magazine serving north Texas, had been documenting the march of several hundred protesters from the Dallas County courthouse to the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge over the Trinity River, he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. The evening of June 1 was the second that downtown Dallas was under a 7 p.m. curfew, from which members of the media were explicitly exempt.
On the bridge, police employed a technique known as “kettling” to hem in demonstrators from both sides. Monacelli was standing between the crowd and a police line, hugging one side of the bridge, when police began advancing towards the crowd, he said. One of the officers fired a wooden pellet, he said, which hit someone nearby before falling to the ground near Monacelli’s feet.
Seconds later, Monacelli was hit by a projectile. “I just got hit in the leg,” he exclaims on a video recording of the incident, which he posted to Instagram. A second projectile then struck his backpack and lower back. “They shot me twice, I’ve been shot twice with wooden pellets.”
Monacelli was wearing PRESS badges on his front and back, but said he didn’t have the opportunity to verbally identify himself as a member of the media before police fired on the crowd. He said it was dark on the bridge and very loud.
Monacelli told the Tracker while he initially suspected the projectiles that hit him were made of wood, he now believes the object that hit the back of his left thigh was a canister of tear gas, because of the sound it made on the video and the size of his resulting bruise. “In various videos of the moment at which I was shot you can hear a loud ‘POP’ and then metal sounding ricochet,” he tweeted days later.
The second projectile he believes was a green marking round, he said. Another freelance journalist on the bridge, Benjamin Diez, captured a video of Monacelli being hit, showing the round that hit Monacelli’s back and backpack gave off a puff of green dust on impact.
Around ten minutes later, Monacelli was then detained with a group of protesters, despite his repeated declarations that he was a member of the media, he said. The officers demanded to see Monacelli’s laminated press credentials, which he didn’t have, and ignored his repeated invitations to view his LinkedIn profile on his phone, as well as his email exchanges with his editors.
“I'm reporting for the Dallas Voice, I've got the email from the editor. I'm a freelance journalist, so I can show you all the information...the magazine I'm with,” he told the police, in a video he posted to Instagram. He said he had emailed his editor, who he hoped would call the police. “Not sure what else I could do to show you who I am.”
“What sort of credentials, when you ask me that, are you looking for?” Monacelli asked the officer standing before him. The officer replied that he wanted to see a press ID on a lanyard. "I'm stuck here because I don't have a laminated card," Monacelli then tells the viewers of his Instagram livestream.
After detaining him over an hour, an officer placed him in zip ties at around 10:40 p.m. and told him he was under arrest. “Are you aware that I am a member of the press?” he said he asked the officer. In response, the officer replied, “you are under arrest,” Monacelli said.
After midnight, an officer took him up on his invitation to look at his email messages with his editor and his LinkedIn page. Satisfied he was a journalist, the officer released Monacelli from the zip ties. He was released without charges.
Later that morning, he snapped a photo of the newly formed bruise on the back of his leg, and posted it to Twitter on June 11. Monacelli documented his experience on the bridge in a story in the Dallas Voice and in a piece for Central Track, a website covering Dallas culture.
Ryan Michalesko, a staff photographer at the Dallas Morning News, was hit in the thigh with a foam round while covering the same protest on the bridge. That incident is documented here.
Asked for comment on Monacelli’s arrest and the use of projectiles that led to his injuries, a spokesman for the Dallas Police Department, Sgt. Warren Mitchell, wrote, “We are not at a place we can speak on a specific incident during any nights of the protests.”
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 violence 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 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.
Steven Monacelli, left, was hit with projectiles and detained while covering protests in Dallas, Texas, on the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge on June 1, 2020.
",detained and released without being processed,Dallas Police Department,None,None,False,3:21-cv-02649,['ONGOING'],Civil,None,False,None,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",,, 2020-07-28 03:26:57.868910+00:00,2023-01-30 18:39:14.115940+00:00,Freelance photojournalist arrested amid curfew crackdown in Los Angeles,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-photojournalist-arrested-amid-curfew-crackdown-los-angeles/,2023-01-30 18:39:13.985805+00:00,curfew violation: breaking curfew order (charges dropped as of 2020-07-22),,(2020-07-22 15:22:00+00:00) Charges dropped against freelance photojournalist arrested amid curfew crackdown in Los Angeles,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Equipment Search or Seizure",,equipment bag: count of 1,,Robert Spangle (Freelance),,2020-06-01,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"Freelance photojournalist Robert Spangle was arrested while covering protests against police violence in Los Angeles on June 1, 2020, he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. Spangle’s exploration of fashion in the protests was published in British GQ and Achtung Digital.
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 U.S. since the end of May.
As part of the protests, hundreds of demonstrators marched down Sunset Boulevard on June 1, according to news reports. But after a 6 p.m. curfew, the majority of protesters began to disperse, Spangle said. He decided to head back toward his car.
Along the way, Spangle realized that law enforcement had begun to block streets, trapping protesters and Spangle on Schrader Boulevard near a parking lot just north of Sunset Boulevard. Fear and confusion took over the block, Spangle said.
“This is kettling and we’re getting locked in here,” Spangle recalled thinking. “The thing to do is go out and loudly identify yourself as press.”
Spangle, who was wearing a helmet with the word PRESS on it, stepped into the middle of the street with a badge identifying him as press in one hand and his camera in the other.
“At the top of my voice, I very loudly announced, ‘Hey I’m a journalist,’” Spangle said. “‘What do you want me to do, officer?’”
But he received no response. Six or seven times he said he tried to the same effect. So Spangle turned and approached another line of officers in the same way. Five or six times more he identified as a journalist, he said. But still, there was no response. Spangle was trapped.
Shortly before 9 p.m., two officers approached Spangle and ordered Spangle to get on his knees and put his hands on the back of his head, he told the Tracker. He was then zip-cuffed.
“I let them do their thing,” Spangle said. “I said, ‘Hey sir, please look at my press badge. I’m here as a journalist. I’m covering the event. I’m complying.’” He told the Tracker that he tried to draw on his military experience to respond in a calm, professional manner to resolve what he assumed was a mistake.
Officers brought Spangle to a fence where they were gathering others that had been arrested, he said. Spangle asked a journalist on the other side of the fence, which was outside the police cordon, to contact his editor at GQ about his arrest.
After about thirty minutes, Spangle said he was taken to a transport vehicle along with other people who had been arrested. Officers performed a search of Spangle’s possessions and confiscated a small camera bag. But they left his cameras, press badge, and phone with him, Spangle said.
Spangle said he never heard an officer acknowledge his repeated attempts to identify as a journalist. “I think there were efforts for those kinds of things to not be said out loud,” Spangle said.
As he got on the bus, he asked an officer to inform the supervisor he is a journalist, Spangle told the Tracker. The officer responded, “All I can say to you is you’ll be alright,” Spangle said. Spangle interpreted the answer as evidence that a bad command decision had been made to arrest everyone in the area, journalist or not.
The bus drove around the city for hours, stopping at two other locations, until stopping to process the arrestees shortly before midnight at the parking lot of UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium, Spangle said. He was one of the last on the bus to be released on a charge of violating the Los Angeles County curfew.
The university later issued a statement saying it was "troubled" that the stadium was used as a processing center "without UCLA's knowledge or permission.”
Spangle said he was arrested by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies, who wear a distinct tan and green uniform that contrasts the dark blue worn by officers with the Los Angeles Police Department. Spangle said he was transported in a sheriff’s bus. He received a citation from the LAPD at a processing center in western Los Angeles and said he received his seized camera bag back with the citation.
Spokespeople for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and LAPD told the Tracker that they could not provide specific information on Spangle’s arrest because of the sheer number of arrests made during the protests.
Footage from news helicopters that night shows LAPD officers, assisted by sheriff’s deputies, attempting to contain multiple marches and scattered looting across Hollywood. Arrested individuals were boarded on to sheriff’s buses for transport. The LAPD arrested a record-breaking 585 people in Hollywood alone, NBC reported, citing department officials.
Officer Drake Madison, an LAPD spokesperson, suggested filing a public records request. On June 24, LAPD denied a records request concerning Spangle’s arrest filed by journalist security expert Runa Sandvik with the collaborative reporting website MuckRock. In its response, LAPD said investigatory records are exempt from disclosure.
On June 8, Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey announced that she would not prosecute citations for violating curfew or failing to disperse, while Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer said he would resolve cases involving peaceful protesters in a “restorative approach” outside of the court system.
On June 10, the LAPD said it had assigned 40 investigators to examine “allegations of misconduct, violations of Department policy, and excessive force during the recent civil unrest.”
Spangle said he did not feel any bitterness toward the officers who were following orders. “They were professional; they were courteous,” Spangle said. “They did the wrong thing but they did it professionally and in a courteous way.”
“Somewhere along the line there was a really bad call made,” Spangle said. He described it as, “press or whatever, it doesn’t matter, we’re arresting everyone.”
Rob Wilcox, a spokesperson for Feuer, told the Tracker that the office is in the process of sending thousands of declination letters to those arrested on curfew related charges. The letter says the office will use its prosecutorial discretion to not file criminal charges and invites the recipient to join a series of virtual conversations on law enforcement, bias, and injustice. Wilcox said 2,044 letters had been sent as of July 27 and the remainder will be sent by the end of the week.
Spangle said as of July 27 he had not yet received the letter.
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.
Freelance photojournalist Robert Spangle captured this image of a Los Angeles processing center seen from the parking lot of UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium shortly after his arrest on June 1, 2020.
",arrested and released,Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,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, kettle, protest",,, 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.
Independent journalist Jeff Weiss was arrested while covering protests in Los Angeles on June 1, 2020.
Weiss was covering the protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement for Los Angeles Magazine. He declined an interview with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, but referred to his written first-person account and answered follow up questions via email.
According to his article, Weiss was heading home from other local protests shortly after the citywide 6 p.m. curfew when he encountered a group protesting in the middle of Sunset Boulevard near the Palladium.
Weiss wrote that the police moved in on the protesters without ordering them to disperse or giving a warning.
“Consider it white privilege or journalistic entitlement, but a part of me dumbly believed that the cops wouldn’t actually arrest me,” Weiss wrote. “In theory, that whole enshrined in the Constitution combo of ‘freedom of speech’ and ‘freedom of the press’ should have had me covered.”
When an officer approached him and zip-tied his wrists, Weiss said he told the officer that he was a journalist. Weiss and others who had been arrested were held on the street for about an hour. The arresting officer asked Weiss for his press pass, and Weiss explained that he didn’t have one.
Press passes are a “particularly antiquated bastion of a bygone era,” Weiss told the Tracker in an email. Many journalists will never be on staff at a publication, and therefore not receive one, he said. Some publications don’t issue press passes to journalists on their staffs, Weiss said.
“It's a farcical conceit that police can use every form of surveillance technology — whether it's facial recognition or getting warrants to search social media accounts — but can't do a two second Google [search] to verify a journalist's information before arresting them,” Weiss said.
The officer who arrested Weiss told him that he believed that Weiss is a journalist, according to Weiss’s magazine account. But the officer told Weiss, “it’s out of my hands. Nothing I can do.”
Weiss also spoke to a police lieutenant to explain that he was a journalist, according to the article. “I tell him that I’m a journalist and a writer and besides, really, this is really a first amendment freedom of speech thing anyway, and none of these violations will actually hold up in a court,” Weiss wrote.
The lieutenant responded, “Well, what are you? A writer or a journalist?” Weiss wrote that he did not continue to argue with the lieutenant.
Weiss was transported with others who had been arrested to a processing facility set up by the Los Angeles Police Department. After waiting several hours, Weiss received a citation for violating curfew. He was required to sign a document promising to appear in court before March 2021. He was released shortly before 11 p.m.
Police confiscated Weiss’s phone, which he had been using to take notes, during his arrest, Weiss told the Tracker. He wrote that his phone was returned with the rest of his belongings after he was processed and released.
On June 8, Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey announced that she would not prosecute citations for violating curfew or failing to disperse. Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer said he would resolve cases involving peaceful protesters in a “restorative approach” outside of the court system.
Weiss told the Tracker he received communication from the city that the charges against him were dropped.
The Los Angeles Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.
The Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find these incidents here.
Independent journalist Jeff Weiss posted a screenshot of his June 1 arrest in Los Angeles to his Instagram account.
,arrested and released,Los Angeles Police Department,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,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",,, 2020-12-01 20:54:06.897821+00:00,2020-12-01 21:13:34.973547+00:00,Videojournalist detained during Sacramento protests,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/videojournalist-detained-during-sacramento-protests/,2020-12-01 21:13:34.930399+00:00,,,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Jeoffrey Zingapan (Black Zebra Productions),,2020-06-01,False,Sacramento,California (CA),38.58157,-121.4944,"Jeoffrey Zingapan, co-founder of Black Zebra Productions, was briefly detained while on assignment for the Sacramento Bee covering demonstrations in Sacramento, California, on June 1, 2020.
According to the Bee, June 1 was the first night of a citywide curfew. In a FacebookLive video on Black Zebra’s page captured by Zingapan’s reporting partner shortly after 11 p.m., Zingapan can be seen standing on a public sidewalk surrounded by several Sacramento Police Department officers. According to the Bee, officers detained him while he was filming an arrest on the public sidewalk.
Zingapan, who appears to be wearing a yellow safety vest, was placed in handcuffs and questioned by officers for at least five minutes after the livestream began.
Zingapan and Black Zebra Productions did not respond to messages requesting comment.
The Bee posted a statement following Zingapan’s arrest on Facebook: “We want to be clear: The Bee supports Black Zebra — and all media — to independently report and produce journalism. Detaining working journalists is not acceptable.”
The outlet also confirmed that it had hired the Black Zebra reporting team and issued them Sacramento Bee credentials so they could produce documentaries on demonstrations in the city for the news outlet.
According to the Bee’s post, the police department assured them that moving forward the Black Zebra team would “be afforded the same freedoms to report as other media outlets.”
The Sacramento Police Department did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
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.
Kent Luetzen, a reporter for Omaha-metro CBS affiliate KMTV, said police ordered him to lie on the ground and threatened him with arrest while he was covering a protest in Omaha, Nebraska, on June 1, 2020.
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.
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 U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he and colleagues from his station — including KMTV reporter Maya 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.
About half an hour earlier, while covering the demonstration in another area, Luetzen was briefly put into zip-ties and detained by National Guard officers.
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.
Kent Luetzen, a reporter for Omaha-metro area CBS affiliate KMTV, said he was briefly detained 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 Omaha 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.
Luetzen told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he and his colleague, Maya Saenz, were covering protests at Howard Street and South 13th Street when they were aggressively confronted by National Guard officers. In a video posted to Twitter at 9:07 p.m., both reporters repeatedly scream, "We are media! We are media!" as a National Guard officer grabs Luetzen.
Luetzen told the Tracker he was briefly put into zip-ties even though he had his press credentials hanging around his neck and a KMTV logo on his hat. He said he was released shortly after the Guard officer verified his identity.
According to Luetzen, reporter Saenz was told to leave, but not zip-tied. 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 both briefly detained by Omaha police.
The Nebraska National Guard 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.
A photojournalist was tackled to the ground and arrested while documenting protests in Des Moines, Iowa, on June 1, 2020. Mark Nieters, who publishes under Ted Nieters, subsequently filed a lawsuit against the city, the chief of police and the officer involved in the incident.
The protest was one in a series of national demonstrations against police brutality sparked by the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer on May 25 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As the protests continued nightly, Iowa’s Polk County Board of Supervisors implemented a 9 p.m. curfew on May 31 due to “the violent outbreak of civil unrest” in Des Moines.
According to Nieters’ lawsuit, protesters had gathered at the Iowa Capitol on June 1 for an event called “Together We Can Make a Change: A Call to Action.” The formal event ended at 8:15 p.m., but several hundred people marched to the Des Moines Police Department and some ultimately looped back to the Capitol. Police engaged the crowd at around 11:45 p.m., according to the lawsuit, issuing an order to disperse and throwing tear gas canisters and flashbangs toward the protesters. Nieters confirmed the details of the filing to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, and his attorney was not immediately available for comment.
Nieters had left the complex before officers began attempting to disperse the crowd, and was walking alone on Locust Street toward an Embassy Suites located across the street from City Hall. He stopped in one of the hotel’s driveways and began taking photos as officers ran past City Hall in his direction. One of the officers, identified as Brandon Holtan and named as a plaintiff in the suit, ran directly toward Nieters.
“As Defendant Holton approached, Mr. Nieters placed his hands in the air and stated that he was a journalist. Mr. Nieters perceived that Defendant Holton was going to run directly into him and so Mr. Nieters turned his back and tried to brace himself,” the lawsuit states.
Holtan then tackled Nieters to the ground and pepper-sprayed him in the eyes. Nieters confirmed to the Tracker that while this was happening he identified himself as a journalist and said that he had his National Press Photographers Association press card in his back pocket.
In addition to the press card — which Holtan located and examined — the lawsuit states that Nieters was carrying two cameras and wearing a bright blue helmet at the time of the incident.
“Despite observing confirmation that Mr. Nieters was working as a photographer, Defendant Holton proceeded to tightly zip-tie Mr. Nieters’ hands together behind his back and arrest him,” the lawsuit said.
In an email to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, Nieters said that the Des Moines Police officers repeatedly acted recklessly and without regard for the law or common sense.
“I believe I was targeted for being recognizable and in front while covering protests,” Nieters said.
Nieters confirmed to the Tracker that he was held in police custody for 12 hours, during which time he wasn’t allowed to make any calls to arrange for bail or alert anyone to his whereabouts until after his initial court appearance at around 12:30 p.m. Afterward, he was charged with failure to disperse and released.
According to Nieters’ lawsuit, officers lied about the course of events in both the affidavit supporting the charges and in a report about the incident.
On the morning of June 2, Gov. Kim Reynolds held a news conference, where Iowa Department of Public Safety Commissioner Stephan Bayens answered a few questions about the protests. Bayens said law enforcement’s response to the protests had been defined by “restraint, restraint, restraint,” adding that law enforcement did not have “any desire to see anyone that is there in a peaceful capacity or as a member of the media to get caught up with that.”
According to the Register, Nieters had to appear multiple times in court before the charge against him was ultimately dropped on Aug. 13, with all of his court costs to be paid by the prosecutors.
Nieters told the Tracker he was relieved by the outcome, but was alarmed by the prosecutor’s continued pursuit of charges against a Des Moines Register reporter who was arrested while covering protests the day before his arrest.
“It was a relief but also bothersome because Andrea Sahouri was still being charged for her journalism and neither of us were doing anything wrong,” Nieters said.
Sahouri was ultimately acquitted of all charges.
Nieters filed his lawsuit against Officer Holtan, Chief of Police Dana Wingert and the City of Des Moines on Dec. 23, seeking compensation for his injuries and violations of his constitutional rights as well as injunctive relief.
City attorneys moved Nieters’ case from state to federal court in February 2021 and filed a motion for summary judgment in April 2022.
On July 19, U.S. District Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger ruled in favor of the Des Moines Police Department on the federal claims, finding that Holtan had “arguable probable cause” to arrest Nieters because of his proximity to the protesters not complying with orders to disperse.
“Even if Holtan was mistaken in believing Nieters heard the dispersal orders and was following an unlawful assembly, such a mistake was objectively reasonable given the information Holtan received about a 'large' group traveling on Locust Street,” Ebinger wrote.
She added that Nieters turning away from Holtan as he approached could reasonably have been interpreted as an attempt to flee. Ebinger declined to rule on Nieters’ state claims, however, saying they should be decided by Iowa courts.
Gina Messamer, the photojournalist’s attorney, appealed the decision to the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals on July 27. Messamer told the Register that she expects the state proceedings to remain on hold until the appeal process is completed.
Freelance photojournalist Sharif Hassan was arrested and his equipment seized while covering protests in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 1, 2020, according to a lawsuit filed on his behalf in November 2021.
Protests against police violence broke out across the country in the summer of 2020 following the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
On May 30, then-Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms issued a curfew order for the subsequent three days. The order, which had no explicit exception for members of the media or other essential workers, ordered residents off the streets between 9 p.m. and sunrise.
City of Atlanta curfew continues at 9:00 p.m. tonight and Thursday night. An 8:00 p.m. to sunrise curfew is effective Friday (6/5), Saturday (6/6) & Sunday (6/7). Exceptions apply to people seeking medical help, working, first responders & homeless. Call @ATL311 for details. pic.twitter.com/RZifP9dFOQ
— City of Atlanta, GA (@CityofAtlanta) June 3, 2020
According to his lawsuit, Hassan — whose work has been published by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta Magazine and National Geographic Adventure, among others — arrived at The King Center for Nonviolent Social Change near downtown Atlanta in the late afternoon. He then photographed the planned protest as the crowd marched toward the CNN Center.
Officers with the National Guard, Atlanta Police Department and FBI were stationed downtown, according to court filings by the City of Atlanta.
Shortly before the curfew went into effect, a line of APD officers began pushing the crowd north on Centennial Olympic Park Drive, followed by a line of National Guardsmen, Hassan’s lawsuit states. Hassan and other members of the press walked behind the line of APD officers and ahead of the National Guard.
As the demonstrators and police passed through an intersection, an unidentified man ran down the side street and was pursued by officers who arrested him. Hassan followed and began photographing from a safe distance, according to his suit. Without being given any directions or an order to disperse, two officers approached Hassan and made him lie face-down on the ground.
According to disclosures filed by the city, Hassan was directed to leave or face arrest but refused to do so. The filing also asserts that Hassan did not identify himself as a journalist to the arresting officers, nor did he provide “media credentials or any other paraphernalia that would identify him as such.”
Hassan’s suit states that he identified himself as a member of the press when officers zip-tied his hands behind his back and told him that he was under arrest for violating the curfew order.
Hassan’s camera, at least two lenses and two loose memory cards were seized by police. The photojournalist was held overnight at the Atlanta City Detention Center. Hassan was released in the late afternoon on June 2, but his camera and lenses were not returned until a week later.
One of Hassan’s attorneys told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in February 2023 that the two SD cards Hassan had been carrying in his pocket were never returned to him, and police have neither acknowledged that they are still in custody nor provided explanation. Hassan was not available for comment.
According to the suit, Hassan appeared for three hearings beginning in September 2020. At the final hearing in January 2021, prosecutors dropped the charge against him for what they described as evidentiary reasons.
Attorneys filed the lawsuit on Hassan’s behalf against the City of Atlanta and three APD officers in November 2021.
“Hassan’s arrest, detention, and prosecution have chilled him from documenting political protest events due to concern that he will again be wrongfully arrested,” the lawsuit states. “By failing to explicitly exclude basic newsgathering from the facial scope of the Atlanta Curfew Orders, the City, without factual basis, deprived Hassan and other working members of the media of their First Amendment press freedoms while the public lost its eyes and ears on events of significant importance.”
According to court filings reviewed by the Tracker, Hassan and the city are engaged in settlement discussions as of early 2023.
National Guard troops were part of the law enforcement response to protests in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, on June 1, 2020. Photojournalist Sharif Hassan was arrested, his equipment seized while documenting the demonstrations against police brutality.
",arrested and released,Atlanta Police Department,2020-06-02,2020-06-01,False,1:21-cv-04629,['SETTLED'],Civil,returned in part,False,law enforcement,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",,, 2020-06-03 21:20:02.882929+00:00,2021-11-19 15:03:07.693743+00:00,"Journalist arrested amid protests in Lincoln, Nebraska",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-arrested-amid-protests-lincoln-nebraska/,2021-11-19 15:03:07.634673+00:00,,,,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault",,,,Chris Dunker (Lincoln Journal Star),,2020-05-31,False,Lincoln,Nebraska (NE),40.8,-96.66696,"Lincoln Journal Star reporter Chris Dunker was thrown to the ground and arrested by law enforcement officers while reporting on protests in Lincoln, Nebraska, on May 31, 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.
Dunker told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was livestreaming a protest in front of the City/County Building in downtown Lincoln for the outlet’s Facebook page. At approximately 8:35 p.m., officers with the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office began to enforce the 8 p.m. curfew order announced that day, he said.
“As law enforcement pursued the protesters away from the area, a deputy sheriff turned toward me and ordered me to leave,” Dunker said. “I was wearing a neon vest with ‘PRESS’ on it and had on my media credential. I told the deputy I had a constitutional right to be there.”
In a video of the incident published by the Journal Star, the deputy can be seen charging at Dunker without a word and tackling him to the ground. Dunker told the Tracker that his knee and elbow were scraped as two deputies pinned him to the ground and handcuffed him.
“I asked them to return my phone, which had fallen onto the concrete parking lot where I was standing, and my hat, which they did,” Dunker said.
Dunker said that another law enforcement officer told the deputy sheriff who had charged at him that officers were not supposed to arrest members of the media. He said the deputy disregarded this and instead continued to lead Dunker to an area where other arrestees were awaiting transport to jail.
“A higher ranking member of the department told the police to check my identity and if I had any warrants before cutting me loose,” Dunker said. “Police promptly did and I was allowed to keep filming the protests for several more hours that evening.”
Sheriff Terry Wagner with the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately 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 screenshot from the livestream of Lincoln Journal Star reporter Chris Dunker of protests in Lincoln, Nebraska, on May 31, 2020. Dunker was detained by police while reporting.
",detained and released without being processed,Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office,None,None,True,None,None,None,None,False,None,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",,, 2020-06-04 02:48:50.109279+00:00,2021-11-19 15:02:39.918785+00:00,BuzzFeed News journalist detained while covering Santa Monica protests,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/buzzfeed-news-journalist-detained-while-covering-santa-monica-protests/,2021-11-19 15:02:39.871033+00:00,,,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Brianna Sacks (BuzzFeed News),,2020-05-31,False,Santa Monica,California (CA),34.01949,-118.49138,"BuzzFeed News reporter Brianna Sacks was detained by Santa Monica police while documenting protests in Santa Monica, California, on May 31, 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.
Sacks told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was documenting protests in downtown Santa Monica around 6:30 or 7 p.m. when police officers began arresting protesters for failing to disperse and for violating the city’s 4 p.m. curfew.
“[The officers] pulled me out of the crowd, took my phone away, put it in my backpack and placed me in zip-tie handcuffs,” Sacks said. “I explained to them that I was media several times and they told me to just give them a few minutes and hold still.”
Officers looked at her press badge several times, Sacks said. She said they did not tell her why she was being detained.
Sacks said she was detained for approximately 15-20 minutes before officers flagged down a sergeant who told them to release her and remove the zip ties. The sergeant also told her that upon her release she would have to leave the scene. She did not.
The Santa Monica Police Department could not immediately be reached for comment.
In photos published by Sacks on Twitter, her wrists appear bruised and irritated from the tightness of the zip ties.
Police also pulled me out of the crowd and put me in zip tie cuffs and I was able to convince them to let me go because I was media, which I know is pretty damn lucky pic.twitter.com/EUXQ7T6bYR
— Brianna Sacks (@bri_sacks) June 1, 2020
“[The officers] were pretty reasonable and my experience was incredibly mild based on what other reporters have been enduring,” Sacks 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.
Police pepper-sprayed and arrested Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri while she was covering protests in Des Moines, Iowa, on May 31, 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.
In a video recorded while in the back of a police transport vehicle, Sahouri said she was reporting on a demonstration at Merle Hay Mall when she was arrested.
— Andrea May Sahouri (@andreamsahouri) June 1, 2020
Shortly before 8 p.m., Sahouri tweeted that police deployed tear gas, forcing all the protesters to run into the street. Sahouri said in her recording that she and her boyfriend were running with protesters when he was struck by a tear gas canister.
“As I was seeing if his leg was O.K., police came closer and we went around the corner and I was saying, ‘I’m press. I’m press. I’m press,’” Sahouri said.
An officer responded, “I didn’t ask,” before spraying her twice in the face with pepper spray, the Register reported. Officers then handcuffed her using zip ties, Sahouri said in the video.
In footage captured by KCCI 8 News, Sahouri can be seen sitting on a curb, hands cuffed behind her back.
“I’m just doing my job as a journalist,” Sahouri said in her recording. “I’m just out here reporting as I see.”
Sahouri was taken to the Polk County Jail, where she was charged with failure to disperse and interference with official acts. She was released from police custody shortly after 11 p.m., the Register reported.
The Des Moines Police Department did not immediately respond to requests 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.
KCCI 8 News captured footage of reporter Andrea Sahouri's arrest on May 31, 2020 in Des. Moines, Iowa.
",arrested and released,Des Moines Police Department,None,None,True,None,[],None,None,False,None,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",,, 2020-06-05 05:04:59.400617+00:00,2022-11-08 21:09:01.601625+00:00,Freelance journalist detained while covering protests for The Washington Post in Atlanta,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-journalist-detained-while-covering-protests-washington-post-atlanta/,2022-11-08 21:09:01.539940+00:00,,,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Haisten Willis (Freelance),,2020-05-31,False,Atlanta,Georgia (GA),33.749,-84.38798,"Freelance reporter Haisten Willis was detained by officers with the Atlanta Police Department while covering protests in the city on assignment with The Washington Post on May 31, 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.
Willis told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was on the street in downtown Atlanta about 30 minutes after the city’s 9 p.m. curfew went into effect, looking at his phone for continued protests on Twitter.
“I heard and noticed a large number of police coming toward me,” Willis said.
He stepped under a streetlight to be sure that the officers saw him, Willis said, and called out to identify himself as press.
Willis said one of the officers asked if he had a press pass, and he responded that he had a digital credential issued to him by The Post on his phone.
“That’s when things kind of went wrong,” Willis said.
Willis said the officer refused to allow him to pull up the press credential on his phone, saying that it wasn’t sufficient identification. He said the officer told him that he was under arrest. Officers then took Willis’ phone and a pen that he had been using to take notes, handcuffed him with zip ties and patted him down for weapons.
The detention was broadcast live by a CBS46 news crew in the area.
Willis told the Tracker that when officers pulled his wallet out of his pocket, he told them he had business cards inside identifying him as a journalist. Officers examined the cards — which list his title as “freelance journalist” — and after a few minutes decided to release him, Willis said.
The officers removed the zip ties, and returned his phone and pen, he said.
A coalition of Georgia journalism organizations released a statement condemning Willis’ detention, and that of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution staff photographer Alyssa Pointer, who was detained by the officers with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources when covering protests on June 1, according to the statement.
“The detainments of Willis and Pointer were clear abridgments of press freedoms. The confiscation of equipment, cellphones and other supplies hinders the ability of reporters to uphold responsibilities granted by the First Amendment,” the statement reads.
The Atlanta Police Department did not immediately 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.
The detention of reporter Haisten Willis, on assignment with The Washington Post to cover protests in Atlanta, was broadcast live by CBS46.
",detained and released without being processed,Atlanta Police Department,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,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",,, 2020-06-17 02:27:44.041869+00:00,2021-11-19 14:57:26.990201+00:00,Freelance photographer detained by Buffalo police,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-photographer-detained-buffalo-police/,2021-11-19 14:57:26.935166+00:00,,,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Andrew Jasiura (Freelance),,2020-05-31,False,Buffalo,New York (NY),42.88645,-78.87837,"Freelance photographer Andrew Jasiura was briefly handcuffed by police officers while reporting on protests in Buffalo, New York, on May 31, 2020. Jasiura said he was harassed and singled out because he is a freelancer rather than affiliated with a mainstream news outlet.
The protests were part of a wave of demonstrations across the country following 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. Floyd was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
Local officials in Buffalo had placed the area under a 9 p.m. curfew following protests that had turned violent. Law enforcement dispersed crowds by using nonlethal weapons like pepper balls. Jasiura was reporting on those protests on May 30 when he was hit by pepper balls and a police officer attempted to grab his camera.
On May 31, Jasiura was photographing protests again when the police checked his credentials and told him to go home because the curfew was set to go into effect. But he noticed that local news crews were not leaving.
“So I went back out and stood next to them for a while, got a couple of pictures and then strayed off from the group to get a better angle,” he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. “And the cops came back over and handcuffed me.” He also said that the officers pointed guns at his head and said, “Fuck your First Amendment.”
On Sunday, at exactly 8:01PM (8pm curfew) I had four M16S assault rifles pointed at my head by Buffalo SWAT. I asked why this was all happening to a member of the press with 1A protections to which they responded "fuck your first amendment" and put me in handcuffs
— DrewJazzyPhoto (@PhotoJazzy) June 6, 2020
Shortly after Jasiura was cuffed, he heard an officer say over the radio that they should cut him loose. He was freed after about 10 minutes, during which time police ran his ID and checked his credentials. Jasiura said that none of the other journalists on the scene were subject to similar treatment.
The Buffalo Police Department did not respond immediately to a request 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 related to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Find these cases here.
NBC News journalist Simon Moya-Smith was pepper-sprayed and detained while covering protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the early hours of May 31, 2020.
Multiple days of protests in Minneapolis and across the nation were sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital. Thousands gathered around the convenience store where Floyd had been detained and at the police department’s Third Precinct building in the days that followed.
Moya-Smith told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was following along with a group of about a dozen Native American and black protesters as they walked through the south side of Minneapolis shortly after 1 a.m. An 8 p.m. curfew order was in place that night, though members of the media were explicitly exempt.
Four or five Minneapolis police cruisers suddenly came upon the group and encircled them, Moya-Smith said. An officer in one of the vehicles shouted, “Go home! Go home!” to which one of the protesters responded, “We are! We are going home!”
An officer then jumped out of one of the cruisers and began pepper-spraying the protesters indiscriminately and ordering them to get on the ground.
“As we’re all lying down, she comes around and just begins to spray as if she were in her backyard garden — individually, as if she were just spraying her plants,” Moya-Smith said.
He added that he, too, was sprayed while facedown, much of it hitting his back.
“It was a completely unnecessary use of force on the group. Everyone was complying,” Moya-Smith said.
Officers then came around to each of the protesters and asked for their IDs. When they came around to Moya-Smith, he told them that he had an ID in his wallet and that he was a reporter with NBC News. When they told him to wait as he was, Moya-Smith said he thought, “OK, so this is how this is going to go.”
“I’m sure one, two or maybe all of them knew that if they allowed me to exercise my First Amendment right as a reporter that I would immediately begin documenting the situation, and I think that is what they were trying to prevent,” Moya-Smith said.
Moya-Smith told the Tracker that multiple officers checked his press badge: One referred to him as “Mr. Journalist” when ordering him to roll over; another simply shrugged.
I was pepper-sprayed then arrested last night by Minneapolis PD even after identifying myself as a reporter MULTIPLE times:
— Simon Moya-Smith (@SimonMoyaSmith) May 31, 2020
Cop 1: *checks press badge as I’m on the ground*
Cop 2: “Roll on your side, Mr. journalist.”
Cop 3: *loads me in the car, sees my press badge and shrugs*
Moya-Smith was loaded into one of the cruisers and transported to the Minneapolis Police Department’s Fifth Precinct along with the demonstrators. When they arrived at the station, he said, it was chaotic and overwhelmed by the number of arrests that night.
While their arresting officer had decided to issue them citations outside the station and release them, another officer convinced him that there was still space to book them in the jail, Moya-Smith said.
When the officer came around to him to ask for his ID again, Moya-Smith said, “Yupp, and here’s my press badge.”
Moya-Smith said the officer seemed surprised and called over a commanding officer, who immediately said that he needed to be released. Officers dropped him off about half a block from where the National Guard was operating.
“And as they were letting me go [the officer] said, ‘You’re going to tell everybody that we treated you nicely, right?’ And I said, ‘Yeah,’” Moya-Smith told the Tracker.
Moya-Smith said that he was in police custody for a little over an hour and that he suffered no serious effects from the pepper spray other than a few coughing attacks.
He noted that while covering the protests in Minneapolis he found that being a member of the press did not protect him from police tactics.
“They still come directly toward you. They still charge you. It’s not a situation where you can even be a fly on the wall and cover it,” Moya-Smith said. “It feels like more of a target than a badge.”
When asked for comment, a representative from the Minneapolis Police Department’s Records Information Unit told the Tracker that the MPD was not the arresting authority for Moya-Smith. The Minneapolis State Patrol did not respond 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 all of these cases here.
State patrol officers stand guard in Minneapolis on May 31, 2020.
",detained and released without being processed,Minneapolis Police Department,None,None,True,None,[],None,None,False,None,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",,, 2020-06-23 02:42:15.048081+00:00,2022-11-08 21:09:23.043492+00:00,"Reporter detained, zip tied and searched while covering San Francisco protest",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-detained-zip-tied-and-searched-while-covering-san-francisco-protest/,2022-11-08 21:09:22.971248+00:00,,,,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Equipment Search or Seizure",,equipment bag: count of 1,,Leonardo Castañeda (The Mercury News),,2020-05-31,False,San Francisco,California (CA),37.77493,-122.41942,"Leonardo Castañeda, reporter for The (San Jose) Mercury News and East Bay Times, was briefly detained by local police while covering a Bay Area protest 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.
Castañeda told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the May 31 protest began at San Francisco City Hall. It was the first day of a citywide 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew that was lifted less than a week later.
Castañeda was following the main body of the protest group that remained after 8 p.m. as it continued to splinter off after encounters with law enforcement. Around 10 p.m. the protesters went down an alleyway called Stevenson Street, which connects 6th and 7th streets in San Francisco’s Mid-Market neighborhood.
The San Francisco Police Department “was able to kettle them in and block off both entrances to the alleyway,” Castañeda told the Tracker. “And they immediately started clearing everyone that was inside that alley, which was by that point maybe 30 protesters just because the main group had been whittled down so much at that point.”
Castañeda identified himself as press and was put against the wall alongside the protesters. He said that his press pass was displayed on a lanyard over his jacket. San Francisco police officers searched his pockets and his backpack, but not his notebook or phone, Castañeda said. Then, officers instructed him to sit on the curb with the other protesters. His hands were zip tied behind his back by police officers.
“The police captain in charge of the operation that night came by and said, ‘I can see you’re press. We’re going to detain you but we’re not going to take you to the county jailhouse for processing,’” Castañeda said.
Castañeda captured audio from his detainment by recording a video from his cellphone, which was inside his jacket pocket. During the recording, which he provided to the Tracker, he repeatedly identifies himself as press and references his press badge.
The certificate of release provided by the San Francisco Police Department lists Castañeda’s time in custody from 10:04 p.m. to 10:15 p.m. However, Castañeda estimates that 30 minutes passed between the time he was moved against the wall to when he walked out of the alleyway. A photo Castañeda tweeted at 10:34 p.m. shows nearly a dozen protesters with their hands up on the sidewalks lining the alley as a line of 10 officers appear to advance.
“Just got detained by @SFPD with a group of about 20 protesters. identified myself as press, got zip tied and searched and eventually released. gonna call it a night now, here’s the last shot i got,” the tweet reads.
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.
A San Francisco Sheriff's Deputy removes a barricade as the city-wide curfew begins on May 31, 2020.
",detained and released without being processed,San Francisco Police Department,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,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",,, 2020-06-28 23:31:48.862734+00:00,2022-05-12 21:47:26.602769+00:00,"Radio journalist arrested, cited for failure to disperse during Philadelphia protest",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/radio-journalist-arrested-cited-failure-disperse-during-philadelphia-protest/,2022-05-12 21:47:26.528965+00:00,rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2020-07-08),,(2020-07-08 13:27:00+00:00) Charges dropped against radio journalist arrested during protest,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Avi Wolfman-Arent (WHYY-FM),,2020-05-31,False,Philadelphia,Pennsylvania (PA),39.95233,-75.16379,"Avi Wolfman-Arent, a reporter for WHYY, Philadelphia’s NPR affiliate, was arrested and charged with failure to disperse while covering a protest in the city on May 31, 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 brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the United States since the end of May.
Wolfman-Arent told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was documenting a relatively small protest of 50 to 75 people as they walked from Philadelphia Police Department headquarters in the neighborhood of Old City at around 4:30 p.m.
Im a reporter with @WHYYNews in Philly. Yes, I was just arrested. A very brief explanation below: pic.twitter.com/5u5h4A7erS
— Avi Wolfman-Arent (@Avi_WA) May 31, 2020
After a few skirmishes with protesters, police reportedly gave a dispersal warning: Wolfman-Arent said in a video posted to Twitter that he did not hear it, and that his back was turned as he tried to send a tweet.
“They started advancing really quickly,” he said in the video, “and I was tackled from behind by an officer on the steps of the Curtis Publishing Building in Philadelphia near Sixth and Walnut [streets].”
Wolfman-Arent told the Tracker that though he identified himself as a member of the press, he was arrested alongside at least a dozen protesters.
“It felt unprovoked,” he said. “It wasn’t crowd control. It wasn’t some kind of potentially chaotic situation. The demonstration had just started and there were almost no people there.”
WHYY reported that police confiscated the recorder and boom microphone Wolfman-Arent was carrying and transported him to the Philadelphia Police 22nd-23rd Precinct. His equipment was returned upon his release at around 5:50 p.m., and he was cited for failure to disperse.
All told, Wolfman-Arent said, he was in police custody for approximately an hour.
Sandra Clark, WHYY’s vice president of news and civic dialogue, said that Wolfman-Arent’s arrest, after he clearly identified himself as a journalist, was “completely unacceptable.”
“We have a duty to serve the public and that means seeking truth and accountability, and representing diverse perspectives and experiences,” she said. “We aren’t going anywhere.”
A police spokesperson told WHYY that the department was aware of the allegation and had opened an Internal Affairs investigation.
Neither Mayor James Kenney nor the Philadelphia Police Department responded to the Tracker’s 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.
Kandist Mallett, a freelance journalist and columnist for Teen Vogue, was detained alongside her reporting partner while attempting to document protests against police violence in Los Angeles on May 31, 2020.
Protests that began in Minneapolis on May 26 have spread across the country, sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, during an arrest the day before. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
Mallett told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she and freelance journalist Aaron Cantú were walking in downtown L.A. around 6:30 p.m., looking for protesters, when they turned onto Figueroa Street from Olympic Boulevard.
“We were just trying to figure out where the crowd was,” Mallett said. “All of a sudden we see all of these cops come from behind them, the cops start running out from their cars and then, as we turn to look, we already see that there are cops behind us and that we’ve been kettled,” she said, referring to a police maneuver used to hem in protesters. Approximately 30 to 40 demonstrators were trapped in the kettle as well.
In a video of the incident Mallett shared with the Tracker, at least 50 police officers can be seen in lines approaching from up the street. Cantú can be heard calling out, “We’re press! We just came around the corner; we got sandwiched in between.”
Mallett told the Tracker, “I have my press pass, so I just hold it up and shout, ‘Press! We’re press!’ And they just ignore us.” Police then ordered everyone in the so-called kettle to sit.
“My partner is worried that I’m going to get shot and tells me to sit down, so I sit,” Mallett said. “And then the supervisor at the scene walks by so I tell him that we’re press, and he says, ‘You’re the least of my priorities right now.’”
The Los Angeles Police Department didn’t respond to emailed requests for comment.
Mallett said that when officers began making arrests, Cantú was the first one they took because the two of them were the closest to the line of officers.
So, this happened yesterday evening. After coming home, taking a breath and sleeping on it, I'm doing a thread on what happened. This is also a thread with some thoughts on US police crushing freedom of the press, which unfortunately I've experienced firsthand in the past. pic.twitter.com/NJ6ShfaIvg
— Aarón Cantú (@aaron_con_choco) May 31, 2020
Cantú told the Tracker that two or three officers lifted him up from the curb, pushed him against a chain link fence and zip-tied him, but that Mallett was able to dissuade them from similarly zip-tying her hands.
Mallett said that she tried to convince the officers that they were journalists, and Googled examples of their published work when asked for evidence.
“I started filming, and as soon as I did the supervisor changed his tone,” Mallett said. “It was like, ‘We’re not going to hold you guys, we’re not going to arrest you,’ and to me, ‘I’m not going to put you in zip-ties.’ But we were detained and not able to leave.”
After about 20 minutes, officers took down both Cantú and Mallett’s information and removed the zip ties from Cantú’s wrists.
“They asked us if we wanted to stay, but both of us were pretty shaken up and we just wanted to get out of there,” Mallett said. In total, she said they were gone from the apartment they share for only an hour.
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.
Freelance journalist Aaron Cantú was detained alongside his reporting partner while attempting to document protests against police violence in Los Angeles, California, on May 31, 2020.
Protests that began in Minneapolis on May 26 have spread across the country, sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, during an arrest the day before. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
Cantú — who has written for The Nation, the Santa Fe Report, The Intercept and others — told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he and Teen Vogue columnist Kandist Mallett were walking in downtown LA at around 6:30 p.m., looking for protesters when they turned onto Figueroa Street from Olympic Boulevard.
“We saw a group of young protesters running down the street towards us and that’s when we kind of walked over toward them because that seemed to be where some action was happening,” Cantú said. A group of Los Angeles police officers were behind the protesters, which he said wasn’t unusual.
“But then we noticed that police behind us on the other side of the street had started to close in,” he added.
The officers encircled Cantú, Mallett and 30 to 40 protesters in a tactic called “kettling,” and ordered all of them to sit down.
“Kandist was very vocal about her press pass, about both of us being members of the press,” Cantú said. He added that while he had his camera on his shoulder, he wasn’t wearing a press pass.
In a tweet about the incident, Cantú wrote, “I’ve found that having [a press pass] makes functionally little difference in how cops target journalists, though now it appears it might actually make it worse.”
The Los Angeles Police Department didn’t respond to emailed requests for comment.
In a video of the incident Mallett shared with the Tracker, at least 50 police officers can be seen in lines approaching from up the street. Cantú can be heard calling out, “We’re press! We just came around the corner; we got sandwiched in between.”
An officer responds, ordering them to sit down. Cantú complies, and says, “OK. We’re trying to leave though. We haven’t done anything illegal.”
Cantú said that when police began making arrests he was the first zip-tied because he and Mallett were the closest to the line of officers.
So, this happened yesterday evening. After coming home, taking a breath and sleeping on it, I'm doing a thread on what happened. This is also a thread with some thoughts on US police crushing freedom of the press, which unfortunately I've experienced firsthand in the past. pic.twitter.com/NJ6ShfaIvg
— Aarón Cantú (@aaron_con_choco) May 31, 2020
“Two or three of them grabbed me, lifted me up — I was sitting on the curb — and basically pushed me against a chain link fence and tied my zip ties,” he said. Cantú added that Mallett was able to dissuade the officers from zip-tying her while she continued to tell them that they were journalists and pulled up their bylines and information on her phone.
After taking down both Cantú and Mallett’s information, an officer cut off Cantú’s zip ties and a supervisor told the pair that they could stay or leave.
“And we decided to leave,” Cantú said. “It was probably within an hour of the curfew starting, and one of the officers who arrested me said that we had to be inside. I didn’t know if that was true or not, as we’re members of the media, but obviously they didn’t really seem to care.”
A curfew was in place that night beginning at 8 p.m., and while the order didn’t explicitly exempt journalists, city and county officials had confirmed with outlets that they’d be able to cover the protests.
He added that they were detained for about 20 minutes, and were gone from the apartment they share for approximately an hour.
Cantú was arrested while covering protests at the inauguration of President Trump in Washington, D.C., in January 2017, and was indicted on eight separate felony counts. The charges, which could have brought up to 75 years in prison if Cantú had been convicted, were dropped in July 2018. Cantú and freelance journalist Alexei Wood, who was also arrested during the inauguration protests, have filed a lawsuit against seeking damages against Washington, D.C. and its police department.
“My aversion to risk is greater now than it was then, and I still ended up in a similar kettling situation, which I found very strange,” he said.
The day after his detention, Cantú tweeted: “My J20 [Jan. 20] prosecution ‘[told] reporters to stay home & avoid the risk of prosecution rather than to go to newsworthy events.’ That’s what I did last night. After being outside less than an hour, I was arrested. I went home after release. It felt cowardly.”
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.
Detroit police briefly detained Detroit News reporter Christine MacDonald as she covered protests against police violence in Detroit, Michigan on May 31, 2020, she 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 U.S. since the end of May.
Detroit braced for the third night in a row of protests on May 31. MacDonald told the Tracker she volunteered to help that night in part because the newsroom was short-staffed due to furloughs. For the first time in her career, she grabbed a gas mask from the newsroom.
MacDonald followed hundreds of protesters marching through the city, but the situation grew tense as an 8 p.m. curfew fell, she said. Around 9 p.m., police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd, according to news reports.
About thirty minutes later, MacDonald saw a couple people running in Grand Circus Park near Woodward Avenue, she said. A police officer tackled one of them to the ground. MacDonald filmed the apparent arrest by livestreaming from her phone. She filmed from a distance to not interfere.
Suddenly without warning, the livestream picks up the sound of ratcheting handcuffs from behind. A voice asks, “Who are you with?” MacDonald was being detained.
“It happened very quickly. There was no conversation,” MacDonald said. “As soon as I noticed someone behind me is when I felt my hands being brought to the back.”
She told the Tracker she tried to follow a colleague’s advice on what to do if detained: check your ego, identify yourself, and try to sort it out.
MacDonald identified herself as a journalist and said she had her press credentials around her neck.
“I had that gas mask on but I could still talk,” MacDonald said. “It wasn’t like he couldn’t hear me. He could hear me through that mask.”
The officer escorted MacDonald to his patrol car on Woodward Avenue and told her to stand at the front of the vehicle, MacDonald said.
MacDonald’s livestream, obscured by her handcuffed hands reflecting the blue and red of police lights, continued to broadcast as the officer checked her credentials.
On the way out of the park, the officer asked someone else who had a camera if MacDonald was with him, she told the Tracker. The person said no.
Eli Newman, a reporter and producer for NPR-affiliate WDET, told the Tracker he was walking with a group of about a half-dozen journalists for safety when he saw a woman in a gas mask walking handcuffed to a police vehicle.
The group was not immediately sure if she was a journalist or not, Newman said. But Newman thought he recognized MacDonald. So he shouted to confirm and she nodded her head. Realizing she was a colleague, the journalists tried to vouch for her with the police officer.
A video filmed by Detroit Free Press journalist Mark Kurlyandchik shows the police officer examining MacDonald’s credentials hanging around her neck. Someone off camera says “We all know her!”
Newman said he believed the journalists’ intervention helped ensure her release. MacDonald said the officer did not acknowledge the journalists, but they were vocal and he was likely aware that they were filming the interaction.
The officer asked MacDonald twice if she planned to go home after her release due to curfew, she told the Tracker. MacDonald said she would continue reporting as she was exempt from the curfew.
The officer told MacDonald that he believed her and joked about helping the police out next time by tripping people running away after throwing bottles at them, MacDonald told the Tracker.
The officer released MacDonald less than three minutes after he detained her.
It is not clear why the officer immediately handcuffed MacDonald before interacting with her. MacDonald told the Tracker that she had identified herself as a journalist to police prior to the incident.
“There was no reason to detain me,” MacDonald said. “Earlier in the night, officers asked me who I was and when I responded who I was, they had no problem leaving me to my job, but this officer didn’t even have a conversation with me before putting the cuffs on.”
MacDonald said she did not ask the officer to identify himself, and the Detroit police did not respond to a request for comment about the detainment.
Speaking about MacDonald and other incidents involving journalists that night, Sgt. Nicole Kirkwood, also a department spokesperson, told Detroit News, “we take every allegation seriously” and “the vast majority of the men and women in the department do get it right.”
After May 31, the Detroit police began issuing daily, color-coded press passes to journalists to facilitate the identification of journalists in protests, MacDonald and Newman told the Tracker.
MacDonald debriefed with the other journalists following her encounter with police. “My editor is yelling at me because my hand was in front of the camera,” she said in her still-broadcasting livestream. “Well yeah, because I was arrested.”
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.
Detroit News reporter Christine MacDonald stands handcuffed in a gas mask as a Detroit police officer verifies her credentials on May 31, 2020.
",detained and released without being processed,Detroit Police Department,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,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",,, 2020-08-21 14:07:42.292929+00:00,2021-11-19 16:08:49.547167+00:00,Australian correspondent detained while covering Minneapolis protests,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/australian-correspondent-detained-while-covering-minneapolis-protests/,2021-11-19 16:08:49.492536+00:00,,,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Tim Arvier (Nine News Australia),,2020-05-31,False,Minneapolis,Minnesota (MN),44.97997,-93.26384,"Minneapolis Police briefly detained a Nine News Australia news crew and security guard in the early hours of May 31, 2020, the outlet reported. U.S. Correspondent Tim Arvier and cameraman Adam Bovino were covering the fifth night of protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.
Arvier reported that police and the Minnesota National Guard deployed throughout Minneapolis on the night of May 30 in an attempt to assert control. The Nine News crew documented protesters marching in defiance of an 8 p.m. curfew as the police pushed back with less-lethal projectiles and tear gas.
The crew was driving to find a backdrop for a live interview when they heard gunfire and encountered a police roadblock, Arvier told the Tracker.
“We didn’t want to approach the roadblock, or drive up to it because obviously we’d seen numerous examples in the past 48 hours of how jumpy the police were,” Arvier said.
So Bovino stopped the car short of the roadblock and waited for the police to notice them, Arvier told the Tracker. As the police officers approached, the crew held their hands out the windows and shouted that they were press.
Two officers seemed calm, Arvier said, but a third yelled at them to get out of the car and drew his firearm.
“That’s when I hit record on my phone and held my phone up in my hand to record all this happening, just to have a record,” Arvier said. The crew tried to remain calm to avoid misunderstandings that could have escalated, he told the Tracker.
The security guard, who the crew hired after observing street violence, informed the police that he had weapons in the car, Arvier said.
In Arvier’s video, a police officer warns other officers to not let the journalists and the security guard drop their hands because there are guns in the car.
Arvier asks an officer in the video if it is okay to keep holding his phone in his raised hands. The officer responds, “You’re good.”
The officer who drew his weapon searched Bovino and escorted him handcuffed to the curb, Arvier said. The security guard was brought by another officer to the curb handcuffed as well.
A third officer searched Arvier, who continued to film. Additional footage shows Arvier holding his credentials in one hand as he’s searched. As he is patted down, Arvier explains to the officer that he is wearing a bulletproof vest.
In the video, an officer explains why the Nine News Australia crew was being treated carefully. “You can hear all the gunshots going off all around us. It’s like a warzone,” the officer said. “And here you guys are in bulletproof vests with a rifle in the car.”
Arvier was escorted to the curb, but he was not handcuffed like his colleagues. After the police checked their press credentials, the crew was released. Arvier said the crew was carrying press passes issued by the Los Angeles Police Department since their bureau is based in Los Angeles.
The police warned the journalists that it was dangerous to be out and advised them to return to their hotel for their safety, Arvier said.
Arvier said they had been treated respectfully and he understood why the police would be anxious. But it was unclear why they had to be detained and handcuffed. They had previously been pulled over to have their credentials checked without issue, Arvier said.
“If it wasn’t for the one police officer there, I get the feeling that the other ones would’ve handled it a lot more calmly and we probably would have been fine like we were the first time we were pulled over,” Arvier said.
Minnesota Police Department spokesperson John Elder told the Tracker he was unable to comment about this and other incidents involving the press. He said, “Every use of force by the MPD is under investigation internally.”
The crew’s detention on May 30 was one of several incidents involving the police during the days of protests, Arvier told the Tracker. On the night of May 29 the crew was pinned down in a parking lot in the 5th Precinct as police confronted protesters with tear gas and rubber bullets, Arvier said. They were trying to return to their car to send footage back to Australia, but the police line blocked their way. When the crew tried to approach the line while identifying as press, the police yelled at them to get back. Police eventually escorted Bovino to the team’s vehicle to retrieve the equipment they needed. The vehicle had a large dent that the journalists presumed came from a tear gas canister strike.
On May 31, the crew was filming police push back protesters near a highway, Arvier said. The crew positioned off to the side so that they could either fall back on the highway or behind police lines to stay safe, Arvier said. But Nine News footage shows Arvier and his cameraman forced by police to run through tear gas. "That is ugly, ugly scenes," Arvier said in a video posted to Twitter as he struggled with the effects of the tear gas.
Arvier told the Tracker he recognized the risks the police were facing and did not feel bitter toward them. But he noted their attitude toward journalists seemed different than in previous protests he has covered.
In other protests, “the cops just sort of let you work through it and we don’t get in their way and they don’t get in our way and everyone is fine,” Arvier said “But that certainly seemed to be a different state of affairs in terms of the police attitude in Minneapolis.”
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.
Minneapolis police briefly detained a Nine News Australia news crew and security guard in the early hours of May 31, 2020, the outlet reported. Cameraman Adam Bovino and U.S. Correspondent Tim Arvier were covering the fifth night of protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.
Arvier reported that police and the Minnesota National Guard deployed throughout Minneapolis on the night of May 30 in an attempt to assert control. The Nine News crew documented protesters marching in defiance of an 8 p.m. curfew as the police pushed back with less-lethal projectiles and tear gas.
The crew was driving to find a backdrop for a live interview when they heard gunfire and encountered a police roadblock, Arvier told the Tracker.
“We didn’t want to approach the roadblock, or drive up to it because obviously we’d seen numerous examples in the past 48 hours of how jumpy the police were,” Arvier said.
So Bovino stopped the car short of the roadblock and waited for the police to notice them, Arvier told the Tracker. As the police officers approached, the crew held their hands out the windows and shouted that they were press.
Two officers seemed calm, Arvier said, but a third yelled at them to get out of the car and drew his firearm.
“That’s when I hit record on my phone and held my phone up in my hand to record all this happening, just to have a record,” Arvier said. The crew tried to remain calm to avoid misunderstandings that could have escalated, he told the Tracker.
The security guard, who the crew hired after observing street violence, informed the police that he had weapons in the car, Arvier said.
In Arvier’s video, a police officer warns other officers to not let the journalists and the security guard drop their hands because there are guns in the car.
Arvier asks an officer in the video if it is okay to keep holding his phone in his raised hands. The officer responds, “You’re good.”
Bovino, who declined an interview because Arvier had already spoken with the Tracker, said in an email that the officer who drew a firearm handcuffed him. Officers escorted Bovino and the security guard in handcuffs to the curb.
A third officer searched Arvier, who continued to film. Additional footage shows Arvier holding his credentials in one hand as he’s searched. As he is patted down, Arvier explains to the officer that he is wearing a bulletproof vest.
In the video, an officer explains why the Nine News Australia crew was being treated carefully. “You can hear all the gunshots going off all around us. It’s like a warzone,” the officer said. “And here you guys are in bulletproof vests with a rifle in the car.”
Arvier was escorted to the curb, but he was not handcuffed like his colleagues. After the police checked their press credentials, the crew was released. Arvier said the crew was carrying press passes issued by the Los Angeles Police Department since their bureau is based in Los Angeles.
The police warned the journalists that it was dangerous to be out and advised them to return to their hotel for their safety, Arvier said.
Arvier said they had been treated respectfully and he understood why the police would be anxious. But it was unclear why they had to be detained and handcuffed. They had previously been pulled over to have their credentials checked without issue, Arvier said.
“If it wasn’t for the one police officer there, I get the feeling that the other ones would’ve handled it a lot more calmly and we probably would have been fine like we were the first time we were pulled over,” Arvier said.
Minnesota Police Department spokesperson John Elder told the Tracker he was unable to comment about this and other incidents involving the press. He said, “Every use of force by the MPD is under investigation internally.”
The crew’s detention on May 30 was one of several incidents involving the police during the days of protests, Arvier told the Tracker. On the night of May 29 the crew was pinned down in a parking lot in the 5th Precinct as police confronted protesters with tear gas and rubber bullets, Arvier said. They were trying to return to their car to send footage back to Australia, but the police line blocked their way. When the crew tried to approach the line while identifying as press, the police yelled at them to get back. Police eventually escorted Bovino to the team’s vehicle to retrieve the equipment they needed. The vehicle had a large dent that the journalists presumed came from a tear gas canister strike.
On May 31, the crew was filming police push back protesters near a highway, Arvier said. The crew positioned off to the side so that they could either fall back on the highway or behind police lines to stay safe, Arvier said. But Nine News footage shows Arvier and Bovino forced by police to run through tear gas. "That is ugly, ugly scenes," Arvier said in a video posted to Twitter as he struggled with the effects of the tear gas.
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.
Joel Franco, a social media producer with WSVN 7News, a Fox affiliate station based in Miami, Florida, was arrested while covering protests in the city on May 31, 2020.
Franco reported the arrest on Twitter the morning of June 1, writing: “I was arrested last night as I was walking to my car after covering the protests in Downtown Miami. Charged with violating curfew. The curfew ordinance exempts media (I had my credentials).”
Franco, contacted on Twitter by the Committee to Protect Journalists, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. WSVN also did not respond to CPJ’s requests for comment, sent via Twitter direct messages and email. The Miami Herald reported that Franco no longer works for WSVN.
On June 1, in an interview with WSVN, Franco recounted how he’d completed a livestream of protests downtown and was headed back to his car when he noticed a line of police vehicles that appeared to be looking for people who were in violation of the city’s 9 p.m. curfew order. He said he began to film the scene.
“That’s when they noticed I was filming,” Franco told WSVN. “They just swarmed me, got out of the pickup truck, threw me against their pickup truck, raised my arms behind my back and put a little zip tie on me.”
In his account to WSVN, Franco said that he told police he was a member of the press and that he had his work ID on him. He said police “grabbed” the ID and his phone case and started “acting clueless.”
Franco’s girlfriend was with him at the time. She was not arrested.
WSVN reported that Franco spent nine hours in police custody before he was released on bond for the charge of curfew violation. WSVN reported that the charges were subsequently dropped.
WSVN also noted in its June 1 report that the Miami-Dade Police Department was investigating Franco’s arrest. When reached via email for comment by CPJ, a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, the department instructed CPJ to submit a media request on its website. CPJ submitted a request for more information on Franco’s arrest, specifically asking whether an investigation into his arrest had begun or been completed. The department did not respond as of press time.
According to WSVN, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle released a statement at the time saying, “Working journalists, who pose no threat to law enforcement or public safety, have a First Amendment right to keep us all informed of public developments and public news in our community and in every community in America.”
Speaking at a press conference on June 1, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said of Franco’s arrest when questioned about it: “That was a mistake. He should not have been. The media is exempt from the curfew.”
On June 2, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists released a statement condemning assaults by law enforcement on journalists covering protests and asking for investigations to be launched into the unlawful arrest of journalists, particularly journalists of color, including Franco.
Protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Movement have been held across the country after a viral video showed the death of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25.
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.
Law enforcement ordered Luke Johnson, a San Jose Spotlight reporter, to get on the ground with his face down while he was covering the third consecutive night of protests against police violence in San Jose, California, on May 31, 2020.
Earlier in the day, City Manager David Sykes had announced the implementation of a citywide curfew from 8:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. Notably, media outlets were deemed “essential businesses” and exempt from the measure.
When curfew arrived that evening, demonstrators remained on the streets. Johnson confirmed with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an interview that he’d been following a group marching in neighborhoods near San Jose State University. At around 9:30 p.m., he said, police began to surround them, scattering the protesters.
“I followed them into a driveway that led to a backyard parking lot for a couple housing units,” he wrote in a piece for the Spotlight. “However, once they started hopping fences into other backyards, that’s where I decided to draw the line and stop following them."
Johnson said he was waiting in the area with Maggie Angst, a journalist from the Mercury News who’d also been covering the protests that evening, when, with batons waving, officers rushed into the backyard area and ordered both journalists to get on the ground with their faces down. The Tracker documented Angst’s detainment here.
Johnson told the Tracker that officers then scoured the area and asked the journalists several times what they were doing there. He said he repeatedly verbally identified himself as a journalist and had a camera hanging around his neck. Johnson said the officers did not provide any further instruction and were unclear about whether or not the journalists could get up and leave.
“Some of the officers were telling me to go home and some were saying to stay there. After a while, it went quiet,” Johnson said. “I looked back and they weren’t even there anymore.”
Johnson recalls that he and Angst were on the ground for several minutes. After noticing that the officers had left, he gathered his camera and belongings and prepared to go home. One officer, Johnson remembered, returned to retrieve his sunglasses but did not make any verbal contact.
UPDATE: Police told me to get on the ground, face down and hands out. They held me there for about two minutes. I identified myself as a reporter.
— Luke Johnson (@Scoop_Johnson) June 1, 2020
They told me to remain in a backyard. About 20 minutes later, police left the area without further instruction.
Afterward, Johnson said, residents in the area offered support to the journalists, sharing water and food.
The following day, according to his piece in the Spotlight, Johnson and his editor, Ramona Giwargis, spoke on the phone with San Jose Police Chief Eddie Garcia.
“He wanted to share his team’s side of the story,” Johnson told the Tracker. “There was a lot of confusion going on. Some of the officers were put out there before the curfew was put into effect. He was thoroughly apologetic.”
Garcia explained that many officers were experiencing a citywide curfew for the first time and that it is not protocol for officers to leave individuals on the ground without further instruction, according to Johnson’s account in the Spotlight.
On September 3, the San Jose Police Department released a 243-page “preliminary After-Action Report” analyzing law enforcement’s response to the “civil unrest” that followed George Floyd’s death from May 29 through June 7. In it, the SJPD detailed numerous incidents with members of the press and concluded that the department needs additional formalized training, clear instruction of protocols for interacting with media and a comprehensive review of procedures regarding use of force and crowd control.
One recommendation raised in the report suggests providing “identifiable reflective vests” to reporters, so they are “more easily distinguishable in a crowd.” However, Sergeant Christian Camarillo told the Tracker that he personally believes that police-issued vests could risk journalists being targeted.
“One of the things I wanted to improve on after reading that after-action report was sitting down and having a dialogue with some of our local media reporters on how to keep them safe,” Camarillo said. “We want to have input from the people out there doing the work.”
Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Movement have been held across the country after a viral video showed a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
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.
Maggie Angst, a city reporter for the Mercury News, was ordered to get on the ground by law enforcement despite repeatedly holding out her press badge while covering protests against police violence in downtown San Jose, California, on May 31, 2020.
Earlier in the day, City Manager David Sykes had announced the implementation of a citywide curfew from 8:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. Notably, media outlets were deemed “essential businesses” and exempt from the measure.
The night’s protests started at City Hall, Angst told the Tracker in a phone interview. When curfew went into effect, she said, demonstrators continued to march around the downtown area, eventually making their way into the neighborhoods near San José State University. Police officers soon announced over loudspeakers that the protesters were violating curfew.
“I turned down a street and there was a line of cops on motorcycles and in cars on both sides,” Angst said. “We got kettled. The protesters started running into yards and houses.”
Angst said she followed several individuals into a backyard, but stopped when some started to jump over the fence. She said she debated walking back out to the main street, but officers had begun to fire rubber bullets and tear gas. So she decided to wait in the backyard instead, which is where she met another reporter, Luke Johnson from the San José Spotlight. Anticipating that the police would soon be entering the backyard, Angst held out her press badge.
“They just started to charge at us and were screaming to get on the ground with our faces down,” Angst said. “I tried to explain that I was with the media and show my badge, but they screamed more and were waving batons, so I got down.”
Angst said the officers surveyed the backyard and asked what she and Johnson were doing there. Again, Angst announced she was a reporter with the Mercury News. She said one officer finally looked at her ID, but no further instruction or permission to leave was given. The Tracker has documented Johnson’s detainment here.
After several minutes, Angst told the Tracker, the officers left the backyard. She was unsure if she could leave the area and did not know if officers were still firing rubber bullets or tear gas on the main street, which she later learned is where they’d detained protesters.
“I was pretty freaked out,” Angst said. “Eventually, another reporter that was there with me talked to the cops. She said to walk out slowly with my hands up, so I did that.”
Angst tweeted about the incident that evening, writing, “Unfortunately, I was too shaken to try and record a video or take down badge numbers. Noted for the future. One officer came back with a flashlight in the backyard at one point — while I was still sitting on the ground — to pick up his dropped sunglasses.”
The mayor and several city council members reached out the following day, according to Angst. She also said she spoke to San Jose Police Chief Eddie Garcia, who shared that some officers may have been put out on patrol but inadequately informed about media exemptions from the citywide curfew.
On September 3, the San Jose Police Department released a 243-page “preliminary After-Action Report” analyzing law enforcement’s response to the “civil unrest” that followed George Floyd’s death from May 29 through June 7. In it, the SJPD detailed numerous incidents with members of the press and concluded that the department needs additional formalized training, clear instruction of protocols for interacting with media and a comprehensive review of procedures regarding use of force and crowd control.
One recommendation raised in the report suggests providing “identifiable reflective vests” to reporters, so they are “more easily distinguishable in a crowd.” However, Sergeant Christian Camarillo told the Tracker that he personally believes that police-issued vests could risk journalists being targeted.
“One of the things I wanted to improve on after reading that after-action report was sitting down and having a dialogue with some of our local media reporters on how to keep them safe,” Camarillo said. “We want to have input from the people out there doing the work.”
Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Movement have been held across the country after a viral video showed a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
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.
Ford Fischer, co-founder and editor-in-chief of News2Share, was struck by a crowd control munition and detained by Metropolitan Police Department officers while on assignment for digital wire service Zenger covering protests in Washington, D.C., on May 31, 2020.
The protest was one of a surge of demonstrations across the country, sparked by the May 25 death of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis.
Fischer, whose video news service focuses on "the latest on politics and activism,” told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was covering demonstrations in Farragut Square, just north of the White House in downtown D.C.
Some of the protesters, he said, moved from the square eastward toward the intersection of 16th and I streets. A group of riot police were gathered about half a block up I Street, Fischer said, and a small group of officers was on the north side of 16th Street.
Demonstrators were throwing fireworks and police tossed flash-bang grenades, Fischer said, as he filmed from a bit behind the protesters. In footage he posted of the incident, Fischer appears to be standing in the street filming as fireworks are launched by individuals nearby.
“At some point during that charging, there was an instant strike to my head,” Fischer said, noting that he could even hear in his video footage the sound of the crowd control munition flying through the air.
I'll have a full footage thread on @Zenger soon, but I found the HD footage from when I got hit with what I believe was a rubber bullet.
— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) June 1, 2020
For about a minute, protesters were shooting fireworks at the cops.
Police charged in and open fired, hitting me at 1:17 in this clip. pic.twitter.com/m8iNrUAmSU
Fischer noted in a separate tweet that the “solid goggles” he was wearing helped minimize the harm, saying that he was “fine.” He told the Tracker that he believes the goggles deflected the round.
“That’s how I ended up with this weird, two part injury from this one shot,” Fischer said. “There was this half-golf ball-sized sore coming out of my forehead and then also an impact on the upper part of my nose.”
Fischer said that after he was struck, he attempted to leave the protest by heading west on I Street, where some looting was taking place.
“At some point police charged them, and it was while everyone was running away westward towards the Foggy Bottom/George Washington region of D.C. that the particular group I was running with ended up being kettled.”
“Kettling” is a police maneuver used to hem in protesters and is often followed with indiscriminate arrests or citations.
Fischer said that he and about 20 protesters were detained in the kettle for approximately eight minutes.
“When I realized what was happening I identified myself as press to one of those officers,” Fischer said, “and I remember that he responded, ‘We’ll talk about that later.’”
While detained, Fischer said he interviewed one of the protesters who had his front teeth knocked out by police earlier that evening. Eventually an officer came up to the group and announced that everyone would be allowed to leave as long as they returned home upon their release, according to Fischer.
“So they let us out one by one, and one of the officers took their body cam off of their vest and held it close to our faces as we exited, effectively taking mugshots or documenting the people they had kettled before letting us go,” Fischer said.
The Metropolitan Police Department did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
The previous night, May 30, Fischer was struck twice with pepper balls, which are functionally paintballs filled with a powdery pepper spray: once in the stomach and once on his right shoulder. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented that incident here.
WCCO photojournalist Tom Aviles was shot with a projectile and later arrested while covering the fifth night of protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 30, 2020.
Multiple days of protests in Minneapolis and across the nation were sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital. Thousands gathered around the convenience store where Floyd had been detained and at the police department’s Third Precinct building in the days that followed.
At approximately 8:45 p.m., Aviles was reporting at the intersection of Nicollet and E. Franklin avenues with WCCO producer Joan Gilbertson. In a video captured by Aviles, he is positioned to the side of their news vehicle when a line of Minnesota State Patrol troopers advanced down the street firing crowd control ammunition.
In the video, a shot is heard firing just before Aviles shouts in pain and the camera shakes. Aviles then moves off the street and into a nearby alley way and parking lot.
As Aviles repositions to film the advancing troopers, one officer breaks out from the line and approaches him, shouting “Get moving! Get gone! Go!”
Aviles can be heard identifying himself as a WCCO photojournalist and asks the trooper where he should move. He also identifies the vehicle that has moved down the road as belonging to the station.
“OK, OK, OK!” Aviles says as two additional officers make their way toward him. He begins to turn around and walk away from the officers and into the parking lot
“Joan! Joan! Get over here!” Aviles shouts to producer Gilbertson, who was presumably still in the car.
An officer then approaches Aviles from behind and tells him he’s under arrest, forcing him to the ground. Aviles complies and multiple times assures the officer that he’s not fighting.
Gilbertson told WCCO that a patrolman told her, “You’ve been warned, or the same thing will happen to you.”
She said she put her hands up and said, “Don’t shoot me, don’t shoot me.”
Aviles was released approximately two hours later, WCCO reported.
Photojournalist Tom is free, after being arrested and shot with a rubber bullet. This true blue, AMAZING journalist even managed to share a smile. #wcco pic.twitter.com/XrbnCKo3tb
— Susan-Elizabeth (@susanelizabethL) May 31, 2020
WCCO could not immediately be reached for comment.
At a news conference late that evening, Minnesota Commissioner of Corrections Paul Schnell said Aviles’ arrest was “regrettable,” CBS News reported. He added that it is difficult to identify journalists amidst the challenges of crowds, smoke devices and police tactics.
“We value and know the importance [of journalists],” Schnell said.
The Minnesota State Patrol was not immediately available for comment.
Multiple other reporters were arrested in Minneapolis that day, and a three-man CNN news crew was arrested by state troopers the day before, on May 29.
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 European Pressphoto Agency photojournalist was assaulted and later arrested alongside two other journalists while covering protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 30, 2020.
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. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find arrests of journalists covering protests related to the death of George Floyd here.
Tannen Maury told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was documenting a peaceful protest when Minnesota State Patrol troopers began to enforce the 8 p.m. curfew, warning all those still present to disperse.
“Five minutes later, they started marching up the street, launching tear gas and I guess rubber bullets, and everything else they have, and I got hit in the back with a projectile,” Maury said.
He believes he was struck with a tear gas canister judging from the large, white residue mark on his shirt and bulletproof vest. Because of his protective gear, Maury said, he was uninjured and able to continue working.
At just after 9 p.m, Maury was walking with freelance photojournalists Stephen Maturen and Craig Lassig on Nicollet Avenue toward 28th Street where a “parade” of police cruisers was driving, according to Maturen.
Maturen told the Tracker that a police cruiser had stopped abruptly on their block and began shooting less-lethal rounds at the handful of people around them.
The three photojournalists identified themselves as members of the media, and were initially told to keep moving.
A moment later, Maturen said, someone made the call to arrest the journalists.
Sheriff’s deputies ordered all three to get on the ground face down with their hands out, and they complied.
Maury said they explained that they were journalists and exempt from the curfew. “They were gentle, they weren’t rough with us at all,” he said.
The photojournalists were taken to the Hennepin County Public Safety Facility in downtown Minneapolis and cited with breaking the city’s curfew order, a misdemeanor which is punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 or up to 90 days in jail. The curfew order specifically exempted members of the news media, however. They were in police custody for approximately two hours.
Maury confirmed that all of their belongings were returned to them upon their release.
Neither the Minneapolis State Patrol nor the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Department could 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.
Law enforcement at a Minneapolis protest on May 30, 2020, after the police killing of George Floyd. Photojournalist Tannen Maury was hit with a tear gas canister fired by a state trooper and arrested while documenting protests in the city.
",arrested and released,Hennepin County Sheriff’s Department,None,None,False,0:20-cv-01302,"['ONGOING', 'SETTLED']",Class Action,None,False,None,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, chemical irritant, protest, shot / shot at",,, 2020-06-03 03:23:07.491717+00:00,2024-02-16 21:42:01.158971+00:00,Freelance photojournalist arrested while covering Minneapolis protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-photojournalist-arrested-while-covering-minneapolis-protest/,2024-02-16 21:42:01.045436+00:00,curfew violation: breaking curfew order (charges dropped as of 2020-08-03),,"(2024-02-08 00:00:00+00:00) Journalists get nearly $1M settlement over Minneapolis BLM protest attacks, (2022-02-08 12:00:00+00:00) Journalists reach settlement agreement with Minnesota State Patrol, rest of suit ongoing, (2020-06-08 00:00:00+00:00) Freelance photojournalist sues following arrest while covering Minneapolis protest, (2020-08-03 16:08:00+00:00) Charges dropped against freelance photojournalist arrested while covering Minneapolis protest",Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Craig Lassig (Freelance),,2020-05-30,False,Minneapolis,Minnesota (MN),44.97997,-93.26384,"Freelance photojournalist Craig Lassig was arrested alongside two other journalists while covering protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 30, 2020.
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. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find arrests of journalists covering protests related to the death of George Floyd here.
At just after 9 p.m., Lassig was walking with photojournalists Stephen Maturen and Tannen Maury on Nicollet Avenue toward 28th Street where a “parade” of police cruisers was driving, according to Maturen.
Maturen told the Tracker that a police cruiser had stopped abruptly on their block and began shooting less-lethal rounds at the handful of people around them.
The three photojournalists identified themselves as members of the media, and were initially told to keep moving.
A moment later, Maturen said, someone made the call to arrest the journalists.
Lassig told the Tracker that the arrest was uneventful.
“The cop that handled me was professional and was careful with my gear,” Lassig said.
Aside from the fact that there was no reason to detain the three of them, he said, they were treated well and only in police custody for approximately two hours.
The journalists were taken to the Hennepin County Public Safety Facility in downtown Minneapolis and cited with breaking the city’s curfew order, a misdemeanor which is punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 or up to 90 days in jail. The curfew order specifically exempted members of the news media, however.
Maturen told the Tracker that all of their belongings were returned to them upon their release.
Neither the Minneapolis State Patrol nor the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Department could 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.
Law enforcement at a Minneapolis protest on May 30, 2020, after the police killing of George Floyd. Photojournalist Craig Lassig was documenting protests when he was arrested for breaking a curfew order that specifically exempted members of the media.
",arrested and released,Hennepin County Sheriff’s Department,None,None,False,0:20-cv-01302,"['ONGOING', 'SETTLED']",Class Action,None,False,None,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",,, 2020-06-03 03:27:40.451788+00:00,2024-02-16 21:38:26.924540+00:00,Photojournalist arrested while covering Minneapolis protests,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-arrested-while-covering-minneapolis-protests/,2024-02-16 21:38:26.772299+00:00,curfew violation: breaking curfew order (charges dropped as of 2020-07-22),,"(2020-07-30 00:00:00+00:00) Freelance photojournalist joins ACLU suit following arrest while covering Minneapolis protest, (2022-02-08 12:01:00+00:00) Journalists reach settlement agreement with Minnesota State Patrol, rest of suit ongoing, (2020-07-22 16:10:00+00:00) Charges dropped against photojournalist arrested while covering Minneapolis protests, (2024-02-08 00:00:00+00:00) Journalists get nearly $1M settlement over Minneapolis BLM protest attacks",Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Stephen Maturen (Freelance),,2020-05-30,False,Minneapolis,Minnesota (MN),44.97997,-93.26384,"Freelance photojournalist Stephen Maturen was arrested alongside two other journalists while covering protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 30, 2020.
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. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find arrests of journalists covering protests related to the death of George Floyd here.
Maturen told the Tracker that he had met up with fellow photojournalists at around 9 p.m. Approximately 10-15 minutes later, they were walking north on Nicollet Avenue toward 28th Street when they saw a “parade” of police cruisers driving to where the majority of protesters had scattered.
“[A police cruiser] stopped abruptly and a number of members of the Sheriff’s Department poured out shooting either markers or gas canisters at the handful of people on that block,” Maturen said.
Maturen — along with European Pressphoto Agency photojournalist Tannen Maury and freelance photojournalist Craig Lassig — identified themselves as members of the media, and were initially told to keep moving.
“There was a moment where it seemed as though we would just be pushed out of that block, but then someone decided to call for us to be arrested,” Maturen said.
The photojournalists were all ordered to get on the ground face down with their hands out.
Maturen said that he was not injured in the course of the arrest and that things “were relatively smooth, all things considered.” He added, however, that when his hands were zip-tied he was still wearing his backpack, and officers cut its straps instead of redoing the ties.
Maturen, Lassig and Maury were taken to the Hennepin County Public Safety Facility in downtown Minneapolis and cited with breaking the city’s curfew order, a misdemeanor which is punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 or up to 90 days in jail. The curfew order specifically exempted members of the news media, however.
They were in police custody for approximately two hours, and Maturen said that his belongings — including his damaged backpack and camera — were returned to him upon his release.
Neither the Minneapolis State Patrol nor the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Department could 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.
Law enforcement at a Minneapolis protest on May 30, 2020, after the police killing of George Floyd. Photojournalist Stephen Maturen was documenting protests when he was arrested for breaking a curfew order that specifically exempted members of the media.
",arrested and released,Hennepin County Sheriff’s Department,None,None,False,0:20-cv-01302,"['ONGOING', 'SETTLED']",Class Action,None,False,None,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",,, 2020-06-03 03:39:03.772761+00:00,2022-11-15 17:22:18.879459+00:00,HuffPost reporter arrested while covering protest in Brooklyn,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/huffpost-reporter-arrested-while-covering-protest-brooklyn/,2022-11-15 17:22:18.785021+00:00,unknown (charges dropped as of 2020-09-30),,(2020-09-30 00:00:00+00:00) Charges dropped against HuffPost journalist,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault",,,,Christopher Mathias (HuffPost),,2020-05-30,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"Christopher Mathias, a senior reporter with HuffPost, was arrested by police while covering anti-racism protests in Brooklyn, New York, on May 30, 2020.
The protests in New York began as demonstrations spread across the country since May 26, sparked by a video of a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, during an arrest. Floyd was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Mathias was covering protests in the Flatbush area on the night of May 30, where he told HuffPost that a dumpster and at least two police cars were set on fire when police began arresting people. Freelance journalist Phoebe Leila Barghouty posted photos on Twitter that appeared to show a New York City police officer restraining Mathias shortly before 11 p.m. and confirmed a short time later that it was Mathias who had been detained.
In an interview with The New York Times about the incident, Mathias said that a police officer ran into him, telling him to move out of the way. Mathias told the Times that he insulted the officer, who then turned around and hit him in the stomach with a baton. Mathias was then taken into custody.
Mathias was wearing a press badge at the time of his arrest, according to HuffPost and photographs of the incident. Other journalists who witnessed police taking him into custody told HuffPost that Mathias was clearly identifying himself as a journalist.
HuffPost reports that, according to Mathias’ wife, his phone was knocked from his hand during the encounter.
HuffPost condemned Mathias’ arrest on Twitter shortly after he was taken into custody and demanded he be released.
Mathias was released from police custody at around 1 a.m. on May 31. The Times reports that he was issued a summons.
Mathias did not return requests for comment about his arrest and HuffPost did not immediately reply to an inquiry seeking more details. The New York City Police Department did not reply to a request for more information about the incident.
Mathias posted on Twitter on May 31 that he was home after he had been taken into custody. He did not offer details about his arrest, but described it as “bogus.”
I'm home & overwhelmed by all your messages of love & support. Thank you.
— Christopher Mathias (@letsgomathias) May 31, 2020
I'll explain more about my arrest later but for now just know it was bogus, as were the arrests of all the brave New Yorkers protesting against a police force that routinely terrorizes this city.
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.
The arrest of HuffPost senior reporter Christopher Mathias during protests in New York on May 30, 2020, was captured by freelance journalist Phoebe Leila Barghouty.
",arrested and released,New York Police Department,2020-05-31,None,True,None,[],None,None,False,None,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",,, 2020-06-04 03:20:43.248216+00:00,2022-05-25 16:53:47.105498+00:00,"Photojournalist arrested covering Dallas protests, camera equipment seized",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-arrested-covering-dallas-protests-camera-equipment-seized/,2022-05-25 16:53:46.984784+00:00,blocking traffic: obstructing a highway or passageway (charges dropped as of 2020-07-01),,"(2020-07-01 21:34:00+00:00) Charges dropped against photojournalist arrested covering Dallas protests, (2022-05-23 12:52:00+00:00) Photojournalist sues Dallas Police Department, officer following 2020 arrest","Arrest/Criminal Charge, Equipment Search or Seizure",,"camera: count of 1, camera lens: count of 4",,Christopher Rusanowsky (ZUMA Press),,2020-05-30,False,Dallas,Texas (TX),32.78306,-96.80667,"Freelance photojournalist Christopher Rusanowsky was arrested by Dallas police while on assignment for ZUMA Press documenting protests in the city 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.
Rusanowsky, 29, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was booked in Dallas County jail on a count of obstructing a highway or other passageway and was held overnight. He was released on bail the following day.
The count is a Class B misdemeanor in Texas, according to the Texas penal code. If convicted, he could face up to 180 days in jail, and a fine of up to $2,000.
Rusanowsky denies that he was obstructing a highway. He said he had been photographing a group of protesters as they blocked traffic on Interstate 35E.
He said he stepped across the highway guardrail and onto the shoulder to take photographs, taking care not to step into the lanes of traffic. Soon after he moved to a grassy area near the interstate to photograph protesters.
Rusanowsky said he began to take photographs of a police officer shooting nonlethal ammunition at a protester at close range when the officer began pointing and yelling at him. He said the officer told him, “You are going to jail too!”
In response, Rusanowsky said he held up his two cameras and showed the officer his ZUMA-issued press credentials. Rusanowsky said the officer replied, “Yeah, yeah. Press, press. You are going to jail.”
The officer then threw him to the ground, he said, where another officer handcuffed him.
He said an officer seized his cameras and four lenses. He later retrieved the items from police headquarters; he said they do not appear to be damaged.
He was booked into Dallas County jail at 11:38 p.m., according to booking records reviewed by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, and was released after posting $300 bail the next day. He posted on Facebook about his release.
The experience has left him shaken, he said. “I’m terrified of cops right now,” he said.
“I don’t have training in hostile environment situations,” he said. “This makes me feel very vulnerable. But I believe in this job so much and I want to do this to give people voices.”
An emailed request for comment on Rusanowsky’s arrest to the Dallas Police Department was not immediately returned.
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.
Tom Fox, photographer for The Dallas Morning News, captured the arrest of photojournalist Christopher Rusanowsky while both were documenting protests on May 30, 2020, in Dallas, Texas.
",arrested and released,Dallas Police Department,2020-05-31,None,False,3:22-cv-01132,['ONGOING'],Civil,returned in full,False,law enforcement,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",,, 2020-06-04 13:32:13.544709+00:00,2021-11-18 20:28:34.381874+00:00,Freelance journalist arrested amid Los Angeles protests,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-journalist-arrested-amid-los-angeles-protests/,2021-11-18 20:28:34.334760+00:00,,,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Oren Peleg (Freelance),,2020-05-30,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"Los Angeles police officers arrested freelance journalist Oren Peleg while he was covering protests in the city 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.
Peleg told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was reporting on protests in downtown Los Angeles that had been declared an unlawful assembly the day before.
At approximately 7:10 p.m., officers advanced on the crowd of approximately 20 protesters, blocking off all exits and forming a kettle. As police squeezed in on them, one of the protesters called out for everyone to sit down, at which point Peleg said he identified himself to police as a member of the press.
“They told me it was too late, that ‘you’re already here, you’re already part of this, we gave you an hour to disperse, so now central booking will take care of you,’” Peleg said.
He said that at no point did he hear officers give an order for the crowd to disperse.
Officers zip-tied Peleg along with the rest of the protesters and told him to sit down on a curb to await a city bus to come by to transfer all of them to Metropolitan Detention Center.
After approximately 30 minutes, the bus had still not arrived, Peleg said, and all of the arrestees were processed in the field. He provided an officer with his address, phone, email, license ID, social security number, and employer, and said police wrote his identifying information on an arrest card.
Peleg said he does not know whether charges for failure to disperse have been brought against him. He said an officer told him not to worry about the card, and that nothing would happen with it.
“When they released us, [the officers] said, ‘We’re releasing you now. If any are detained again you will be arrested and sent to jail,’” Peleg said.
The Los Angeles Police Department told the Tracker that it does not have any information about Peleg’s arrest at this 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.
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",,, 2020-06-16 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",,, 2020-06-18 13:56:04.355271+00:00,2022-03-10 19:29:56.479220+00:00,French television correspondent arrested for curfew violation in Minneapolis,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/french-television-correspondent-arrested-curfew-violation-minneapolis/,2022-03-10 19:29:56.419896+00:00,curfew violation: breaking curfew order (charges dropped as of 2020-07-22),,(2020-07-22 11:39:00+00:00) Charges dropped against French television correspondent arrested during protests in Minneapolis,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault",,,,Amandine Atalaya (TF1),,2020-05-30,False,Minneapolis,Minnesota (MN),44.97997,-93.26384,"A French television correspondent was arrested for curfew violations in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 30, 2020, after police fired rubber projectiles at the car she was riding in, damaging the windshield and sending small shards of glass inside the vehicle. The videographer from her team was arrested at the same time.
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.
Amandine Atalaya, a Washington-based correspondent for TF1, a major French television station, was riding in a rental car driven by her colleague, videographer Mathieu Derrien, in Minneapolis just after 11:15 p.m. when an officer fired a foam projectile at the windshield, damaging it and sending small shards of glass flying inside the car, Derrien told the Tracker in an interview.
Atalaya did not return an interview request as of press time.
Derrien quickly brought the car to a stop, as a few smaller projectiles—perhaps pepper balls—hit the car, leaving behind a white powder.
Officers then approached the car shouting for them to get out and put their hands up, and they complied. They immediately told officers they were French journalists, but the officers said they did not care and that they were in violation of the city’s curfew, Derrien said. 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. She 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 and Atalaya were 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 arrests 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 very concerned when they were unavailable for the live shot they were supposed to do at midnight and called their phones multiple times in search of them, Derrien 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.
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",,, 2020-08-07 17:38:02.302763+00:00,2023-11-03 14:00:35.972777+00:00,Independent journalist says LA police damaged his equipment while arresting him,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalist-says-la-police-damaged-his-equipment-while-arresting-him/,2023-11-03 14:00:35.832385+00:00,failure to obey: failure to obey a lawful order (charges dropped as of 2021-05-31),,(2021-05-31 00:00:00+00:00) Charge dropped against journalist arrested at LA protest,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Damage",,,recording equipment: count of 1,Jonathan Mayorca (The Convo Couch),,2020-05-30,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"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.
Journalist Fiorella Isabel Mayorca, co-owner of video news outlet The Convo Couch, was kettled and arrested by police on May 30, 2020, while covering a Black Lives Matter protest in Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles protest was part of Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality demonstrations around the country. The protests kicked off after 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 arrived at the protest at Beverly Boulevard in the Fairfax neighborhood of Los Angeles around 3:30 p.m. with two crew members, including her brother Jonathan. She and Jonathan began to film the demonstrations. Mayorca’s footage shows demonstrators on the boulevard chanting, holding signs, facing off with a line of police officers and then walking with their hands up.
When the demonstrators started to move west on Beverly Boulevard, Mayorca followed and continued filming. At about 4 p.m., protesters headed down an alleyway near Beverly Boulevard and North Fairfax Avenue. The Los Angeles Police Department had blocked off all other streets and directed protesters in the direction of the alleyway verbally and with their hands, Mayorca said. The police then kettled the demonstrators in the alley, blocking off exits and trapping protesters.
“They started to kettle people and we thought we should be OK because we’re press,” Mayorca said.
Mayorca wore a press badge that hung from a lanyard around her neck. She and her brother told police officers they were press, but they were ignored, she said.
Soon, Los Angeles police rushed in. Video of the police entering the alleyway reviewed by the Tracker does not appear to pick up an audible warning from police. Officers began arresting protesters and journalists, including Mayorca and her brother.
Mayorca was put in handcuffs and then pushed up against a wall by a police officer, she said.
“[A woman officer was] seriously groping me. She went in my underwear. They were acting like we were hiding drugs,” she told the Tracker.
Officers placed zip-tie handcuffs on Mayorca. She said they felt extremely tight.
“The worst part of it was the wrists,” Mayorca said. “The way they placed it, it was like our wrists were going in different directions, not a normal position. It hurt.”
After spending about an hour in a police wagon, she and her brother were taken to the Van Nuys police station in Los Angeles, where she said she was held for about two hours and then released.
Mayorca was given a citation for failure to obey a lawful order, a misdemeanor charge.
The Tracker asked the LAPD to comment on Mayorca’s arrest, including allegations that she was groped while detained by police.
In response, the department referred the Tracker to a statement published in June.
“The Los Angeles Police Department continues to investigate allegations of misconduct, violations of Department policy, and excessive force during the recent civil unrest,” the statement reads. “The Department has assigned 40 investigators to this effort and we will look into every complaint thoroughly and hold every officer accountable for their actions.”
In June, Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer said his office would be resolving the cases of peaceful protesters arrested during recent Black Lives Matter protests in a “non-punitive” way.
Jorge Gonzalez, a civil rights attorney who’s part of a team representing protesters arrested during the recent demonstrations, said the Los Angeles City Attorney has tentatively agreed to dismiss the charges, on the condition that protesters complete an online course on the First Amendment. Gonzalez said Aug. 3 that the team is rejecting the city’s condition and awaiting the city’s response.
Rob Wilcox, a spokesman for City Attorney Feuer, told the Tracker 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’s brother Jonathan is a named 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.
Alzo Slade, a reporter for VICE Media, and three colleagues were detained and fingerprinted by police on May 30 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for being out after curfew while covering ongoing protests, according to Slade.
The protests were held in response to the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in Minneapolis on May 25. During an arrest, a white Minneapolis Police officer kneeled on Floyd’s neck and ignored Floyd’s pleas that he could not breathe. Floyd was later pronounced dead in a hospital.
Slade told the Committee to Protect Journalists that he was reporting on protests in downtown Minneapolis with three other VICE journalists when they encountered a long line of police in riot gear forming a wall to block the street. Slade said that the police began spraying tear gas and pepper spray. He realized that the crew — producers and camera operators Jika Gonzalez, Elis Rua, and Dave Mayer — needed to turn away to put on the gas masks they were carrying.
“We didn’t go into a peaceful protest wearing gas masks and flak jackets because visually that just says that you’re expecting trouble and that you’re looking for trouble,” Slade said.
The journalist said that he and his colleagues ducked into an alleyway and turned around to see that riot police had followed them.
“We immediately announced that we’re press, but they told us to get down on the ground,” Slade said. “We comply 100 percent. We get down on the ground and as a police officer walks toward us, I hold my credentials up and I say ‘I’m press, we’re press, sir!’,” Slade said.
A police officer then proceeded to use zip ties to secure Slade’s hands behind his back while his gas mask was still on, he said. The other crew members also had their hands zip tied behind their back.
“It is important to note that in this crew, there are four people and three of us are Black men,” Slade said.
Slade said that the officer, a Minnesota State Trooper, then asked to see his credentials. He managed to show the officer, despite having his hands tied behind his back. The journalist said he was then passed to another officer who placed Slade and his crew into a wagon in the middle of the street that was still thick with teargas and pepper spray. Police removed his gas mask while Gonzalez was sent to another part of the police wagon with other women.
“One of the crew asks for masks; they tell us we’re going to get masks when we get down to the station,” Slade said. Instead, he said, they sat in the van for about 25 minutes.
At the station, Slade said they waited for officers to figure out their case number before each crew member was fingerprinted.
“They gave us [each] a citation and VICE’s attorney immediately contacted the state of Minnesota and filed grievances,” Slade said. “The state of Minnesota assured us that [the citations] would not go on our record and that [they] would be dropped.”
About a week later, Slade and the other VICE crew members received a notification in the mail with a court date, Slade said. The notice said failure to appear would result in a bench warrant.
The Commissioner for the Department of Corrections has since confirmed to VICE that the dismissals are forthcoming, according to a VICE spokesperson, who corresponded with CPJ via email.
According to news reports, the media was exempt from curfew the night the VICE crew was arrested.
“What added insult to injury is that we lost a night of coverage,” Slade said. “We were not able to cover the protests that night. We were not able to cover the aggression by law enforcement that night, so that’s really what kind of stung just as much.”
The Minneapolis Police and Minnesota State Patrol did not respond to CPJ’s emailed 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.
Minneapolis law enforcement officers and protesters are seen amid tear gas on May 30, 2020.
",arrested and released,Minnesota State Patrol,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,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",,, 2020-09-28 21:10:36.724890+00:00,2022-11-09 17:13:29.412611+00:00,VICE Media producer arrested while covering Minneapolis protests,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/vice-media-producer-arrested-while-covering-minneapolis-protests/,2022-11-09 17:13:29.330967+00:00,curfew violation: breaking curfew order (charges dropped as of 2020-08-11),,(2020-08-11 22:21:00+00:00) Charges dropped against VICE Media producer arrested while covering Minneapolis protests,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Jika González (VICE News),,2020-05-30,False,Minneapolis,Minnesota (MN),44.97997,-93.26384,"Jika González, a producer for VICE Media, and three colleagues were arrested on May 30 in Minneapolis, for being out after curfew while covering ongoing protests.
The protests were held in response to the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in Minneapolis on May 25. During an arrest, a white Minneapolis Police officer kneeled on Floyd’s neck and ignored Floyd’s pleas that he could not breathe. Floyd was later pronounced dead in a hospital.
González told the Committee to Protect Journalists, a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, that she was reporting on protests in downtown Minneapolis with VICE film crew members Alzo Slade, Ellis Rua, and Dave Mayers. The crew was following protesters when police began forming a line to block the protest’s progression, González said.
“We stayed to get a few shots of police forming the line, and then the first thing of [an irritant] was launched,” said González, who referred to police when she meant Minnesota State Troopers. The crew ducked into a side alley off of the main avenue, the journalist said.
“We were thinking that police had established that line and were going to stay there because this march was very peaceful,” González said. Law enforcement then came around the corner and started yelling at the journalists to get on the ground, and they complied, she said.
González said she could see Slade and Mayer but Rua was behind her. Her colleagues were lying on the ground. González said she was kneeling on the ground with her hands up. Her mask was on halfway.
González said that an officer approached Slade, who said they were press. The state trooper glanced at his press badge before taking him away.
Troopers took Mayer and then González to a holding vehicle that was partitioned by gender. González was held with a woman who was not a journalist, she said. Rua was then brought to the other side of the vehicle to join Mayer and Slade.
The detention took place near Nicollet and Franklin Avenues in downtown Minneapolis, according to the citation that was later issued. The Tracker documents all arrests separately.
González said her hands were ziptied. A trooper removed her gas mask and ignored her request for a medical mask, she said.
Troopers put the journalists' equipment — including several cameras and microphones — into bags and took them along with the journalists to the precinct. Troopers also confiscated the crew’s cellphones, González said.
“There was no way protesters would be carrying all of those cameras,” González said.
When they got to the precinct, law enforcement deliberated over what citation they should use to process the journalists, according to González. At no point was the team read their Miranda rights, the journalist noted.
González said she again requested a surgical mask and was given one by police.
Eventually, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office charged the journalists with violating curfew, according to the citation viewed by CPJ.
As the police were walking González out of the precinct, she said one of the officers mentioned thinking that they weren’t supposed to arrest “you guys,” meaning journalists. González said another officer responded, “Well, now you can put it on your resume.”
The crew’s equipment, including their cellphones, was returned during their release and no footage was deleted, González said.
According to news reports, the media was exempt from curfew the night the VICE crew was arrested.
About a week after the arrest, González received via mail a court summons from the Hennepin County District Court for October 26, according to a copy of the summons that was seen by CPJ.
A VICE spokesperson told CPJ that the Commissioner for the Department of Corrections has said the charges will be dropped.
But as of late September, González told CPJ that she had not yet received any notification of dropped charges.
Ellis Rua, a camera operator for VICE Media, and three colleagues were arrested on May 30, 2020, in Minneapolis for being out after curfew while covering ongoing protests, Rua told the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The protests were held in response to the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in Minneapolis on May 25. During an arrest, a white Minneapolis Police officer kneeled on Floyd’s neck and ignored Floyd’s pleas that he could not breathe. Floyd was later pronounced dead in a hospital.
Rua said that he and the VICE crew — Alzo Slade, Jika González, and Dave Mayers — were spending time with protesters at a food distribution center when they decided to follow a protest that was starting up so they could get B-roll.
Police appeared in front of the group of protesters and the journalists, obstructing their way forward, and began firing tear gas, Rua said. Law enforcement emerged from vehicles labeled as belonging to Minnesota State Troopers. They were wearing riot gear that also identified them as state troopers, according to Mayers.
When law enforcement started firing tear gas, Rua suggested the crew find a corner to put on their gas masks. Rua didn’t think the state troopers would arrest journalists with press passes. But the troopers approached the journalists and told them to get on the ground, Rua said. The group complied.
One of the officers said he would need to speak to his commander. The officer spoke with someone by phone, and then told the journalists that they were under arrest, Rua said.
“I was quite surprised,” Rua said. “We did identify ourselves as press, but they still proceeded to arrest us.”
The detention took place near Nicollet and Franklin Avenues in downtown Minneapolis, according to the citation that was later issued.
Rua was carrying a gas mask with canisters, a helmet, and a camera. The rest of the crew had other equipment including two Sony Fs7 cameras and multiple lenses, according to Rua.
Initially law enforcement used plastic ties to secure the wrists of all four crew members, Rua said. First Slade, then Mayers, and then González were walked to a police vehicle, while Rua was left waiting in the side street for what he said felt like 15 to 30 minutes before he was also brought to the vehicle.
The journalists were then taken to a police building where the plastic zip ties were replaced with metal handcuffs and they were fingerprinted, Rua said. The journalists were not allowed to make a phone call or read their Miranda rights at any point during their detention, Rua said.
Each of the journalists was given a citation for breaking curfew from the Hennepin County Sheriff's Department, the journalist said. They were expected to appear in court in late October.
Eventually, Rua and Mayers were notified that the charges against them have been dropped. As of late September, Slade and González were still waiting for a similar notification.
Dave Mayers, a producer for VICE Media, and three colleagues were arrested on May 30, 2020, in Minneapolis for being out after curfew while covering ongoing protests.
The protests were held in response to the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in Minneapolis on May 25. During an arrest, a white Minneapolis Police officer kneeled on Floyd’s neck and ignored Floyd’s pleas that he could not breathe. Floyd was later pronounced dead in a hospital.
Mayers told the Committee to Protect Journalists, a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, that he was reporting on protesters in downtown Minneapolis with three VICE journalists — Alzo Slade, Jika González, and Ellis Rua — prior to their arrests.
The journalists were following a protest at about 8:10 p.m. when several state troopers pulled up in front of them, Mayers said. “They pop out of their cars and they have state trooper body armor on and tear gas launchers and stuff. They cut the protest off from being able to head downtown.”
Mayers said that he and González, a VICE producer, were filming the line of officers when the troopers started firing tear gas toward the crowd.
“It was unprovoked,” Mayers said. “It was a very peaceful protest and didn’t seem like it was going to be confrontational in any way and it turned confrontational very, very quickly. It was the police that ratcheted it up.”
Mayers said he heard a state trooper tell a colleague to get one of the protesters just before the troopers shot tear gas.
Mayers said he saw a yellow tear gas canister hit a person who was standing in front of a correspondent from another network. Once the crew decided that the state troopers were shooting tear gas indiscriminately, they ran down a narrow side street and put on their masks. Yellow and white gas swirled in the air. Mayers said he saw the troopers advancing from the main street.
“One of the police looks down [the side street] at us and points a gun at us and says, ‘Get down, get down, get down,’” said Mayers, who used police interchangeably with state troopers and other law enforcement. Slade’s microphone was still on. Mayers was wearing an earpiece that connected to the microphone and was able to hear Slade clearly.
“At this moment, I was terrified,” Mayers said, noting that the crew included three Black men and González, who’s Latina.
As the state troopers approached, the crew yelled that they were members of the press. The state troopers looked at Slade’s VICE-issued press pass, handcuffed him with zip ties and took him to a police van, Mayers said.
“They looked at my ID and I asked, ‘What are we being arrested for?’” Mayers said. “They didn’t really answer, and did the same thing.” The state troopers handcuffed Mayers with zip ties too.
“We shouldn’t have looked like anything other than press,” Mayers said. “We had tens of thousands of dollars of camera equipment on us.”
The detention took place near Nicollet and Franklin Avenues in downtown Minneapolis, according to the citation that was later issued.
Police took Mayers’ camera, put it in a plastic bag, removed his gas mask, and led him into the police van next to Slade, Mayers said. The van, he said, was in the middle of a street where tear gas had just been released. Mayers and Slade were both coughing from the gas that hung in the air.
They waited in the van for about an hour before moving, Mayers said. The van was partitioned with Rua, a VICE camera operator, later joining Slade and Mayers. González was on the other side of the van with a woman who was not a journalist, Mayers said.
The journalists were transported to the Hennepin County Jail. Their gear was brought there in plastic bags, Mayers said. They waited in the police vehicle while the police determined their charges. Law enforcement included officers from Hennepin and a second county, the journalist said.
Police then took the journalists out of the vehicle and into the jail where each crew member was fingerprinted and photographed, Mayers said. While they were fingerprinted, their plastic zip ties were replaced with metal cuffs, Mayers said.
The journalist said he didn’t see any other people being processed aside from the VICE crew and the woman who was arrested with them though there were about 50 police in the facility, Mayers said.
Each member of the VICE crew was charged with violating curfew, according to the journalists.
After about four hours, the journalists were released and their equipment was returned without damage, Mayers said. The crew walked back to their hotel because their vehicle was in the opposite direction, he said.
Mayers said that a VICE lawyer told the crew their charges would be dismissed. Weeks later, the crew members received a court summons in the mail.
The journalist received a letter dated August 4, 2020, from the Deputy City Attorney for the City of Minneapolis stating that the charges were dismissed, a copy of which was seen by CPJ.
CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez was arrested with two other members of his CNN news crew while covering protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the early morning of 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. Thousands gathered around the convenience store where Floyd had been detained and at the police department’s Third Precinct building in the days that followed.
At least five journalists were hit with crowd control ammunition while covering the Minneapolis protests on May 26 and May 27 as police officers launched tear gas, stun grenades and less lethal ammunition into the crowd. 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 these protests across the country. Find these incidents here.
Just after 5 a.m. on May 29, CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez was reporting live a few blocks from the Third Precinct, which had been set on fire by protesters the night before, CNN reported.
In the live footage, Minnesota State Patrol troopers can be seen approaching the news crew and asking them to move.
Jimenez calmly shows the officers his CNN identification and is heard telling the troopers, “We can move back to where you’d like. We are live on the air at the moment.”
Soon after, two officers in riot gear approached Jimenez and told him he was under arrest. The officers did not appear to respond to the reporter’s questions about why he was being taken into custody.
CNN’s camera continued to film as Jimenez was cuffed and led away from his crew. Shortly after, other officers detained photojournalist Leonel Mendez and producer Bill Kirkos as well. The crew’s camera — which was still rolling — was also seized by the troopers.
Soon after the arrests, CNN posted a statement on Twitter condemning the arrests as a violation of the journalists’ First Amendment Rights and demanding that the news crew be released.
A CNN reporter & his production team were arrested this morning in Minneapolis for doing their jobs, despite identifying themselves - a clear violation of their First Amendment rights. The authorities in Minnesota, incl. the Governor, must release the 3 CNN employees immediately.
— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) May 29, 2020
The three journalists were released from the Hennepin County Public Safety facility in downtown Minneapolis at around 6:40 a.m., CNN reported.
In an on-air recounting of events after his release, Jimenez said, “As far as the people who were leading me away — there was no animosity there, they weren’t violent with me. We were having a conversation about how crazy this week has been for every part of the city.”
The local chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists and the National Association of Black Journalists released a joint statement condemning the arrests.
The statement reads, in part: “Police, State Patrol and other law enforcement officers should be well aware of the importance of the media whose job it is to document and report on breaking news for the benefit of the general public. We implore the responding parties to alert their officers on the rights of the press and the necessity of their presence as they continue to report on the current unrest.”
Freedom of the Press Foundation, the Committee to Protect Journalists and other press advocacy groups also released statements condemning the arrests.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz apologized for the arrests during a press conference a few hours after the journalists were released, stating that it should not have happened.
“This one is on me and I own it,” Walz said. “I am a teacher by trade and I have spent my time as governor highlighting the need to be as transparent as possible and to have the media here: I failed you last night in that.”
Walz added that ensuring that there is a safe place for journalists to report during such incidents is vital, and that the arrest of journalists can increase fear in affected communities.
“We will continue to strive to make sure that that accessibility is maintained,” Walz added. “The protection and security and safety of the journalists covering this is a top priority, not because it’s a nice thing to do, because it’s a key component of how we fix this.”
Neither CNN nor the Minnesota State Patrol responded to multiple emailed requests for comment about the incident.
This incident was updated on July 22, 2020, to separate each crew member's arrest into its own accounting. Find all arrests here.
CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez is arrested while reporting live from protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The mayor later apologized for the arrest of Jimenez and two other members of the CNN crew.
",detained and released without being processed,Minnesota State Patrol,2020-05-29,2020-05-29,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,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",,, 2020-06-02 04:26:12.383816+00:00,2022-05-12 22:21:12.919817+00:00,Photojournalists for Review-Journal arrested while covering Las Vegas protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalists-review-journal-arrested-while-covering-las-vegas-protest/,2022-05-12 22:21:12.846165+00:00,rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2020-11-04),,(2020-11-04 15:51:00+00:00) District Attorney drops charges against Las Vegas Review-Journal photojournalist,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault",,,,Ellen Schmidt (Las Vegas Review-Journal),,2020-05-29,False,Las Vegas,Nevada (NV),36.17497,-115.13722,"Ellen Schmidt, a photojournalist on staff at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and Bridget Bennett, a freelance photographer working for Agence France-Presse, were arrested on May 29, 2020, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The journalists were covering protests that broke out in response to the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
A video posted on Twitter shows a group of Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officers shoving and grabbing Schmidt, and throwing Bennett to the ground, before arresting the women.
Thank you for the update! Is this you being arrested last night? pic.twitter.com/7IJhg8AZ6M
— Las Vegas Locally 🌴 (@LasVegasLocally) May 30, 2020
While Schmidt was being arrested, an LVMPD officer took possession of her camera. She later clarified on Twitter that the LVMPD officer only turned her camera off and did not look through or delete any of the pictures that she had taken or the protest.
Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo later told the Nevada Independent that Schmidt and Bennett had ignored LVMPD officers’ orders to disperse and did not identify themselves as members of the media. But in an interview with the Review-Journal, Schmidt said that she and Bennett had in fact repeatedly identified themselves as a member of the press and were wearing their press badges at the time that they were arrested.
“It is appalling that Las Vegas police officers, who have nothing to do with what happened in Minnesota, would so forcefully take into custody two people who were obviously working photojournalists and posed no threat to law enforcement or public safety,” Review-Journal executive editor Glenn Cook said in a statement. “They never should have been touched, let alone arrested and then booked into jail.”
Schmidt and Bennett were each charged with “failure to disperse,” a misdemeanor. Although people charged with “failure to disperse” are supposed to be released immediately, rather than being held in jail on bail, both Schmidt and Bennett were held in jail overnight and only released on the morning of May 30.
Las Vegas Chief Justice of the Peace Suzan Bacum told the Review-Journal that the two journalists should not have been held overnight in jail and blamed the situation on a miscommunication between the police and the court system.
“These people should have never been held on these misdemeanors,” she said. “It’s a travesty.”
Richard Karpel, executive director of the Nevada Press Association, condemned the arrests in a statement:
“The press serve a vital, constitutionally protected role during moments of national strife and civil disobedience,” he said. “Journalists put themselves at risk to inform citizens about protestors’ grievances and their actions, and to observe whether law enforcement personnel are operating within the bounds of the law. The arrest of journalists working in a public forum at a highly newsworthy event is absolutely unacceptable."
Ellen Schmidt, a photojournalist on staff at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and Bridget Bennett, a freelance photographer working for Agence France-Presse, were arrested on May 29, 2020, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The journalists were covering protests that broke out in response to the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
A video posted on Twitter shows a group of Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officers shoving and grabbing Schmidt, and throwing Bennett to the ground, before arresting the women.
Thank you for the update! Is this you being arrested last night? pic.twitter.com/7IJhg8AZ6M
— Las Vegas Locally 🌴 (@LasVegasLocally) May 30, 2020
Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo later told the Nevada Independent that Schmidt and Bennett had ignored LVMPD officers’ orders to disperse and did not identify themselves as members of the media. But in an interview with the Review-Journal, Schmidt said that she and Bennett had in fact repeatedly identified themselves as a member of the press and were wearing their press badges at the time that they were arrested.
“It is appalling that Las Vegas police officers, who have nothing to do with what happened in Minnesota, would so forcefully take into custody two people who were obviously working photojournalists and posed no threat to law enforcement or public safety,” Review-Journal executive editor Glenn Cook said in a statement. “They never should have been touched, let alone arrested and then booked into jail.”
Schmidt and Bennett were each charged with “failure to disperse,” a misdemeanor. Although people charged with “failure to disperse” are supposed to be released immediately, rather than being held in jail on bail, both Schmidt and Bennett were held in jail overnight and only released on the morning of May 30.
Las Vegas Chief Justice of the Peace Suzan Bacum told the Review-Journal that the two journalists should not have been held overnight in jail and blamed the situation on a miscommunication between the police and the court system.
“These people should have never been held on these misdemeanors,” she said. “It’s a travesty.”
Richard Karpel, executive director of the Nevada Press Association, condemned the arrests in a statement:
“The press serve a vital, constitutionally protected role during moments of national strife and civil disobedience,” he said. “Journalists put themselves at risk to inform citizens about protestors’ grievances and their actions, and to observe whether law enforcement personnel are operating within the bounds of the law. The arrest of journalists working in a public forum at a highly newsworthy event is absolutely unacceptable."
CNN photojournalist Leonel Mendez was arrested with two other members of a CNN news crew while covering protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the early morning of 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 in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. Thousands gathered around the convenience store where Floyd had been detained and at the police department’s Third Precinct building in the days that followed.
At least five journalists were hit with crowd control ammunition while covering the Minneapolis protests on May 26 and May 27 as police officers launched tear gas, stun grenades and less lethal ammunition into the crowd. 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.
Just after 5 a.m. on May 29, the CNN news crew — comprised of Mendez, correspondent Omar Jimenez and producer Bill Kirkos — was reporting live a few blocks from the Third Precinct, which had been set on fire by protesters the night before, CNN reported.
In the live footage, Minnesota State Patrol troopers can be seen approaching the news crew and asking them to move.
Jimenez calmly shows the officers his CNN identification and is heard telling the troopers, “We can move back to where you’d like. We are live on the air at the moment.”
Within minutes, officers in riot gear approach and arrest each member of the news crew in turn while the camera continues to broadcast live.
Soon after the arrests, CNN posted a statement on Twitter condemning the arrests as a violation of the journalists’ First Amendment Rights and demanding that the news crew be released.
A CNN reporter & his production team were arrested this morning in Minneapolis for doing their jobs, despite identifying themselves - a clear violation of their First Amendment rights. The authorities in Minnesota, incl. the Governor, must release the 3 CNN employees immediately.
— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) May 29, 2020
The three journalists were released from the Hennepin County Public Safety facility in downtown Minneapolis at around 6:40 a.m., CNN reported.
The local chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists and the National Association of Black Journalists released a joint statement condemning the arrests.
The statement reads, in part: “Police, State Patrol and other law enforcement officers should be well aware of the importance of the media whose job it is to document and report on breaking news for the benefit of the general public. We implore the responding parties to alert their officers on the rights of the press and the necessity of their presence as they continue to report on the current unrest.”
Freedom of the Press Foundation, the Committee to Protect Journalists and other press advocacy groups also released statements condemning the arrests.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz apologized for the arrests during a press conference a few hours after the journalists were released, stating that it should not have happened.
“This one is on me and I own it,” Walz said. “I am a teacher by trade and I have spent my time as governor highlighting the need to be as transparent as possible and to have the media here: I failed you last night in that.”
Walz added that ensuring that there is a safe place for journalists to report during such incidents is vital, and that the arrest of journalists can increase fear in affected communities.
“We will continue to strive to make sure that that accessibility is maintained,” Walz added. “The protection and security and safety of the journalists covering this is a top priority, not because it’s a nice thing to do, because it’s a key component of how we fix this.”
Neither CNN nor the Minnesota State Patrol responded to multiple emailed requests for comment about the incident.
The camera operated by CNN photojournalist Leonel Mendez continues to broadcast from Minneapolis, Minnesota as Mendez and two other members of the CNN news crew are arrested live on-air on May 29, 2020.
",detained and released without being processed,Minnesota State Patrol,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,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",,, 2020-07-22 16:16:58.135257+00:00,2021-10-14 15:38:29.463734+00:00,"CNN producer, crew arrested on-air while documenting Minneapolis protests",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cnn-producer-crew-arrested-air-while-documenting-minneapolis-protests/,2021-10-14 15:38:29.399159+00:00,,,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Bill Kirkos (CNN),,2020-05-29,False,Minneapolis,Minnesota (MN),44.97997,-93.26384,"CNN Producer Bill Kirkos was arrested with two other members of his CNN news crew while covering protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the early morning of 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 in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. Thousands gathered around the convenience store where Floyd had been detained and at the police department’s Third Precinct building in the days that followed.
At least five journalists were hit with crowd control ammunition while covering the Minneapolis protests on May 26 and May 27 as police officers launched tear gas, stun grenades and less lethal ammunition into the crowd. 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.
Just after 5 a.m. on May 29, the CNN news crew — comprised of Kirkos, correspondent Omar Jimenez and photographer Leonel Mendez — was reporting live a few blocks from the Third Precinct, which had been set on fire by protesters the night before, CNN reported.
In the live footage, Minnesota State Patrol troopers can be seen approaching the news crew and asking them to move.
Jimenez calmly shows the officers his CNN identification and is heard telling the troopers, “We can move back to where you’d like. We are live on the air at the moment.”
Within minutes, officers in riot gear approach and arrest each member of the news crew in turn while the camera continues to broadcast live.
Soon after the arrests, CNN posted a statement on Twitter condemning the arrests as a violation of the journalists’ First Amendment Rights and demanding that the news crew be released.
A CNN reporter & his production team were arrested this morning in Minneapolis for doing their jobs, despite identifying themselves - a clear violation of their First Amendment rights. The authorities in Minnesota, incl. the Governor, must release the 3 CNN employees immediately.
— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) May 29, 2020
The three journalists were released from the Hennepin County Public Safety facility in downtown Minneapolis at around 6:40 a.m., CNN reported.
The local chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists and the National Association of Black Journalists released a joint statement condemning the arrests.
The statement reads, in part: “Police, State Patrol and other law enforcement officers should be well aware of the importance of the media whose job it is to document and report on breaking news for the benefit of the general public. We implore the responding parties to alert their officers on the rights of the press and the necessity of their presence as they continue to report on the current unrest.”
Freedom of the Press Foundation, the Committee to Protect Journalists and other press advocacy groups also released statements condemning the arrests.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz apologized for the arrests during a press conference a few hours after the journalists were released, stating that it should not have happened.
“This one is on me and I own it,” Walz said. “I am a teacher by trade and I have spent my time as governor highlighting the need to be as transparent as possible and to have the media here: I failed you last night in that.”
Walz added that ensuring that there is a safe place for journalists to report during such incidents is vital, and that the arrest of journalists can increase fear in affected communities.
“We will continue to strive to make sure that that accessibility is maintained,” Walz added. “The protection and security and safety of the journalists covering this is a top priority, not because it’s a nice thing to do, because it’s a key component of how we fix this.”
Neither CNN nor the Minnesota State Patrol responded to multiple emailed requests for comment about the incident.
CNN producer Bill Kirkos is arrested with two other members of the news crew during a live broadcast from protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 29, 2020.
",detained and released without being processed,Minnesota State Patrol,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,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",,, 2021-08-23 15:03:29.917644+00:00,2022-05-12 22:23:35.076231+00:00,Photojournalist cited for blocking the road while covering LA homeless camp cleanup,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-cited-for-blocking-the-road-while-covering-la-homeless-camp-cleanup/,2022-05-12 22:23:35.012011+00:00,blocking traffic: blocking a roadway (charges dropped as of 2020-08-04),,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Glenna Gordon (The New York Times Magazine),,2020-05-07,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"Photojournalist Glenna Gordon was detained and issued a ticket for blocking the road while documenting a homeless camp cleanup operation in Los Angeles, California, on May 7, 2020.
Gordon told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she was on assignment for The New York Times Magazine to document the housing crisis in LA, which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic; LA Sanitation & Environment clean operations aim to remove trash and encourage unhoused populations to seek out shelters.
Upon arriving at the site alongside an activist, Gordon said, a LASAN employee approached her and ordered her to move back; as she continued to take pictures of the workers removing tents Gordon said the workers became very angry. When Gordon and the activist turned the corner to go to the next street for the sweep, Los Angeles Police Department officers were waiting for them.
“The cops were immediately very aggressive with me,” Gordon said. “The sanitation workers are along the sidewalk and I’m standing close to them in the road and the cops yell at me to get back. And then I back up into the middle of the road — and keep in mind that this was during deep COVID and there are no cars on the road. And then the cops are yelling at me that I’m blocking the road.”
Gordon told the Tracker she tried to back up further to get out of the road but the officers detained her anyway.
“They pulled me over to the sidewalk and I asked them if I was arrested and they said no, I was detained. I asked if I was free to go and they said no,” Gordon said. The officers allowed her to sit on the sidewalk without being cuffed as they asked her questions and contacted a supervisory officer.
The activist who arrived with her captured an image of Gordon being detained. Gordon told the Tracker that while she was not wearing a press badge at the time, she had credentials from the National Press Photographers Association in her bag and repeatedly identified herself as a member of the press.
@_glennagordon was a badass though. Here she is being detained for taking pics of sweeps. pic.twitter.com/AsCK7lRhHN
— HABLA (@myhabla90291) July 13, 2021
Gordon told the Tracker that she was detained for one to two hours before she was released with a ticket ordering her to appear for a hearing on Aug. 5. Before that date arrived, however, Gordon said the charges against her were suddenly dropped without explanation. She believes that hers were among the charges dropped by LA City Attorney Mike Feuer in early June, following mass arrests at Black Lives Matter protests spurred by the death of George Floyd.
“I understand ultimately that the situation was not that bad for me because I am a white woman who was on assignment for the Times,” Gordon said. “It could have played out very differently, for example, for someone who’s a freelancer and not on assignment or someone who is young and brown or just doesn’t have the level of security that I had in that moment.”
The Los Angeles Police Department did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
New York City police confiscated the drone of independent aerial photojournalist George Steinmetz as he attempted to document mass burials on Hart Island on April 14, 2020.
The island has been used as a potter’s field — a burial site for the city’s unidentified deceased or those without means for burial elsewhere — since the 19th century. The Washington Post reported that since the outbreak of the new coronavirus, burials on the island have grown from an average of 25 per week to a peak of 120. While access to the island is usually limited, during the pandemic it has been completely shut off to the press, Gothamist reported.
Steinmetz told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was piloting his drone at dawn on that Tuesday from a parking lot in City Island in the Bronx, which is a half mile away from Hart Island. He was accompanied by a CBS News journalist, as the outlet was doing a video piece on Steinmetz and his photography of the city amid COVID-19.
Minutes after starting to take pictures of the island, a group of plainclothes NYPD officers exited an unmarked van and told him to land the drone, Steinmetz said.
The officers initially demanded that Steinmetz show them the photos he had taken, which he did, and then asked him to turn over his memory card. He told the Tracker he refused.
Steinmetz said that the officers did not work at the local precinct, and therefore he waited with them in the parking lot for nearly an hour until another officer could bring the correct paperwork to seize the drone and censure Steinmetz.
Ultimately, in addition to the seizure of his $1,500 drone, the officers issued Steinmetz a misdemeanor summons for “avigation,” a law which prevents private individuals from launching drones anywhere in the metro area that isn’t an airport. According to Steinmetz, he faces up to a $1,000 fine for violating the regulation.
“The law about avigation is really written for flying over densely populated parts of New York City — like lower Manhattan — where with all the radio and cell traffic and microwaves it’s possible to lose contact with the drone or it could crash into a building and fall onto people’s heads,” Steinmetz said.
Steinmetz said that since the drone was flying over the water, it couldn’t endanger anyone.
“It was clear to me that they were trying to harass the press,” he said.
Mickey Osterreicher, general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, told the Tracker that while Steinmetz has a FAA license to pilot a drone, that only prevents him from running afoul of the federal regulations. That does not matter under the city’s avigation restrictions, Osterreicher said.
“In one sense, I understand why the police see the drone as evidence, but in another sense it’s like taking a journalist’s camera: This is a device that he or she is using to gather and disseminate news and by taking it from them it is depriving them of the ability to do that, because drones are not inexpensive,” Osterreicher said.
When asked about the return of Steinmetz’s drone and maximum penalties for violating the avigation law, an NYPD spokesperson emailed this statement: “Drones are illegal to fly in New York City except for authorized areas. The areas approved for flying drones are very limited and set by the FAA.”
Osterreicher noted that Steinmetz is the second journalist whose drone was seized while attempting to photograph Hart Island in recent weeks. He added that police returned the drone to the first photojournalist the following day, but declined to publicly identify that journalist. As of publication, Steinmetz’s drone had not been returned.
A spokesperson for the Department of Corrections, which oversees Hart Island and typically conducts the burials, told Gothamist in a statement, "Out of respect to the families and friends of those buried on Hart Island, we have a longstanding policy of not permitting photography of an active burial site from Hart Island. It is disrespectful."
Mayoral spokesperson Olivia Lapeyrolerie told Gothamist that Bill de Blasio’s administration is exploring ways of granting press access to Hart Island burials safely.
Drone images of bodies being buried on New York’s Hart Island were captured on April 9. About a week later, a photojournalist capturing similar images was issued a citation and had his drone seized by the New York Police Department.
",arrested and released,New York Police 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,[],,coronavirus,,, 2020-04-14 19:33:58.549517+00:00,2024-02-29 19:43:41.963134+00:00,Liberty University obtains trespassing warrants against two journalists,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/liberty-university-obtains-trespassing-warrants-against-two-journalists/,2024-02-29 19:43:41.852709+00:00,trespassing (charges dropped as of 2020-05-15),LegalOrder object (98),(2020-05-15 13:50:00+00:00) Criminal charges against two journalists dropped,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Subpoena/Legal Order",,,,Julia Rendleman (The New York Times),,2020-04-06,False,Lynchburg,Virginia (VA),37.41375,-79.14225,"Arrest warrants were issued on April 6, 2020, for two journalists after they visited Liberty University to cover the school's decision to invite students back to campus following spring break during the coronavirus pandemic.
Virginia Magistrate Kang Lee signed the misdemeanor arrest warrants, which were sought by the Liberty University Police Department against ProPublica's Alec MacGillis, who wrote a March 26 report about students who returned to the university's Lynchburg, Virginia, campus, and Julia Rendleman, a freelance photographer on assignment for The New York Times whose photos accompanied a March 29 story in the newspaper. A warrant was not issued for the author of the Times piece, Elizabeth Williamson, as university officials had not located eyewitnesses placing her on campus, University President Jerry Falwell Jr. told The Associated Press.
Falwell has faced criticism of downplaying the risk posed by the coronavirus and being slow to halt in-person classes at the school. Around 1,000 students remain on campus. In MacGillis' ProPublica piece, "What’s It Like on One of the Only University Campuses Still Open in the U.S.?" he describes many examples of students on campus not adhering to social distancing guidelines and students and faculty worried about their personal safety.
The decision whether to prosecute will be up to Lynchburg Commonwealth’s Attorney Bethany Harrison, according to the AP. "Once I receive copies of the served warrants, obtain reports from the Liberty University Police Department, conduct any necessary follow up investigation, and thoroughly research the applicable statutes and case law, I will make a final decision about how to proceed," Harrison said in a news release. Under Virginia law criminal trespassing is a class one misdemeanor, carrying a sentence of up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $2,500.
"We have heard nothing about this warrant from either Liberty or any authority of the Commonwealth of Virginia," ProPublica President Richard Tofel wrote in an email to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. "We have also still never heard any suggestion from Liberty that anything in our story was factually inaccurate. We continue to believe this was a story of significant public interest about the greatest public health crisis of our time."
Eileen Murphy, a Times spokesperson, decried the decision to seek a warrant for someone taking photos for a news story in a statement to the Lynchburg News & Advance. "We are disappointed that Liberty University would decide to make that into a criminal case and go after a freelance journalist because its officials were unhappy with press coverage of the university's decision to reopen campus in the midst of the pandemic," Murphy said.
Falwell announced the warrants in an April 8 appearance on the Todd Starnes radio show and accused the reporters of putting students at risk by coming onto campus from known hot spots.
"To us it's so hypocritical for them to come to a campus that is doing everything right — social distancing, take-out food only, protecting our students who have no place else to go and no classes — and to come on our campus from New York or Washington or wherever the hotspot is that they come from and put our students at risk," he said.
Falwell shared a letter with the Washington Examiner that Liberty University lawyers have sent to the general counsel of the Times seeking a retraction.
Liberty University has been roundly criticized by press freedom advocates for obtaining the warrants.
Katie Townsend, legal director for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said in a statement that journalists should not face retaliation or threats of criminal penalties for routine newsgathering.
“These arrest warrants appear to be intended to harass journalists who were simply, and rightly, doing their jobs — reporting on the impact of Liberty University’s decision to partially reopen during a pandemic — and to intimidate other reporters from doing the same type of reporting," Townsend said.
The Virginia chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists also issued a statement, writing, “The journalists were reporting about a health crisis of public interest and importance, and doing so in a professional and responsible manner. By pursuing criminal charges, Liberty University has cast a chilling effect on newsgathering activities vital to a free and democratic society.”
The Washington Post editorial board weighed in on April 12, comparing the move against the journalists as a tactic favored by authoritarian strongmen abroad. "But it is more than a little jarring to see this tactic of criminalizing journalism being employed in the United States — and by a university whose name celebrates American freedom," the editorial said.
The AP also reported that a Liberty University campus security officer asked one of its photographers to leave campus and delete the photos he had taken there on March 24. After speaking to his supervisor, the photographer complied, a decision the AP now says was incorrect. “We don’t delete photos or any other material at the request of an individual law enforcement officer,” said Sally Buzbee, the AP’s executive editor and senior vice president. “We try to fight such orders legally.”
Portions of two trespassing warrants against a ProPublica reporter and a New York Times freelance photographer following coverage of Liberty University's decision to remain partially open during the COVID-19 pandemic.
",charged without arrest,Liberty University Police Department,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,Journalist,warrant,State,None,False,[],,coronavirus,,, 2021-04-29 20:07:01.590633+00:00,2024-02-29 19:45:04.057793+00:00,Liberty University obtains trespassing warrant against ProPublica reporter,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/liberty-university-obtains-trespassing-warrant-against-propublica-reporter/,2024-02-29 19:45:03.892193+00:00,trespassing (charges dropped as of 2020-05-15),LegalOrder object (97),(2020-05-15 15:06:00+00:00) Criminal charges against two journalists dropped,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Subpoena/Legal Order",,,,Alec MacGillis (ProPublica),,2020-04-06,False,Lynchburg,Virginia (VA),37.41375,-79.14225,"Arrest warrants were issued on April 6, 2020, for two journalists after they visited Liberty University to cover the school's decision to invite students back to campus following spring break during the coronavirus pandemic.
Virginia Magistrate Kang Lee signed the misdemeanor arrest warrants, which were sought by the Liberty University Police Department against ProPublica's Alec MacGillis, who wrote a March 26 report about students who returned to the university's Lynchburg, Virginia, campus, and Julia Rendleman, a freelance photographer on assignment for The New York Times whose photos accompanied a March 29 story in the newspaper. A warrant was not issued for the author of the Times piece, Elizabeth Williamson, as university officials had not located eyewitnesses placing her on campus, University President Jerry Falwell Jr. told The Associated Press.
Falwell has faced criticism of downplaying the risk posed by the coronavirus and being slow to halt in-person classes at the school. Around 1,000 students remain on campus. In MacGillis' ProPublica piece, "What’s It Like on One of the Only University Campuses Still Open in the U.S.?" he describes many examples of students on campus not adhering to social distancing guidelines and students and faculty worried about their personal safety.
The decision whether to prosecute will be up to Lynchburg Commonwealth’s Attorney Bethany Harrison, according to the AP. "Once I receive copies of the served warrants, obtain reports from the Liberty University Police Department, conduct any necessary follow up investigation, and thoroughly research the applicable statutes and case law, I will make a final decision about how to proceed," Harrison said in a news release. Under Virginia law criminal trespassing is a class one misdemeanor, carrying a sentence of up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $2,500.
"We have heard nothing about this warrant from either Liberty or any authority of the Commonwealth of Virginia," ProPublica President Richard Tofel wrote in an email to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. "We have also still never heard any suggestion from Liberty that anything in our story was factually inaccurate. We continue to believe this was a story of significant public interest about the greatest public health crisis of our time."
Eileen Murphy, a Times spokesperson, decried the decision to seek a warrant for someone taking photos for a news story in a statement to the Lynchburg News & Advance.
"We are disappointed that Liberty University would decide to make that into a criminal case and go after a freelance journalist because its officials were unhappy with press coverage of the university's decision to reopen campus in the midst of the pandemic," Murphy said.
Falwell announced the warrants in an April 8 appearance on the Todd Starnes radio show and accused the reporters of putting students at risk by coming onto campus from known hot spots.
"To us it's so hypocritical for them to come to a campus that is doing everything right — social distancing, take-out food only, protecting our students who have no place else to go and no classes — and to come on our campus from New York or Washington or wherever the hotspot is that they come from and put our students at risk," he said.
Falwell shared a letter with the Washington Examiner that Liberty University lawyers have sent to the general counsel of the Times seeking a retraction.
Liberty University has been roundly criticized by press freedom advocates for obtaining the warrants.
Katie Townsend, legal director for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said in a statement that journalists should not face retaliation or threats of criminal penalties for routine newsgathering.
“These arrest warrants appear to be intended to harass journalists who were simply, and rightly, doing their jobs — reporting on the impact of Liberty University’s decision to partially reopen during a pandemic — and to intimidate other reporters from doing the same type of reporting," Townsend said.
The Virginia chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists also issued a statement, writing, “The journalists were reporting about a health crisis of public interest and importance, and doing so in a professional and responsible manner. By pursuing criminal charges, Liberty University has cast a chilling effect on newsgathering activities vital to a free and democratic society.”
The Washington Post editorial board weighed in on April 12, comparing the move against the journalists as a tactic favored by authoritarian strongmen abroad. "But it is more than a little jarring to see this tactic of criminalizing journalism being employed in the United States — and by a university whose name celebrates American freedom," the editorial said.
The AP also reported that a Liberty University campus security officer asked one of its photographers to leave campus and delete the photos he had taken there on March 24. After speaking to his supervisor, the photographer complied, a decision the AP now says was incorrect. “We don’t delete photos or any other material at the request of an individual law enforcement officer,” said Sally Buzbee, the AP’s executive editor and senior vice president. “We try to fight such orders legally.”
Portions of two trespassing warrants by Liberty University against two journalists following their coverage of the university's decision to remain partially open during the coronavirus pandemic
",charged without arrest,Liberty University Police Department,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,Journalist,warrant,State,None,False,[],,coronavirus,,, 2020-02-14 21:28:47.367239+00:00,2024-02-21 21:13:52.472841+00:00,"NYPD arrests photojournalist, charges him with disorderly conduct",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/nypd-arrests-photojournalist-charges-him-disorderly-conduct/,2024-02-21 21:13:52.227503+00:00,obstruction: disorderly conduct (charges dropped as of 2020-05-17),,"(2020-05-17 21:47:00+00:00) Charges dropped against photojournalist arrested in NYC, (2024-02-07 00:00:00+00:00) Judge accepts journalists’ settlement with NYPD, (2021-08-05 16:39:00+00:00) Photojournalist sues NYPD for unlawful arrest, (2023-09-05 17:04:00+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, Equipment Search or Seizure",,press identification: count of 1,,Amr Alfiky (ABC News),,2020-02-11,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"Photojournalist Amr Alfiky was arrested while documenting an arrest in New York City, New York, on Feb. 11, 2020.
Alfiky, who is a photo editor at ABC News and a contributor to Reuters and The New York Times, was taking video of a man being arrested at about 7 p.m. in New York’s Lower East Side neighborhood when police took him into custody, Alfiky’s friend Mostafa Bassim told the Committee to Protect Journalists.
In a video captured by Bassim, Alfiky can be heard repeatedly telling officers that he is a journalist as the officers push him toward the back of an SUV. As additional officers approach him, Alfiky can be heard offering to show them his press credentials and stating, “I did not refuse. I did not refuse.”
According to @mostafabassim1 our friend @alfiky_amr, an Egyptian photojournalist w/@Reuters @abcnews, was arretsed by @NYPDnews while taking pictures of police officers arresting someone on the street!
— Tarek Hussein (@TarekHussein22) February 12, 2020
pic.twitter.com/Jc2AST50Gx
An NYPD spokesman alleged that Alfiky “refused to comply with repeated requests to step back,” and didn’t identify himself as a journalist until he was in police custody, the New York Daily News reported.
A police spokesman told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that Alfiky was taken to Manhattan’s 7th precinct and held for several hours before being released. The spokesman also confirmed that Alfiky’s press credential, issued by the NYPD, was confiscated.
That evening on Twitter, Alfiky wrote, “I’m out and safe. Thank you all for your invaluable support!”
Alfiky declined to comment and instead directed the Tracker to his attorney, Mickey Osterreicher.
Osterreicher, general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, told the Tracker that Alfiky was charged with disorderly conduct and issued a summons for March 31.
“I’m hoping to have [the charges] disposed of before then, either to have the summons voided or to have the charges dismissed,” Osterreicher said.
If convicted, Alfiky could face a fine of up to $250 and up to 15 days in prison under state law.
Osterreicher told the Tracker that Alfiky’s press credential was returned to him on Feb. 14.
The New York City Police Department’s 7th Precinct in Manhattan. Journalist Amr Alfiky was arrested and detained there and had his NYPD press credential confiscated while he was documenting an arrest on Feb. 11, 2020.
",arrested and released,New York Police Department,None,None,False,1:21-cv-06610,['SETTLED'],Civil,returned in full,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,,,, 2019-11-26 16:07:12.722088+00:00,2022-11-08 21:37:24.055157+00:00,"Arkansas broadcast journalist found in contempt of court, released on time served",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/arkansas-broadcast-journalist-found-contempt-court-released-time-served/,2022-11-08 21:37:23.982887+00:00,contempt of court (convicted as of 2019-11-19),,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Nkiruka Azuka Omeronye (KNWA-TV),,2019-11-19,False,Bentonville,Arkansas (AR),36.37285,-94.20882,"Nkiruka Azuka Omeronye, a reporter for KNWA/FOX24 News in northwest Arkansas, was found in contempt of court and sentenced to three days in jail on Nov. 19, 2019.
Omeronye, who broadcasts as Nkiruka Azuka, admitted in court to using her cellphone to record the Oct. 7 proceedings in a capital murder case. She said, however, that she was not aware that Benton County Circuit Judge Brad Karren had filed an order in June prohibiting any recording in his courtroom. There is also a state Supreme Court rule prohibiting recording without the judge’s permission.
According to Arkansas Online, Omeronye said during her hearing that she understood that it was a sensitive case and that she had recorded to proceedings only to ensure the accuracy of her notes, not with the intention of broadcasting it.
“I did not mean to disrespect you or your courtroom,” Omeronye said. She testified that she had previously worked at stations in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Phoenix, Arizona, where reporters were permitted to record in courtrooms, and that she did not see signs in the lobby or on the courtroom door warning against recording the proceedings.
Karren appeared to accept Omeronye’s apology.
“I think you have shown the proper remorse,” Karren said. “I don’t think you were thumbing your nose at the court.” He also stated that he believes Omeronye’s employers let her down by not ensuring she was aware of the court’s rules.
Karren found that Omeronye deliberately recorded the proceedings and ruled her in contempt of the court. He ordered her to serve 10 days in the Benton County jail, but suspended seven of the days. Karren also placed her on six months probation and barred her from his courtroom.
Omeronye was scheduled to begin serving her sentence on Nov. 20, and was going to be permitted to leave the jail in order to go to work.
After Omeronye’s sentencing, KNWA/FOX24 General Manager Lisa Kelsey said in a statement that the broadcaster regrets the incident.
“Nkiruka has offered a sincere apology to the judge, to her colleagues, and to the station. As we do with all our journalists, we have counseled her on obeying all courtroom rules, as well as Arkansas Judicial Guidelines,” Kelsey said.
Omeronye’s sentence drew criticism from media outlets and journalism organizations who called the jail time “excessive.”
#NABJ is disheartened to learn that reporter @NkirukaAzuka@KNWANews @Fox24News has received jail time. We believe it's an excessive sentence. She stated she was unaware of a court's rule that did not permit her to record and apologized. Read more: https://t.co/PFdbAqPqkY pic.twitter.com/30eUhoB1mU
— NABJ Headquarters (@NABJ) November 20, 2019
Arkansas Society of Professional Journalists chapter President Sarah DeClerk said in a statement, “We consider the judge’s actions to be excessive and disrespectful of the public service provided by journalists to all citizens interested in the judicial process.”
Arkansas Online reported that judge Karren called the jail on Nov. 20 and reduced Omeronye’s sentence to time served. She was released from custody at 5 p.m., a few hours after beginning her sentence.
Omeronye was ordered to pay $250 in court costs, and told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, “All I can really say is that it’s done and that I’m moving on.”
On June 22, 2019, independent photojournalist Michael Nigro was arrested in New York City while covering a demonstration calling for aggressive action on climate change outside the headquarters of The New York Times.
Protesters from the group Extinction Rebellion had staged a direct action on 41st Street and Eighth Avenue in midtown Manhattan, Nigro said, with some protesters blocking traffic on Eighth Avenue and others scaling the Times building to unfurl banners.
“I, as a journalist, was covering the action and was looking for a good vantage point,” he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
Nigro went to the third floor of the Port Authority Bus Terminal, a busy transit station located across the street from the Times building, to document the protest. Port Authority police officers responding to the protest then arrived and asked him to leave.
Nigro said that he was wearing two press badges around his neck — one from the National Press Photographers Association and one given to accredited journalists by the NYPD. He showed the badges to the officers and asserted his right to film the protest. After some back-and-forth discussion with the officers, he agreed to leave the area. Unexpectedly, the officers then arrested him for trespassing.
“While we were leaving, their radio went off and they were told to arrest me,” he said. “They apologized.”
Nigro was then taken to the Port Authority police station and handcuffed to a wall, and both his phone and camera were seized as evidence. He estimates that he was handcuffed to the wall for about two hours before Port Authority police officers escorted him to an interrogation room, where he was chained to a bench, read his Miranda rights, and questioned by detectives. Nigro said that he refused to answer any questions without his lawyer present. He was then fingerprinted and brought to a holding cell.
Nigro said that while he was detained in the holding cell, an officer from the NYPD’s media relations office — known as the Office of the Deputy Commissioner, Public Information, or DCPI — visited him in his cell to inform him that the NYPD was revoking his official press badge.
Nigro was eventually issued a desk appearance ticket and released, but his arresting officer refused to return his camera and phone. The police returned his equipment and press badge to him a week later.
The desk appearance ticket lists a single charge against Nigro — criminal trespass in the third degree, a Class B misdemeanor — and requires him to appear in New York City criminal court on Aug. 22.
CNN reported that more than 60 protesters were also arrested during the demonstration and charged with disorderly conduct.
This is not the first time that Nigro has been arrested while working as a journalist. In 2018, he was arrested and charged with “failure to obey” while covering a civil disobedience action in Jefferson City, Missouri. The charges were later dropped. Before that, in 2016, he was arrested while documenting an anti-Trump march in New York City.
Demonstrators calling for aggressive action on the climate gather in front of The New York Times building in Manhattan.
",arrested and released,New York Police 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",,, 2019-05-14 16:31:23.663401+00:00,2024-01-12 16:38:06.390891+00:00,"San Francisco police use search warrant to raid home, office of independent journalist",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/san-francisco-police-use-search-warrant-raid-home-office-independent-journalist-source-material/,2024-01-12 16:38:06.212620+00:00,,"LegalOrder object (56), LegalOrder object (57), LegalOrder object (58)","(2020-03-03 10:29:00+00:00) San Francisco to pay $369,000 following raids of journalist Bryan Carmody, (2020-05-26 14:52:00+00:00) San Francisco police agree to inform officers of press protections following raid, (2019-05-21 14:02:00+00:00) Equipment seized in raid returned to Carmody, (2019-08-02 16:15:00+00:00) San Francisco judges quash three more warrants used in raid of independent journalist Bryan Carmody's home, office and phone records","Arrest/Criminal Charge, Equipment Search or Seizure, Subpoena/Legal Order",,"camera: count of 2, cellphone: count of 12, computer: count of 11, storage device: count of 11, work product: count of 3",,Bryan Carmody (North Bay News),,2019-05-10,False,San Francisco,California (CA),37.77493,-122.41942,"On May 10, 2019, San Francisco police officers raided the home and office of freelance journalist Bryan Carmody as part of an investigation into one of Carmody’s confidential sources.
Carmody told the Los Angeles Times that he awoke to 10 or so officers from the San Francisco Police Department banging on his front gate with a sledgehammer. He said he allowed them in after being shown a search warrant signed by a state court judge. The SFPD officers then handcuffed him and searched his house with guns drawn.
Carmody was not formally arrested or charged with any crime, but he was detained for more than five hours. When he was finally released, the SFPD gave him a receipt showing that he had been in police custody from 8:22 a.m. to 1:55 p.m.
While Carmody was in SFPD custody, two FBI agents asked to interview him, but he refused and requested an attorney. An FBI spokeswoman later told the Times that the FBI agents were not involved in the search of Carmody’s house. Technically speaking, Carmody was only raided by the SFPD, not by federal agents.
During the raid on Carmody’s house, the SFPD learned that Carmody also used a separate office space for his independent media company, North Bay News, and quickly obtained a search warrant for the office space, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
In the end, the officers who searched Carmody’s house ended up seizing multiple notebooks, computers, phones, and cameras, while those who searched his office seized a USB thumb drive, multiple CDs, and a copy of a confidential police report into the death of San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi.
A source had leaked that police report to Carmody shortly after Adachi died unexpectedly on Feb. 22. The police report included salacious details about Adachi’s drug use and possible extramarital affair, and Carmody used the leaked report as the centerpiece of a story about Adachi’s death. Carmody sold his story on Adachi’s death to local TV news stations, who ran segments about it.
Progressive politicians roundly condemned the sensationalist coverage of Adachi’s death and accused the SFPD of deliberately leaking the police report to the media in order to smear Adachi, who had been a frequent critic of the police department. The SFPD also condemned the leak and pledged to track down the source of the police report.
According to the Chronicle, SFPD Captain William Braconi testified during a special hearing in April that the police department had launched both an internal administrative probe and a criminal investigation into the leak.
A few weeks before the May 10 raid, two San Francisco police officers visited Carmody and asked him to identify the source who had leaked him a copy of the police report. Carmody refused. Carmody told the California Globe that when he refused, the officers warned him that if he did not identify his source, then he could be subject to a federal grand jury subpoena.
But Carmody never received a subpoena, either from a federal grand jury or a state prosecutor, which he could have contested in court. Instead, a state court judge secretly authorized the SFPD to raid his house and seize his devices.
David Stevenson, a spokesman for the SFPD, said that the raid on Carmody was part of the SFPD’s criminal investigation.
“The citizens and leaders of the City of San Francisco have demanded a complete and thorough investigation into this leak, and this action represents a step in the process of investigating a potential case of obstruction of justice along with the illegal distribution of confidential police material,” he told the Times.
According to the Times, two judges of the San Francisco Superior Court — Gail Dekreon and Victor Hwang — approved the warrants to search Carmody’s house and office, respectively.
It is not clear who requested the warrants. A spokeswoman for the San Francisco district attorney’s office told the Times that the office was not involved in preparing the warrants.
Nor is it clear whether Dekreon and Hwang knew that Carmody was a journalist when they authorized the searches of his house and office space
Thomas Burke, an attorney at Davis Wright & Tremaine who is representing Carmody, said that the raid violated Carmody’s First Amendment rights. He told the Times that the investigators should have issued a subpoena for the records they wanted from Carmody, rather than raiding his newsroom and seizing documents unrelated to the investigation.
“So much information has nothing to do with the purpose of their investigation,” he said. “If you are looking for one piece of information, that’s why you issue a subpoena.”
San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi, who died in February, speaks with reporters. Police raided the home and office of journalist Bryan Carmody, seeking the source of a confidential police report about Adachi’s death.
",detained and released without being processed,San Francisco Police Department,None,None,False,None,[],None,returned in full,True,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,Journalist,warrant,State,None,False,[],,,,, 2019-05-13 18:59:02.466968+00:00,2024-01-12 15:17:12.927080+00:00,Connecticut reporter arrested and briefly detained while covering demonstration,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/connecticut-reporter-arrested-and-briefly-detained-while-covering-demonstration/,2024-01-12 15:17:12.807403+00:00,,,(2019-10-22 12:53:00+00:00) Connecticut police chief issues written apology for arrest of Hearst reporter,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Tara O'Neill (Hearst Connecticut Media Group),,2019-05-09,False,Bridgeport,Connecticut (CT),41.17923,-73.18945,"Hearst Connecticut Media reporter Tara O’Neill was arrested while covering a demonstration in Bridgeport and briefly held in police custody on May 9, 2019.
According to her first-person account for the Connecticut Post, O’Neill was handcuffed by Bridgeport police while she was reporting on a protest commemorating the two-year anniversary of the fatal police shooting of teenager Jayson Negron. O’Neill was held for about 30 minutes, and then released without charges.
O’Neill shared video footage of her arrest on Twitter.
Footage of me getting arrested in #Bridgeport while covering a #JusticeforJayson protest on the two-year anniversary of his death. pic.twitter.com/4zEFIHSKj9
— Tara O'Neill (@Tara_ONeill_) May 10, 2019
“I was standing on the sidewalk when they were asking people to get off the street and as I was being handcuffed I said, ‘I’m on a public sidewalk. I’m the press,’” O’Neill told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an email. “All I heard the arresting officer respond was ‘Ok,’ before he told me to sit down on the ground and not move.”
She said she was wearing her press badge on a lanyard around her neck, and that after being handcuffed, she attempted to explain to the officers that she was a reporter.
“It didn’t seem to make any difference to them at that point,” she said.
O’Neill was put in the back of a police car and taken to the police station, but never placed in a holding cell. The arresting officer, according to O’Neill, later apologized and said he did not know she was a reporter.
The New England First Amendment Coalition quickly condemned her arrest and detention. The Coalition called on Bridgeport police to issue a formal apology, release the name of the arresting officer, and review the department’s internal policies to prevent the future infringement on journalistic rights.
“Looking back at what happened, I’m frustrated to know that there might not have been anything I could have done to prevent it — other than not showing up and doing my job,” O’Neill wrote in the Connecticut Post.
Bridgeport, Connecticut, police line up in response to a protest around the second anniversary of the shooting death of Jayson Negron. Reporter Tara O’Neill was detained and 11 others were arrested during the protest.
",detained and released without being processed,Bridgeport Police Department,2019-05-09,2019-05-09,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"Black Lives Matter, protest",,, 2019-03-13 16:32:58.972095+00:00,2022-08-05 18:51:24.769921+00:00,Three journalists arrested while covering Stephon Clark protest in Sacramento,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/three-journalists-arrested-while-covering-stephon-clark-protest-sacramento/,2022-08-05 18:51:24.700540+00:00,rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2019-04-11),,(2019-04-25 11:55:00+00:00) Sacramento Police Department changes arrest status to detention,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Scott Rodd (Sacramento Business Journal),,2019-03-04,False,Sacramento,California (CA),38.58157,-121.4944,"Sacramento Business Journal reporter Scott Rodd was one of three journalists arrested on March 4, 2019, in Sacramento, California, as police blocked off exits and began arresting those remaining at a protest march.
Sacramento Bee reporter Dale Kasler and California State University student reporter William Coburn were also arrested. A Bee photojournalist, Hector Amezcua, was shoved to the ground by a bike officer when police began to cordon protesters.
About 100 people gathered around 6:30 p.m. in East Sacramento to protest the district attorney’s decision not to bring criminal charges against officers in the 2018 shooting death of Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old black man. The march proceeded uneventfully and eventually circled back to where it had begun, in a Trader Joe’s parking lot in the Fab 40s neighborhood.
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 reportedly encouraged attendees to leave, and many did. Soon after, however, a row of riot gear-clad officers formed a line and began slowly advancing while vans of bicycle officers blocked all side roads, leaving the only exit down 51st Street.
In a video Rodd shared on Twitter, police officers informed those present that they would be able to leave if they continued down 51st toward the overpass.
The DA's office said it won't pursue charges against the 80+ people arrested at last week's #StephonClark protests.
— Scott Rodd (@SRodd_CPR) March 10, 2019
But the city and PD are pursuing several investigations into what happened. I captured the protests at a pivotal moment when riot police were deployed.
(🔊 ON) pic.twitter.com/wuu3YkX26M
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.
The Bee reported that 84 people were arrested over the next four hours.
Rodd and Coburn were among those zip-tied and left sitting on a curb for 2 ½ hours before police loaded them into vans heading to Cal Expo, a state fair ground, to be processed. The Bee’s Kasler was also zip-tied and detained, but released with a certificate of “arrestee exonerated.”
I also captured when police encircled protesters on the Highway 50 overpass after directing the group down 51st Street.
— Scott Rodd (@SRodd_CPR) March 10, 2019
The video shows the moment police began arresting protesters--starting with several clergy members--and ends with my own arrest.
(🔊 ON) pic.twitter.com/VROrCXKcNO
Rodd was wearing a black T-shirt with “PRESS” in bold, white letters across the front and back, and a hat displaying Sacramento Business Journal credentials. Rodd told his arresting officer and a second officer at the scene that he was a reporter, but neither reacted. Then, he said, he tried to continue doing his job.
“I started asking one of the officers questions about what precipitated the arrest, what situation made them decide that they needed to arrest people,” Rodd told the Tracker. “After a few questions the officer said, ‘I can’t answer those questions because you’re a member of the press and I’m not at liberty to talk about it.’ He acknowledged that I was a member of the press and I was there, I was in flexicuffs, I was detained, and it looked like I was going to be processed.”
After more than four hours in detention, Rodd was released around 2:30 a.m. on March 5 with a ticket for failure to disperse and a court hearing scheduled on June 4.
The Sacramento County district attorney’s office announced a few days later that it would not charge those arrested at the protest, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. 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.
“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.”
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.
Journalist Scott Rodd created a map of the events around the protest and subsequent arrests. Key coloring and descriptions updated by the Tracker.
William Coburn, a reporter for the California State University student newspaper, The State Hornet, was one of three journalists arrested while covering a protest march on March 4, 2019, in Sacramento, California.
Then-Sacramento Business Journal reporter Scott Rodd and Sacramento Bee reporter Dale Kasler were also arrested that night. A Bee photojournalist, Hector Amezcua, was shoved to the ground by a bike officer when police began to cordon protesters.
About 100 people gathered around 6:30 p.m. in East Sacramento to protest the district attorney’s decision not to bring criminal charges against officers in the 2018 shooting death of Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old black man. The march proceeded uneventfully and eventually circled back to where it had begun, in a Trader Joe’s parking lot in the Fab 40s neighborhood.
Coburn told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the march had started uneventfully, and that fewer people had gathered than in the days after Clark was killed. After about two hours, the march circled back to the parking lot where it had begun.
“It looked to me like the protest was winding down,” Coburn said.
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, Coburn said, and many did. Others were still mingling in the Trader Joe’s parking lot, including a few photographers, and Coburn joined them to conduct a few final interviews. Then, he said, a row of riot gear-clad officers formed a line and began slowly advancing, leaving the only exit down 51st Street.
“The police just started marching forward, taking a few steps and then stopping,” Coburn told the Tracker. “By stepping forward, we all started moving along 51st Street looking for places to get out, but all of them were blocked off, either by vans or by a few bike cops. It looked like it was just the two bike cops going over the overpass, so we assumed they just wanted us out of this neighborhood.”
A line of officers, unseeable at first, waited for them 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.
The Bee reported that 84 people were arrested over the next four hours.
Coburn told the Tracker that he had a professional camera around his neck, and when officers came to arrest him he said repeatedly that he was a reporter.
“After a while I just stopped saying [that I was a journalist] because they just didn’t know what to do about it,” he said.
While he was originally in handcuffs, Coburn told the Tracker that once officers sat him down on the curb they switched him into flexi-cuffs. He sat that way for 2 ½ hours before police loaded all those arrested into vans heading to Cal Expo, a state fair ground, to be processed.
After more than four hours in detention, Coburn was released around 2:30 a.m. on March 5 with a ticket for failure to disperse and a court hearing scheduled on June 4.
The Sacramento County district attorney’s office announced a few days later that it would not charge those arrested at the protest, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. 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.
“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.”
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.
Editor's Note: William Coburn originally reported to the Tracker that he was wearing university-issued press credentials when he was arrested, but it was later confirmed that he was not. This article was updated March 3, 2020.
A line of police officers follow Sacramento, California, protesters who gathered in response to the district attorney’s decision to not prosecute officers after the shooting death of a young black man.
",arrested and released,Sacramento Police Department,2019-03-05,2019-03-04,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, court verdict, kettle, protest, student journalism",,, 2020-03-12 15:56:38.779285+00:00,2022-09-16 20:22:48.248210+00:00,Sacramento Bee reporter detained while covering protest march,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/sacramento-bee-reporter-detained-while-covering-protest-march/,2022-09-16 20:22:48.167400+00:00,rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2019-03-04),,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Dale Kasler (The Sacramento Bee),,2019-03-04,False,Sacramento,California (CA),38.58157,-121.4944,"Sacramento Bee reporter Dale Kasler was one of three journalists arrested on March 4, 2019, in Sacramento, California, as police blocked off exits and began arresting those remaining at a protest march.
Then-Sacramento Business Journal reporter Scott Rodd and California State University student reporter William Coburn were also arrested. A Bee photojournalist, Hector Amezcua, was shoved to the ground by a bike officer when police began to cordon protesters.
About 100 people gathered around 6:30 p.m. in East Sacramento to protest the district attorney’s decision not to bring criminal charges against officers in the 2018 shooting death of Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old black man. The march proceeded uneventfully and eventually circled back to where it had begun, in a Trader Joe’s parking lot in the Fab 40s neighborhood.
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 reportedly encouraged attendees to leave, and many did. Soon after, however, a row of riot gear-clad officers formed a line and began slowly advancing while vans of bicycle officers blocked all side roads, leaving the only exit down 51st Street toward an overpass.
Kasler told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that a line of officers, unseeable at first, waited for them 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.
The Sacramento Bee reported that 84 people were arrested over the next four hours.
Kasler was live-streaming when two officers approached him and zip-tied his hands behind his back, placing his phone in his pants pocket. “I had held up my Bee badge and explained that I was a journalist but was taken into custody anyway,” Kasler wrote in an account for The Bee.
Within an hour, The Bee’s publisher and editor had made calls to have Kasler released. “Some higher-ups were summoned, I was pulled out of the line and my zip-ties were cut,” Kasler recounted.
Kasler told the Tracker that after giving a brief statement to a sergeant he was given a certificate of release, on which the officer had checked the box for “arrestee exonerated.”
Reporters Rodd and Coburn were also zip-tied, and waited on a curb for 2 ½ hours before police loaded them onto vans heading to Cal Expo, a state fair ground, to be processed.
The Sacramento County district attorney’s office announced a few days later that it would not charge those arrested at the protest, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. 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.
“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.”
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 thought I had made it clear to them as they were detaining me that I was a reporter,” Kasler told the Tracker. “I was telling them that I’m with The Sacramento Bee and my colleagues on the other side of the police line, who were not detained, were shouting, ‘This is a reporter! This is a reporter! This is a reporter!’ And it didn’t seem to matter.”
Editor’s Note: While Kasler told the Tracker that he was not told that he was under arrest nor read his Miranda rights, and his experience is widely considered a detainment, the Tracker documents it as an arrest. In our methodology, his detainment for an hour in a context where police had announced that those failing to disperse would be arrested — and were indiscriminately detaining those present ahead of processing — coupled with the certificate noting “arrestee exonerated,” categorizes his experience as an arrest.
Sacramento Bee reporter Dale Kasler, center, was live-streaming a planned protest when officers put him in flexible cuffs. Police arrested more than 80 people in conjunction with the march.
",arrested and released,Sacramento Police Department,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, court verdict, kettle, protest",,, 2019-02-01 16:25:54.245305+00:00,2024-02-29 19:03:56.033767+00:00,"WLTX reporters arrested in Columbia, S.C.",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/wltx-reporters-arrested-columbia-sc/,2024-02-29 19:03:55.950560+00:00,,,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Jenna Kurzyna (WLTX),,2019-01-29,False,Columbia,South Carolina (SC),34.00071,-81.03481,"Jenna Kurzyna and Susan Ardis, reporters for local ABC affiliate WLTX, were arrested at a public housing complex in Columbia, South Carolina. The reporters were attempting to receive additional public records concerning a carbon monoxide gas leak in the complex that killed two in mid-January.
On the morning of Jan. 29, 2020, Kurzyna and Ardis knocked on the door to the office where public documents released by the Columbia Housing Authority are kept, seeking additional information about the ongoing gas issues at the CHA facility, WLTX reported. When there was no response and the office appeared to be closed, the two reporters returned to their car, intending to leave the property.
However, according to a video recorded by Ardis during the incident, a pair of private security officers blocked the exit from the parking lot and approached the journalists’ vehicle.
In the video, an officer can be heard saying, “You are being charged with trespassing after you’ve been asked to leave off the premises several times.”
Kurzyna responded to the officer, “We were in the process of leaving, though.”
Both reporters stepped out of the car as directed and were handcuffed and detained on the premises, despite clearly identifying themselves as reporters, WLTX President and General Manager Rich O’Dell told The State.
A third WLTX reporter seen in the video said that the officers were unhappy that she was filming the incident. The unidentified reporter also recounted that officers informed her that if she crossed onto the housing complex property she, too, would be detained.
Kurzyna and Ardis were released from custody the same day, shortly after 11 a.m.
Bob Coble, Columbia Housing Authority attorney and former City of Columbia Mayor, told The State, “I couldn’t imagine why a reporter was arrested if they identified as a reporter.”
Later that day, the CHA released a public statement, saying, “We, at the Columbia Housing Authority, apologize for the unfortunate incident that occurred earlier today with WLTX reporters, Jenna Kurzyna and Susan Ardis.”
The Housing Authority also stated that they would be holding a meeting with all security personnel later that day to review the incident. “Procedures are being put in place immediately to ensure that this does not happen again.”
WLTX accepted the apology that afternoon, and said, “We are looking forward to working together with the Housing Authority to immediately go through all the public records for the benefit of the residents.”
Kurzyna and Ardis returned to work, and WLTX reported that their Deep Dive team is continuing to review other CHA documents.
We have been sifting through hundreds of maintenance request here at Allen Benedict Court all day today - more on what we found tonight @WLTX #deepdive pic.twitter.com/ivNInD3n5D
— Jenna Kurzyna (@JkurzynaTV) January 24, 2019
O’Dell told The State that, to his knowledge, neither of the journalists were charged nor given a trespass warning.
Private security officers block the exit as South Carolina WLTX reporters Jenna Kurzyna and Susan Ardis attempt to leave a public housing complex.
Two reporters for ABC affiliate WLTX were arrested while leaving a public housing complex in Columbia, South Carolina, on Jan. 29, 2019. Susan Ardis and Jenna Kurzyna were at the complex to gather public documents about a carbon monoxide gas leak there that killed two people earlier in the month.
WLTX reported that Ardis and Kurzyna had knocked on the door to the office where documents released by the Columbia Housing Authority are kept. When there was no response, the two reporters returned to their car to leave the property.
As they left, Ardis recorded video as a pair of private security officers blocked the exit from the parking lot and approached the journalists’ vehicle.
In the video, an officer can be heard saying, “You are being charged with trespassing after you’ve been asked to leave off the premises several times.”
Kurzyna responded to the officer, “We were in the process of leaving, though.”
Both reporters stepped out of the car as directed and were handcuffed and detained, despite clearly identifying themselves as reporters, WLTX President and General Manager Rich O’Dell told The State.
Kurzyna and Ardis were released from custody shortly after 11 a.m. that same day.
O’Dell told The State that to his knowledge, neither of the journalists were charged nor given a trespass warning.
Bob Coble, Columbia Housing Authority attorney and former City of Columbia Mayor, told The State, “I couldn’t imagine why a reporter was arrested if they identified as a reporter.”
Later that day, the CHA released a public statement, saying, “We, at the Columbia Housing Authority, apologize for the unfortunate incident that occurred earlier today with WLTX reporters, Jenna Kurzyna and Susan Ardis.”
The Housing Authority also stated that they would be holding a meeting with all security personnel later that day to review the incident, and that procedures were being put in place to prevent the incident from happening again.
In accepting the apology, WLTX said it was looking forward to working with the Housing Authority to review the public documents.
On Dec. 20, 2018, reporter and activist Andrew Sheets was cited for trespassing after filming inside the city hall building in Punta Gorda, Florida, in violation of a local ordinance.
Sheets, a member of the National Press Photographers Association, is a self-described “copwatch reporter” who runs a YouTube channel focused on police misconduct and corruption.
The local law that Sheets was accused of violating, Ordinance 1872-17, prohibits filming people without permission in certain areas of city-controlled buildings, including Punta Gorda City Hall and City Hall Annex.
Ordinance 1872-17 states:
“Except within the City Council Chambers, conference rooms, and other locations in which a public meeting is being conducted pursuant to a public notice, it shall be unlawful and a violation of this Ordinance to record video and/or sound within City-owned, controlled, and leased property, without the consent of all persons whose voice or image is being recorded. … Any person who refuses to cease the unconsented to video and/or sound recording, and refuses to immediately leave the premises following the request of the City Manager or his designee, shall be considered as a trespasser.”
On Dec. 20, Sheets used a body camera to record himself going to the Punta Gorda City Clerk’s Office and making a records request for a copy of Ordinance 1872-17. Sheets later posted the video recorded by his body camera on YouTube.
The video shows Sheets entering the City Hall Annex building and going to the city clerk’s office, where he makes a request for a copy of the ordinance. Two city hall staffers who appear on the video tell Sheets that they do not have their permission and film them and ask him to stop recording.
“You don’t have our permission to record us,” one of the staffers tells Sheets.
“You’re a public official in a public building,” Sheets replies.
“This is a staff area,” the staffer says. “It’s not a public meeting area.”
Later in the video, Sheets goes to the Punta Gorda police station and asks to speak with the police chief. An officer, later identified as Lt. Justin Davoult, then approaches him in the lobby to inform them that the police chief will not speak with him. Davoult also issues two trespass warnings to Sheets, which ban Sheets from returning to Punta Gorda City Hall and City Hall Annex for one year.
“Before we go any further, this is what we’re going to do,” Davoult tells Sheets in the video. “The chief’s not available to speak to you. OK, so this is what you’ve got. This is a trespass warning for City Hall and City Annex, OK, for both addresses over at City Hall. You are no longer to be at or on that property for a period of one year or you will face arrest.”
Sheets later filed a personnel complaint against Davoult, accusing him of “unlawful trespass issued.” The police department conducted an internal investigation, which cleared Davoult of any wrongdoing.
“The circumstances detailed on Dec. 20, 2018 confirmed that Andrew Sheets was in violation of the city ordinance,” the investigation report states. “This investigation has determined Lieutenant Justin Davoult’s actions were lawful, proper, and consistent with department policy and therefore is Exonerated from the allegation of unlawful trespass issued.”
Sheets believes that the prohibition on filming in Punta Gorda City Hall may be unconstitutional.
In April 2017, the Punta Gorda Police Department asked the Florida State Attorney’s Office to bring wiretapping charges against someone who had been caught filming inside the city hall building. The State Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute, explaining in a felony warrant request disposition notice that “a citizen’s right to film government officials, in the discharge of their duties in a public place is a basic, vital, and well-established liberty safeguarded by the First Amendment.”
The constitutionality of the city ordinance has never been tested in court.
Mickey Osterreicher, the general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, told Freedom of the Press Foundation that the City of Punta Gorda may have violated Sheets’ First Amendment rights when it issued the trespass warning.
“Aside from being based upon a constitutionally suspect ordinance, the trespass notice issued to Mr. Sheets is a blatant violation of his First Amendment rights and chills his ability to gather and disseminate information on important matter of public concern,” Osterreicher said.
Melissa Reichert, a spokeswoman for the city, told The Port Charlotte Sun, a local newspaper, that the city believes the ordinance is valid and will continue to enforce it.
“The city has enforced Ordinance 1872-17 as provided therein since its adoption in May 2017,” Reichert told the paper. “Unless and until a court of competent jurisdiction determines otherwise, the city staff believes the ordinance is valid."
Davin Eldridge, publisher of the local news site and Facebook page Trappalachia, was charged with contempt of court on Dec. 3, 2018, for recording and livestreaming a criminal proceeding in November 2018 at the Macon County Courthouse in Franklin, North Carolina.
The News & Observer reported that despite posted signs stating that recording was not permitted in the courtroom and a warning from a bailiff, Eldridge allegedly continued to film court proceedings. The presiding judge, William Coward, reiterated his rule against recording and, after viewing Eldridge’s Facebook posts, which included the livestreamed footage, ordered the journalist to return to the courtroom later that day. Eldridge did not comply with that order, according to a subsequent ruling by the North Carolina Court of Appeals.
Eldridge did not respond to requests for comment.
On Dec. 3, Coward issued an order for Eldridge to appear in court on Jan. 11, 2019, to argue why he should not be held in criminal contempt of court. The judge also signed a search warrant granting the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation access to Eldridge’s Facebook account records and several messaging threads.
On the date of the hearing, Eldridge motioned for Coward to recuse himself, arguing that since the inciting incident had taken place in his courtroom, the judge could not be impartial; Eldridge’s motion was denied. Coward subsequently found Eldridge guilty of criminal contempt and sentenced him to 30 days in jail, which was suspended; the journalist was then placed on probation for one year. A condition of Eldridge’s probation, the Free Speech Center reported, was that he write and publish a 2,000-to-3,000-word essay online about respect for the court system and delete any negative comments people may write.
Eldridge immediately appealed the ruling, challenging Coward’s decision not to recuse himself, the charge and the legality of the probation conditions, including the essay writing.
In December 2019, the Court of Appeals upheld Coward’s ruling, stating, “Given defendant’s questionable and intentional conduct, his frequent visits to the courtroom, and his direct willingness to disobey courtroom policies, we discern no abuse of discretion in the trial court’s decision to impose conditions on defendant’s probationary sentence. Such conditions are reasonably related to the necessity of preventing further disruptions of the court by defendant’s conduct, and the need to provide accountability without unduly infringing on his rights.”
A dissenting opinion was entered by Judge Christopher Brook, who agreed that Coward had the right to restrict recording in the courtroom and find Eldridge guilty of contempt but found that the conditions of his probation had “deeply troubling constitutional problems.”
The Tracker has captured Coward’s required pre-approval of the essay and removal of all negative comments in its prior restraint category.
Eldridge again appealed the ruling. On March 12, 2021, the North Carolina Supreme Court affirmed the Appeals Court’s decision without any explanation.
On Nov. 4, 2018, BuzzFeed News reporter Blake Montgomery was arrested in Seattle on suspicion of trespassing.
The Stranger, a Seattle alt-weekly, reports that Montgomery was arrested while in the process of reporting out a story about Tank Hapertefen, a man who died after injecting silicone into his genitals. When Montgomery went to the Seattle home of Tank's former partner, Dylan Hapertefen, to ask him for comment, the occupants of the home called the police. The police arrested Montgomery and took him to jail. After spending almost 24 hours in jail, he was released on $1,000 bail on the evening of Nov. 5.
Dylan and another man living with him, Daniel Balderas Hapertefen, also filed for temporary restraining orders. On Nov. 6, a judge granted both Dylan and Daniel temporary restraining orders against Montgomery.
On Nov. 15, BuzzFeed News published an article about Tank's death. The article — co-written by Montgomery and his BuzzFeed News colleague Katie Notopoulos — mentions Montgomery's arrest.
"Dylan and the four pups who lived with Tank in Seattle until his death initially did not answer multiple requests for comment via emails, calls, and texts," Montgomery wrote in an article about Tank, published on Nov. 15. "When a BuzzFeed News reporter attempted to reach them in person, they called the police. That reporter was arrested and jailed. The following week, Dylan and a pup, Daniel Balderas Hapertefen, filed restraining orders against the same reporter. A week later, Dylan responded to an email from BuzzFeed News, answering a series of questions."
In a statement, BuzzFeed News criticized the Seattle police department.
"This was an outrageous and disproportionate response to a reporter doing his job," the statement reads. "We strongly dispute the Seattle Police Department's account of what transpired, and look forward to reviewing all the available evidence — including camera footage — to understand what warranted the jailing of a reporter for nearly 24 hours."
The Seattle district attorney's office ultimately declined to bring trespassing charges against Montgomery.
Freelance journalist Zachary Siegel was held in criminal contempt of court and arrested on Oct. 2, 2018, while covering a high-profile murder trial in Chicago, Illinois. The judge overseeing the trial said that Siegel had recorded part of the trial, in violation of the judge's decorum order, and ordered him held in jail on a $100 bond.
On Oct. 2, Siegel was one of a number of journalists in attendance for the murder trial of Jason Van Dyke, a former Chicago police officer charged with murder in connection with the 2014 shooting of Laquan McDonald, a black teenager. Siegel, a freelance science journalist, was on assignment for Undark, an online magazine about science journalism funded through the Knight Science Journalism program at MIT. Siegel was working on a feature story about Laurence Miller, a police psychologist who often testifies as an expert witness for the defense in trials involving police use of force.
Shortly after Miller's testimony began, Judge Vincent Gaughan spotted Siegel recording the testimony and stopped the trial. After questioning Siegel, Judge Gaughan ordered that he be held in "direct criminal contempt" for violating the judge's earlier decorum order. Gaughan's decorum order allowed a defined media pool to record the trial proceedings and then share the footage with other journalists, but prohibited individual journalists (like Siegel) from recording parts of the trial on their own. Siegel was removed from court and taken to jail.
Video recorded by ABC 7 (which was allowed to film the proceedings) shows Gaughan questioning Siegel.
"Take your hands out of your pocket," Gaughan scolds Siegel. "All right, state your name. Get up here!"
Gaughan asks Siegel if he was recording testimony (Siegel says he was) and if he knew that recording testimony was a violation of the decorum order (Siegel says he did not).
Gaughan then orders that the person sitting next to Siegel be brought up to the front of the court.
"Before I ask him whether he was sitting next to you when the decorum order was read, I want you to think about your answer, all right?" Gaughan tells Siegel. "Did you see and hear my deputy read my decorum order in this courtroom?"
"Yes," Siegel says.
"All right, take him into custody," Gaughan says. "I find you in direct contempt of court."
Later, Siegel was brought back before Judge Gaughan for a brief hearing on the criminal contempt charge.
Gaughan told Siegel to appear at a sentencing hearing on Oct. 31 and ordered him held on a $1,000 D-bond. A D-bond requires that a defendant raise 10% of its amount (in this case, $100) in order to make bail.
Zachary Siegel, the reporter who was held in contempt after recording earlier today, is being held on $1,000 bond.
— Matt Masterson (@ByMattMasterson) October 2, 2018
"I don't want you to stay over there long," Gaughan said, adding "it's bad that you did that."
Zachary Siegel, a freelancer, is in front of Judge Gaughan on his contempt of court charge. He's got a $1000 D-bond, so he'll have to post $100 to get out. We took up a collection in the press aisle.
— Andy Grimm (@agrimm34) October 2, 2018
Siegel was released from jail after other journalists covering the trial took up a collection to raise $100 for his bail.
I was arrested and charged with contempt of court for recording when I wasn't supposed to. I want to thank all the journalists who put up $ for my bond, keeping me out of jail. (If you did put up $, please DM so I can venmo you). I also want to thank @undarkmag for standing w/ me
— Zachary Siegel (@ZachWritesStuff) October 2, 2018
Tom Zeller, Jr., the editor in chief of Undark magazine, told Freedom of the Press Foundation that the judge's decision to hold Siegel in contempt of court was inappropriate.
"Whatever the overall nature or purpose of the judge's 'decorum order,' the decision to arrest a reporter for recording testimony during a highly publicized trial — and one in which other members of the press were permitted to record freely — would seem both absurd and arbitrary on its face," he said. "If the judge's goal was to intimidate other working journalists, it will not work."
Zachary Siegel is taken into custody after being found in direct criminal contempt of court for recording part of a murder trial in Chicago.
",arrested and released,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,Black Lives Matter,,, 2018-10-26 21:32:22.072826+00:00,2023-11-22 20:53:57.641791+00:00,Journalist Karen Savage arrested for second time while covering anti-pipeline protest in Louisiana,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-karen-savage-arrested-second-time-while-covering-anti-pipeline-protest-louisiana/,2023-11-22 20:53:57.520701+00:00,trespassing: unauthorized entry of a critical infrastructure project (charges dropped as of 2021-07-13),,(2021-07-13 00:00:00+00:00) Charges dropped against investigative journalist who sued following arrests in Louisiana,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Karen Savage (The Appeal),,2018-09-18,False,St. Martin Parish,Louisiana (LA),None,None,"On Sept. 18, 2018, freelance investigative reporter Karen Savage was arrested and charged with trespassing, while reporting on protests against the construction of the Bayou Bridge oil pipeline in Louisiana.
Savage was embedded with a camp of protesters, known as water protectors, who were aiming to defend a piece of land in Louisiana’s Atchafalaya River Basin, a wetlands area co-owned by hundreds of people.
Energy Transfer Partners, the company responsible for the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota, is trying to build its new Bayou Bridge oil pipeline through the area. Although some of the co-owners of the Atchafalaya River Basin property have given the company permission to build the pipeline, hundreds of others have refused to do so. Despite this, the company had already begun making alterations to the land, including removing trees and digging a ditch. It has also asked the state of Louisiana to use eminent domain to seize the land from the co-owners who object to the pipeline.
Savage told Freedom of the Press Foundation that one of the co-owners of the Atchafalaya Basin land who is resisting the pipeline had given her permission to be on the property.
“Some were actively resisting, and I had a letter from a landowner saying we were welcome to be on the property," she said. "For people to visit the property, you only need permission from one landowner.”
Savage had previously been arrested for trespassing while reporting on the pipeline protests on Aug. 18. Once she was released on bail, she returned to the resistance camp at the Atchafalaya River Basin to continue covering the protest movement.
Savage said that on September 3 and 4, she witnessed law enforcement officers treated protesters badly.
“They chased them, tackled them, and allowed pipeline security employees to put their hands on protesters," she said. "It was heavily violence and I got some pictures of law enforcement chasing them.”
She said that a few weeks later, on Sept. 17, she was riding in a vehicle that was pulled over in a different parish in Louisiana. The officers ran the ID's of everyone in the car, but everything came back fine and they were allowed to proceed after receiving a citation.
The next day, sheriff's deputies claimed that Savage had an outstanding warrant dating from Sept. 3.
Savage said that on September 18, she was tipped off by protesters to come to a particular part of the swamp, and when she pulled up in her boat to the ramp, she saw sheriff’s department officers present. As Savage began photographing the scene, the officers came to her and arrested her, allegedly on an outstanding warrant.
“They said they were arresting me for an outstanding warrant,” she said. “But I knew there was nothing out for me.”
Savage said that an individual who witnessed the arrest called the sheriff’s department to inquire why she was arrested and learned that there was no warrant out for her.
Savage was arrested under Louisiana's newly-enacted state law against "unauthorized entry of a critical infrastructure project." The Louisiana state law — which only went into effect on Aug. 1 — makes trespassing on a "critical infrastructure project" like an oil pipeline a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
She had previously been arrested under the same law on Aug. 18.
Savage contrasted her treatment by the sheriff’s department to her previous arrest while covering the protest in August. Then, she said, the arrest wasn’t violent. But this time, she said the officers grabbed her roughly and pulled her hands back.
"They really hurt me arms, shoulders, and wrists," she said. "It was really unnecessary."
She said that the officers put her in the back of a police car and then drove her around for about an hour, which she found suspicious.
"It’s a 20 minute drive to the station," she said. "But they kept driving around through sugar cane fields, and I had no idea where he was taking me. I thought maybe it was intimidation because they didn’t actually have a warrant."
The St. Martin’s Sheriff Department did not respond to request for comment.
Savage said that, despite her two arrests, the local district attorney has not brought any criminal charges against her.
“I’m doubtful that they ever will," she said. "It was a very clear intimidation tactic to stop me from covering the story.”
“I will go back,” she added. “I’m not going to let them intimidate me. It’s our job to hold these officials accountable.”
On Aug. 18, 2018, freelance investigative reporter Karen Savage was arrested under a felony trespassing law, while reporting on protests against the construction of the Bayou Bridge oil pipeline in Louisiana. At the time, Savage was on assignment for The Appeal, a progressive news site focused on criminal justice issues.
Savage was embedded with a camp of protesters, known as water protectors, who were aiming to defend a piece of land in Louisiana’s Atchafalaya River Basin, a wetlands area co-owned by hundreds of people. Energy Transfer Partners, the company responsible for the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota, is trying to build its new Bayou Bridge oil pipeline through the area. Although some of the co-owners of the Atchafalaya Basin property have given the company permission to build the pipeline, hundreds of others have refused to do so. Despite this, the company had already begun making alterations to the land, including removing trees and digging a ditch. It has also asked the state of Louisiana to use eminent domain to seize the land from the co-owners who object to the pipeline.
Savage told Freedom of the Press Foundation that one of the co-owners of the Atchafalaya Basin land who is resisting the pipeline had given her permission to be on the property.
“Some were actively resisting, and I had a letter from a landowner saying we were welcome to be on the property," she said. "For people to visit the property, you only need permission from one landowner.”
On Aug. 18, Savage was with three water protectors, taking pictures and reporting, when she was arrested by sheriff's deputies from the nearby St. Martin Parish.
“I wasn’t even on the contested part of the land,” she said. “Sheriff’s deputies showed up and said I had to leave. I said I had permission to be there. I didn’t think I, or anyone else, would be arrested.”
She showed the officer a photograph of letter she had from a landowner, granting her permission to remain on the property. She said that she urged the officer to call the landowner, but he declined to do so. Officers then arrested her and the three water protectors who were with her.
Savage was one of the first people to be arrested under a newly-enacted Louisiana state law against "unauthorized entry of a critical infrastructure project," which went into effect on Aug. 1. The new Louisiana state law makes trespassing on a "critical infrastructure project" like an oil pipeline a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. (Trespassing on land that is not a "critical infrastructure project" remains a misdemeanor.)
Although Savage was arrested under the law, the local district attorney has not yet brought any criminal charges against her.
After Savage was released on bail, she returned to the area to continue reporting on the protests against the Bayou Bridge pipeline.
“I bonded out, and kept reporting,” she said. “I wasn’t going to be intimidated.”
She later published a piece in The Appeal about her arrest and the way that Energy Transfer Partners employs off-duty law enforcement officers as a private security force, which works closely with uniformed St. Martin Parish sheriff's deputies to arrest pipeline protesters.
The St. Martin’s Sheriff Department did not respond to request for comment.
Dave Weaver, a freelance videographer, was arrested while filming near the scene of a multi-vehicle car crash on Interstate 88 in Illinois, on Aug. 11, 2018.
Weaver is an independent photojournalist who shoots footage of crime scenes and the aftermath of car crashes and fires in the Chicago area, which he learns about by listening to police and fire radio scanners.
At around 6 p.m. on Aug. 11, three cars were involved in a fiery car crash on the Illinois Tollway, part of Interstate 88 in Illinois. Police later said that the crash left two cars totaled and bystanders were barely able to extricate the crash victims from the cars before they burst into flame.
Weaver told Freedom of the Press Foundation that he arrived at the crash site just as the last ambulance was leaving to take victims to the hospital and maintenance workers were cleaning up the area. He began filming the aftermath of the crash; some of his video footage was later included in a local TV station’s report on the crash.
After a maintenance worker spotted Weaver and alerted the Illinois State Police, an ISP trooper approached Weaver and arrested him. The trooper, Kyle Fletcher, was familiar with Weaver from previous incidents.
“I realized that this was an individual that I had spoken to before,” Fletcher wrote in a field report documenting the arrest. “I once again asked Weaver what he was doing illegally parked on the shoulder of the tollways and walking around on a road where pedestrians are forbidden. … Due to the fact that this was not the first time I had spoke[n] to Weaver about this sort of behavior he was placed under arrest for criminal trespass to property.”
Weaver said that Fletcher also ticketed him.
“This trooper also charged me with three tickets,” he said. “One for stopping on the shoulder, which he considered a crime because I was not using the Tollway for its intended purpose. And also for getting out of my vehicle, and also a third one for failure to yield to emergency vehicles, which is a complete joke because I was the last one to arrive at the scene, and there were no emergency vehicles to ever have to yield to.”
Each ticket carries a $120 fine and requires Weaver to appear in court.
Weaver said that after he was arrested and brought to the DuPage County, two of his fellow photojournalists bailed him and then helped him recover his impounded vehicle.
On Sept. 13, Weaver pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. The next court date is set for Nov. 8, at which point Weaver intends to request a trial if the charges against him have not been dropped.
In a statement to Freedom of the Press Foundation, a spokesperson for the Illinois State Police confirmed Weaver’s arrest:
The Illinois State Police can confirm that on August 11, 2018, Mr. David Weaver was arrested by the ISP and cited for the following offenses at the scene of a multi vehicle personal injury crash that resulted in multi vehicle fires: Criminal Trespass to Real Property, Failure to Yield to Emergency Vehicles, Stopping Parking or Standing on Roadway, and Walking Improperly on the roadway. This case remains open and ongoing in the court system, therefore we have no further comment at this time. The Illinois State Police's primary goal at the scene of a critical incident, and at all times, is the safety and well-being of all members of the public.
Weaver said that Fletcher, the ISP trooper who arrested him, has repeatedly tried to prevent him from reporting on car crashes on the Illinois State Tollway.
“He is trying to get me involved in a case where he’s trying to make me out as a threat to the first responder community by my presence,” he said.
According to Weaver, the trouble began on Nov. 27, 2016, three days after he covered a car crash on the Illinois Tollway. Weaver said that Fletcher showed up at his house and told him that the Illinois Tollway was private property and he had to obtain a special Media ID from the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority in order to film on the highway.
Weaver claims that Fletcher then threatened him with arrest and asked him to go to an Illinois State Trooper station to “voluntarily” complete a written statement. Weaver said that he went to the station and submitted his written statement — at which point, he was fingerprinted and photographed. Weaver said that Fletcher then drove him home and told him, “I don’t want to jam you up."
Weaver said that when he later asked the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority about obtaining the special Media ID that Fletcher had mentioned, the Highway Authority’s press secretary informed him that no such ID existed and access to emergency scenes was the responsibility of Illinois State Police, not the Highway Authority.
“I think the state needs to reconsider what it considers private property and how it operates and what procedures are in dealing with the press,” Weaver told Freedom of the Press Foundation. “I want to know for my own peace of mind, so that when I go to scenes on a Tollway, that my day doesn’t end with me being arrested, and my car towed and being putting into the holding cell at DuPage County Jail."
"I should be able to do my job as long as the conditions are safe to do so, and I was denied that," he added.
A screengrab from a recording by journalist Dave Weaver on Aug. 11, 2018, shows the aftermath of a firey car crash near Naperville, Illinois. Weaver was arrested by Illinois State Police troopers while recording this footage.
",arrested and released,Illinois State Police,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,,,, 2018-12-10 19:38:46.526230+00:00,2023-10-27 21:11:17.549544+00:00,"Milwaukee reporter arrested, interrogated, and asked to delete photographs",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/milwaukee-reporter-arrested-interrogated-and-asked-delete-photographs/,2023-10-27 21:11:17.399870+00:00,trespassing (acquitted as of 2018-12-03),,,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Equipment Search or Seizure, Equipment Damage",,camera: count of 1,work product: count of 1,Edgar Mendez (Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service),,2018-08-05,False,Milwaukee,Wisconsin (WI),43.0389,-87.90647,"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.
Susan Greene, the editor of the Colorado Independent, was handcuffed and detained after photographing a police interaction on July 5, 2018.
Greene told Freedom of the Press Foundation in an email that she was driving in downtown Denver when she saw a group of Denver police officers standing around a naked man seated on the sidewalk.
“I stopped to check out the scene because of a history of Denver uniformed safety officers hurting African American men in their custody and not offering medical help,” she said. “I was taking a few photos of the scene when an officer told me to stop. I told him I had a right to take photographs. He said I didn't because HIPAA.”
Greene said that one of the officers, whom she identified as James Brooks, tried to intimidate her physically and stood close in front of her in an attempt to block her camera. When she then began taking photographs of Brooks, the officer responded with physical force.
Greene later wrote a first-person account of what happened for the Independent:
As it turns out, Officer Brooks didn’t like having his picture taken. After accusing me of blocking the door of an ambulance that had been called to the scene – toward which he had prodded me during our encounter – and saying something about me obstructing officers, he grabbed me and twisted my arm in ways that arms aren’t supposed to move. At some point in the blur, either he or Officer Adam Paulsen, badge No. 08049, locked one or maybe two pair of handcuffs on my wrists, tightly, and pushed me toward a nearby police car by grabbing my arms hard enough – and with a painful upward thrust – that I told them to stop hurting me. Their response: That I was hurting myself by resisting.
But I wasn’t resisting. Not even close.
I had heard from my work reporting on several excessive force cases troublesome accounts of police injuring arrestees, yet claiming they injured themselves. But to hear it first-hand, uttered obviously for the benefit of whoever might some day review the body-camera footage, was infuriating.
Greene: That time a Denver cop made up excuses to handcuff a reporter (Colorado Independent)
Greene wrote that the officers detained her in a police car for about 10 minutes before releasing her, “apparently at the urging of someone on the other end of [Brooks’] cellphone.”
The Denver Police Department opened an internal investigation into the incident. On Aug. 23, Greene reported that she received a call from Denver district attorney Beth McGann, who told Greene that her office could not bring charges against officer Brooks for either assault or false imprisonment.
On Aug. 28, the Denver Police Department finally released video footage of the incident taken from the body cameras worn by officers Paulsen and Brooks.
“This is protected by HIPAA,” Paulsen tells Greene in the video. “You can’t record.”
“There’s also a First Amendment,” Greene responds. “Have you heard of it?”
“That doesn’t supersede HIPAA,” Paulsen says. “Step away, or you’ll be arrested for interference."
Brooks then grabs Greene and twists her arm behind her back, and Paulsen hands him handcuffs.
“Stand up straight, let’s act like a lady,” Paulsen tells Greene as he handcuffs her.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Greene asks. “Act like a lady?”
“Nope,” Brooks says, as Paulsen finishes locking the cuffs. “There you go. Now you can go to jail.”
“Stop, you’re hurting me!” Greene yells as the officers forcibly escort her to a police car.
“No, we’re not,” one of the officers says. “Then walk, walk normal, stop resisting.”
Footage from a Denver police officer's body camera shows officers handcuffing Colorado Independent editor Susan Greene.
",detained and released without being processed,Denver Police Department,None,None,True,None,['SETTLED'],Civil,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,,,, 2018-06-14 20:52:23.573688+00:00,2023-11-03 18:23:36.621499+00:00,Photojournalist Michael Nigro arrested while covering protest in Missouri,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-michael-nigro-arrested-while-covering-protest-missouri/,2023-11-03 18:23:36.411942+00:00,failure to obey (charges dropped as of 2018-11-30),,(2019-03-08 10:59:00+00:00) Charges dismissed for photojournalist arrested while covering demonstration in Missouri,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Equipment Search or Seizure","Truthdig Correspondent Michael Nigro Arrested While Covering Poor People's Campaign in Missouri (https://www.truthdig.com/articles/poor-peoples-campaign-fighting-for-labor-rights-and-living-wages-live-blog/) via Truthdig, Nigro's livestream of the June 11 demonstration (https://www.facebook.com/Truthdig/videos/10155540747691367/), Missouri Poor People's Campaign rallies in state capital after KC warmup; 76 arrested (http://www.kansascity.com/news/business/article212843349.html) via Kansas City Star","camera lens: count of 2, cellphone: count of 1, work product: count of 1, equipment bag: count of 1, camera: count of 1",,Michael Nigro (Truthdig),,2018-06-11,False,Jefferson City,Missouri (MO),38.5767,-92.17352,"Michael Nigro, a freelance photojournalist on assignment for Truthdig, was arrested while covering a Poor People’s Campaign demonstration in Jefferson City, Missouri, on June 11, 2018.
Nigro has been covering the Poor People’s Campaign — a 40-day series of protests and civil disobedience actions in different cities across the country — since it began on May 14. On June 11, he was in Jefferson City, documenting a civil disobedience action in which a number of protesters planned to sit down in the middle of the street and be arrested.
Nigro is a multimedia journalist who takes still photographs and livestreams events. He’s mounted his iPhone on top of his DSLR camera, a Canon 5D Mark III, so that he can take high-quality still photos while at the same time streaming to the public exactly what he sees in real-time. On June 11, he was wearing press credentials — both a New York City government press card and a Truthdig press pass — that clearly identified him as a journalist.
Nigro believes that his arrest was unjustified and that the Jefferson City police knew that he was a journalist.
“When people are performing acts of civil disobedience, I have every right as a journalist to document it, as long as I am not in the police officers’ way, which I was not,” he said.
Nigro’s June 11 livestream shows demonstrators marching toward the Missouri state capitol building and then the Missouri Chamber of Commerce. After arriving at the Chamber of Commerce building, a few dozen protesters — all wearing gold armbands, a sign that they plan to perform an act of civil disobedience and face arrest — walk onto East Capitol Avenue, link arms, and sit down.
As police officers arrive to arrest the demonstrators, Nigro walks around them to photograph the arrests. One officer spots Nigro and orders him to get onto the sidewalk.
“You got it, you got it,” Nigro says, backing up toward the sidewalk.
After backing up to the sidewalk curb, Nigro approaches a second officer to ask about the arrests.
“Back onto the sidewalk!” the second officer barks through a bullhorn. “That’s your last warning. Everybody’s got to be up on the curb.”
The first officer then runs toward Nigro.
“Turn around,” the officer says. “You’re under arrest, my man.”
“Call my editors!” Nigro says as he’s arrested. “Call my editors, please”
“I’m not resisting,” he says to the officer arresting him. “I’m just trying to do my job.”
The officer escorts Nigro to a nearby police van, where other officers handcuff him and take down his name and birthdate. The arresting officer hands Nigro’s equipment — camera, phone, and backpack — over to other officers and tells them, “it’s evidence.” The livestream continues for a few minutes after Nigro is arrested, as police search his backpack.
Nigro said that he was kept in the police van for about an hour and then taken to the police precinct. Nigro said that he was concerned for his safety while riding in the van, since officers never strapped him into his seat.
“At one point, they started to move the van and I was not tied in,” he said. “The guy leaned back and said, ‘Are you OK?’ I said, ‘Yeah but I’m not strapped in.’ He said, ‘We’re not going anywhere, just moving backward.’ About an hour later, they took me to the precinct but never strapped me in.”
When he got to the precinct, he said, he was processed and put in a holding cell for about half an hour, before being released on a $545 bail.
All of Nigro’s equipment — including his iPhone, Canon 5D Mark III camera, two camera lenses (a 24–70mm standard lens and a Sony A7ii 70–200mm zoom lens), and notebook — was returned to him when he was released. He said that it was clear that the police had searched his equipment, though nothing appeared to be damaged and none of the photos on his phone or camera had been deleted.
Nigro was charged with “failure to obey” and given a ticket to appear in a Jefferson City court at 8:13 a.m. on July 11, 2018.
The Kansas City Star reported that Nigro was one of 76 people arrested in connection with the June 11 protests, and that everyone arrested was issued a citation that carries a maximum penalty of 90 days in jail or a $1,000 fine.
This is not the only time that Nigro was arrested while covering a protest. In 2016, he said, he was arrested by an NYPD officer while documenting an anti-Trump march in New York City.
Police officers in Jefferson City, Missouri, arrest photojournalist Michael Nigro, on June 11, 2018.
",arrested and released,Jefferson City Police 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,,protest,,, 2018-12-06 20:37:37.566155+00:00,2022-05-12 22:40:42.416847+00:00,Reporter John Harvey arrested and cited for ‘disorderly conduct’ at Pennsylvania State Capitol,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-john-harvey-arrested-and-cited-disorderly-conduct-pennsylvania-state-capitol/,2022-05-12 22:40:42.344529+00:00,obstruction: disorderly conduct (charges dropped as of 2018-12-06),,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,"Video footage of the incident (https://www.facebook.com/PennsylvaniaPPC/videos/1869816743311626/), Nine arrested at Poor People's Campaign rally at the state Capitol (https://www.pennlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2018/06/nine_arrested_at_poor_peoples.html) via Penn Live",,,John Harvey (Democracy Watch News),,2018-06-11,False,Harrisburg,Pennsylvania (PA),40.2737,-76.88442,"Democracy Watch News journalist John Harvey was arrested at the Pennsylvania State Capitol Complex in Harrisburg, while filming a sit-in on June 11, 2018.
The sit-in was part of the “Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival,” which carried out a series of nonviolent demonstrations across the country during the summer of 2018.
On June 11, the Poor People’s Campaign was in its fifth consecutive week of activity at the Pennsylvania capitol building, according to PennLive.com.
Harvey was one of nine people arrested and cited for disorderly conduct during the protest which occurred just outside the entrance to the House Chamber, according to PennLive.com.
Video of the incident show Harvey filming the initial arrests while standing along a banister with other reporters a short distance from the entryway.
According to Harvey, the protesters had already performed a number of actions at the Capitol that day without incident.
“I’m not sure exactly why at that point they [Capitol police] decided they were going to remove these protesters that were performing the sit in, as they’d had various other opportunities to do so,” Harvey told Freedom of the Press Foundation.
After the first demonstrators are lead away in plastic cuffs, Harvey can be seen moving slightly forward for an unobstructed view of the final arrests of two older protesters, including an elderly woman with a walker. As she is slowly lead away, Harvey told Freedom of the Press Foundation he was shoved and accosted by a stranger who scuffled him against a wall.
“This guy he’s screaming, he’s screaming, he’s screaming,” Harvey said, “Well, by then why would I even think he’s a cop? I think he’s some lunatic who feels that my coverage of this poor people’s event is incorrect or it’s bringing attention to them that shouldn’t be brought to them.”
Harvey said he’s been attacked a number of times by people for doing his job as a journalist and assumed this was another such incident.
Video footage shows a man in a taupe blazer and tie repeatedly yelling “knock it off” while grabbing Harvey’s left arm and wrist and pressing him back against the wall. The man also shouts “What’s wrong with you?” at Harvey, who can be heard replying, “What’s wrong with you?”
Harvey attempts to point his camera toward the man, but he shoves it away. After Harvey shows the man his press pass, the man can be heard saying he is aware Harvey is a journalist.
“I understand that,” he says. “I’m asking you to keep it clear, for our guys. Now take it easy. Do not block our officers. Do not stand in back of them. Ok? Knock it off.”
Harvey told Freedom of the Press Foundation this was the first time the man indicated he was police officer.
Another officer then tells Harvey to stand against the wall, which he does.
“I’m thinking ‘Ok, fine,’ tell me to stand there and I’ll stand there and film from there. All you need to do is tell me,” Harvey said.
Harvey resumes filming the protesters when another officer is beckoned over and instructed to remove Harvey, which he does along with a Capitol police officer. That officer places Harvey in a wrist lock.
As Harvey is led away, he momentarily films the officer who has placed him in a wrist lock before the officer pushes the camera away. Harvey said he was lead to a room with other protesters, where he waited a significant period of time before officers were able to complete their citations.
Harvey, who was at the Capitol to cover a Healthcare Services Employees Union sleep-in later that night, was barred from the Capitol for the rest of day.
“Gosh, now I have to head back to Pittsburgh, because what I went out there for I can’t do anymore,” Harvey said.
Harvey says the citation was eventually dropped, and he is currently pursuing a number of Freedom of Information Act requests into how new officers are trained as well as officer guidelines for interacting with the press.
“I was placed in a handlock and lead off when those sitting-in weren’t, and I really feel that was an abuse of power,” Harvey said.
“In terms of press freedoms I think it’s inappropriate, because it means that anyone that goes to the Capitol to report on something can be arrested and banned from the Capitol for the day for doing nothing other than their job.”
Harrisburg Capitol police spokesman Troy Thompson did not respond to requests for comment.
Screencap from video footage recorded of the incident.
On April 3, 2018, journalist Manuel Duran was arrested while reporting on a protest in Memphis, Tennessee. Though all charges against him were later dropped, he was placed into the custody of Immigration & Customs Enforcement and could be deported.
Duran, who is from El Salvador, runs Memphis Noticias, a local Spanish-language news website. He previously worked as a reporter for WGSF, a Spanish-language radio station in Memphis.
On April 3, Duran covered a demonstration by immigration activists outside the Shelby Protest Criminal Justice Complex in Memphis. As he livestreamed the demonstration on Facebook Live, police arrested him and a number of the demonstrators. Duran and the demonstrators were charged with disorderly conduct and “obstruction of a highway or passageway.”
Police later said that they arrested the group because they blocked traffic while slowly crossing the street.
The Commercial Appeal, a daily newspaper in Memphis, reported that prosecutors agreed to drop all charges against Duran during a court hearing on April 5.
“This office has dismissed misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and obstruction of a highway or passageway filed Tuesday against Manuel Duran,” Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weinrich said in a statement to the Commercial Appeal. “There was not sufficient evidence to go forward with prosecution. This ends any legal issues Mr. Duran has with this office.”
Latino Memphis, a group that advocated for Duran’s release, said in a tweet that ICE detained Duran immediately after the court hearing.
Criminal charges for Manuel Duran have been dropped thanks to the work of Ann Schiller and our attorney Christy Swatzell. Unfortunately, ICE was waiting for him in the court room. He is currently with ICE. #StopICE
— Latino Memphis (@LatinoMemphis) April 5, 2018
Local TV station WREG reported that Duran was taken into federal custody on April 5.
An ICE spokesman did not respond to a request for comment from the Freedom of the Press Foundation.
Ken Lovett, the Albany bureau chief for the New York Daily News, was arrested by State Police troopers in the lobby of the New York State Senate.
On March 28, 2018, Lovett was handcuffed by State Police troopers in the lobby of the Capitol building and taken to a nearby State Police substation for processing.
After being released, Lovett told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that he was talking on his cellphone when he was approached by a Senate sergeant-at-arms, who ordered him to turn off his phone. Lovett said that he refused, telling the sergeant that the Senate wasn't in session and he (and many others) routinely used their cellphones in the lobby.
Lovett said that the sergeant-at-arms escalated the situation, ordering him to leave the premises and then calling in State Police troopers, who also ordered him to leave the area. He said that he "stood his ground" and was then arrested and told that he could be charged with trespassing.
The Senate sergeant-at-arms refused to comment on the incident.
Nick Reisman, a reporter for Capital Tonight, spoke to eyewitnesses who said that Lovett was talking on his phone when he was approached by the Senate sergeant-at-arms and then arrested by State Police troopers.
The Daily News’s Ken Lovett has been detained by State Police. One witness says it was for talking on a cellphone in the state Senate lobby. Bizarre and egregious. Never seen something like this. pic.twitter.com/C284pPLZV1
— Nick Reisman (@NickReisman) March 28, 2018
A Senate spokesman confirmed that Lovett had been arrested for talking on a cellphone.
“Earlier today a reporter was asked to comply with a rule prohibiting use of a cellphone in the Senate lobby,” the spokesman said in a statement. “He refused and the state police were notified. The incident escalated quickly and unfortunately he was detained by the State Police. We have formally requested that he be released and very much regret the incident.”
A State Police spokesman said in a statement to Politico that the officers who arrested Lovett were responding to a trespassing complaint:
At approximately 1 p.m., State Police responded to the Senate lobby for a trespassing complaint. Upon arrival, Troopers learned that Ken Lovett had refused requests from the Senate Sergeant at Arms/Session to leave the Senate lobby. Lovett had been asked to leave by Senate security staff because he was using his cellphone in the lobby in violation of Senate rules. After Lovett also refused Troopers’ requests to leave the area, the Sergeant at Arms/Session indicated that he wanted to file a trespassing complaint. Lovett was taken into custody and transported to SP Capital. A short time later, the Sergeant at Arms notified State Police that the complaint was being withdrawn. Lovett was released and no charges were filed.
Lovett said that after he was arrested and taken to the State Police substation, representatives of the Senate visited him to apologize for what happened and say that they would not press charges.
Later, New York governor Andrew Cuomo visited him.
Cuomo has arrived to #freekenlovett pic.twitter.com/rUNjmbwMdw
— Dan Clark (@DanClarkReports) March 28, 2018
A video recorded by Buffalo News reporter Dan Clark shows Cuomo entering the State Police substation and joking that he was “the court-appointed attorney for Ken Lovett.” Soon after Cuomo arrived, Lovett was released from custody.
In an impromptu press conference, the governor said that he does not expect any criminal charges will be filed against Lovett.
“He’s not going to flee the jurisdiction,” Cuomo said, according to video of the press conference recorded by Politico’s Jimmy Vielkind. “We don’t believe any charges are going to be filed. Freedom of the press is alive and well in the city of Albany.”
“Apparently, there was a disagreement between Ken Lovett and the sergeant-at-arms,” he added. “The Senate doesn’t want to press any charges."
Lovett later tweeted that the State Police troopers who arrested him were "very professional."
Sean Ewart, a staffer for a New York state legislator, told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that he was walking by the Senate lobby when he saw State Police troopers handcuffing Lovett. Ewart said that he has seen many arrests in the Capitol building — it's a common location for protest sit-ins — but this was the first time he had ever seen a journalist arrested there.
Lovett, who has been in Albany for 24 years, also said that he had never heard of a journalist being arrested at the Capitol building before.
A few hours after he was released, Lovett wrote a first-person account of the arrest for the Daily News.
"I can’t say I was surprised someone was led away in handcuffs from the state Capitol on Wednesday afternoon," he wrote. "I just never thought it would be me — especially for the capital crime of talking on a cellphone."
New York State Police troopers arrest Daily News journalist Ken Lovett in the lobby of the New York State Senate, on March 28, 2018.
",arrested and released,New York State Police,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,,,, 2018-01-16 11:18:12.499836+00:00,2024-02-23 15:37:30.329214+00:00,Citizen journalist arrested for publishing information before local police,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/citizen-journalist-arrested-after-publishing-information-local-police/,2024-02-23 15:37:30.203400+00:00,"misuse of official information (charges dropped as of 2018-03-28), misuse of official information (charges dropped as of 2018-03-28)",LegalOrder object (11),"(2018-03-28 13:51:00+00:00) Charges dismissed, (2019-04-08 14:41:00+00:00) Citizen journalist sues for damages following alleged unlawful 2017 arrest, (2021-11-01 00:00:00+00:00) Court of Appeals overturns ruling dismissing citizen journalist’s lawsuit, (2024-01-23 11:56:00+00:00) Divided federal appeals court won’t revive Texas journalist’s lawsuit","Arrest/Criminal Charge, Subpoena/Legal Order",,,,Priscilla Villarreal (Independent),,2017-12-13,False,Laredo,Texas (TX),27.50641,-99.50754,"Citizen journalist Priscilla Villarreal was arrested by the Laredo Police Department and charged with two felony counts of “misuse of official information” on Dec. 13, 2017.
Villarreal — an independent journalist based in Laredo, Texas, who is often known by her nickname “La Gordiloca” — published the name of a Border Patrol agent who died by suicide on her Facebook page in April, before the Laredo Police Department’s official release about the incident.
The Laredo Morning Times reported on Dec. 15 that a veteran patrol officer, Barbara J. Goodman, provided the name of the agent to Villarreal, but the journalist denies Goodman was her source. Investigators obtained subpoenas for the phone records of both Villarreal and Goodman.
“Misuse of official information” charges in Texas require that a person obtain nonpublic information from a public official and disseminate it with the intention of benefiting or harming another entity. Authorities argued in the criminal complaint filed against Villarreal that she benefited from publishing the agent’s name by gaining Facebook followers.
Texas Monthly reported that the complaint reads, “Villarreal’s access to this information and releasing it on ‘Lagordiloca News Laredo Tx,’ before the official release by the Laredo Police Department Public Information Officer placed her ‘Facebook’ page ahead of the local official news media which in turn gained her popularity in Facebook.”
According to The Washington Post, Villarreal turned herself in voluntarily after a warrant was issued for her arrest, but believes she is innocent of wrongdoing and that the police are attempting to silence her reporting.
Villarreal and her legal representation were not immediately available for comment.
Mike Stark, a reporter for the liberal news site Shareblue Media, was arrested in Fairfax County, Virginia on Oct. 28, 2017 while covering the campaign of Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie.
According to a report on Shareblue, Stark was filming Gillespie's campaign vehicle at the Annandale Parade when a police officer approached him and ordered him to move out of the street.
Stark told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that he told the officer that he was a reporter and complied with the order to move onto the sidewalk. Stark said that the officer then told him to stay away from the Gillespie campaign bus, which he refused to do since he was covering Gillespie.
“I was standing in the street on the far side of the driveway filming the Gillespie RV in anticipation of him disembarking,” Stark said in a statement. “That's when I heard the policeman tell me to get out of the road. I complied, and then he told me to leave the Gillespie vehicle and everyone inside it alone. At that point I told the policeman he'd probably have to arrest me to keep me away from Gillespie. He responded that he would arrest me and approached me aggressively. The ‘conversation’ escalated from there.”
A video of the arrest shows Stark complying with Rogers’ order to step backward, while continuing to argue with him, as a woman in a red jacket and an additional police officer involve themselves in the exchange. (Stark said that he believes that the woman in the red jacket was associated with the campaign.)
After Stark says “Fuck this,” the arresting officer — whom Stark later identified as Mason District Police Captain T.J. Rogers — places his hand on Stark’s right shoulder and turns him against a nearby fence. While Stark has both of his hands behind his back, the officer lifts Stark’s right ankle off the ground, sending the reporter face-first into the sidewalk.
As additional officers rush to the scene, Stark says, “Stop, I will give you my arm. I can’t. You have your weight on top of me. I cannot give you my hand. My hand is beneath me.” Five officers eventually pin Stark to the ground with their knees on the back of his head and his body. They continue demanding his arm as he screams that he cannot comply and begs them to stop.
Stark told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that officers punched him repeatedly in the legs during the physical takedown and said that his attorney told him that this is a common “softening” technique used against non-cooperative subjects.
The takedown left Stark with an abrasion to his head and a few bruises. He refused treatment at the time of the arrest.
“I’ve got a nice bruise on my hip and an ugly scrape on my elbow,” he said. “But as I've said elsewhere, I don't consider this arrest to have been brutal. Violent? Yes. Brutal? No.”
Stark also said that his phone was broken during the incident, and he suspects that the officers may have deliberately thrown it against the ground.
“My brand new phone, a OnePlus 5 that came with Gorilla Glass, was broken during the arrest,” he said. “I don't think it was an accident. When I was on the ground, I heard what sounded like a cellphone striking the pavement immediately after it had been retrieved from my hand attached to the arm stuck beneath my body.”
Stark was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest and held in custody for nearly five hours, before being released on a $3,000 bond.
After Shareblue published video of the arrest on October 31, Fairfax County Police Chief Edwin C. Roessler held a press conference, during which he defended the arrest and said that it was appropriate for the officers to use a physical takedown technique on Stark because the reporter was passively resisting arrest. (Stark said that he did not resist the officers, but was only trying to put his phone away when the officers took him down.)
Roessler told the press that the officer who arrested Stark might have feared for his safety.
“You must understand that, from the officer’s perspective, he does not know who this gentleman is,” Roessler said. “The gentleman is wearing a hooded sweatshirt. He does not know if this gentleman has a concealed weapon. He does not know what intent this gentleman has, whether it’s to create harm or something else.”
Stark said that he explicitly identified himself as a journalist to the officers who arrested him.
Roessler told the press that the officer who arrested Stark may not have believed Stark when he said that he was a journalist.
“He doesn’t know him personally or who he is, and anybody can say anything,” Roessler said.
Stark, who has written critically about Gillespie’s campaign, said that the campaign has previously had him removed from events held on private property and has “disinvited” him from the press pool. He believes that the campaign may have asked the police to remove him from the area near the Gillespie campaign bus.
During the press conference, police chief Roessler said that he did not know whether the Gillespie campaign had any conversations with the police concerning Stark.
“I have no knowledge of that right now,” Roeller said. “We are investigating this. And if there are any witnesses I would ask that they contact the Fairfax County Police Department. Our Internal Affairs Bureau is actively going out seeking witnesses and networking the community to understand the full picture here, and as I mentioned earlier, our police auditor will also review our completed investigation and report our findings to the community.”
A police spokesperson referred the Freedom of the Press Foundation to Roessler's press conference and declined to comment further.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Stark was not wearing a hooded sweatshirt. Stark told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that he was wearing a hooded sweatshirt.
Mike Stark
",arrested and released,Fairfax County Police Department,None,None,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,,election,,, 2017-10-04 09:23:14.717840+00:00,2023-09-18 16:51:57.233455+00:00,The Young Turks reporter Jordan Chariton arrested in St. Louis,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/tyt-reporter-jordan-chariton-arrested-st-louis/,2023-09-18 16:51:56.994513+00:00,trespassing (charges dropped as of 2018-10-04),,(2018-10-04 00:00:00+00:00) Charge dropped against reporter arrested at St. Louis protest,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Jordan Chariton (The Young Turks),,2017-10-03,False,St. Louis,Missouri (MO),38.62727,-90.19789,"Jordan Chariton, a reporter for the progressive online news organization The Young Turks, was arrested along with cameraman Ty Bayliss after filming a demonstration in St. Louis on Oct. 3, 2017.
That day, protesters in St. Louis shut down Highway 40, marching on the interstate and blocking traffic. The demonstration was a response to the acquittal in September of of Jason Stockley, a white former St. Louis police officer who in 2011 fatally shot Anthony Lamar Smith, a Black man.
Chariton and Bayliss followed the group and interviewed protesters as they marched on the highway. After the group of protesters exited the highway, lines of police officers enclosed them in a "kettle" and then ordered them to sit on the ground and began to arrest them. Chariton, Bayliss and other journalists covering the march were also arrested.
"Our reporter @JordanChariton and cameraman/editor Ty Bayliss have been arrested by St. Louis Police. Clear violation of first amendment," TYT founder and host Cenk Uygur tweeted. "TYT reporter & cameraman were covering St. Louis protests when police surrounded them and arrested them. We demand their immediate release."
TYT published a video on Youtube, filmed by Bayliss, that shows police arresting both him and Chariton.
"So they're arresting, it seems, journalists who covered a peaceful demonstration," Chariton can be heard saying in the video, after Bayliss is arrested. "I thought there was a freedom of the press and a First Amendment, but I guess not in St. Louis."
Bayliss and Chariton were arrested despite wearing press badges and telling police officers on the scene that they were members of the press. Officers told them that they were under arrest "for being on the highway."
Uygur, the founder of TYT, criticized the arrests of Bayliss and Chariton in a short video statement posted on Youtube.
"We're demanding their immediate release," Uygur says in the video. "This is outrageous. We had camera guys there because that's our job. There is a very legitimate and ongoing protest in St. Louis. They believe that the community is not being treated fairly, and we went to go cover it. That's exactly what we're supposed to do as the press. Apparently, the police didn't like that. You can hear people on the scene saying that they're arresting people with cameras first. So it's the exact opposite of what they're supposed to do. They're supposed to let the press do their jobs, and they didn't."
After being detained for almost 20 hours, Chariton and Bayliss were released from jail.
TYT reporter Jordan Chariton reports live from St. Louis on October 3, 2017, shortly before being arrested.
",arrested and released,St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department,2017-10-04,2017-10-03,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, court verdict, kettle, protest",,, 2017-10-04 09:24:11.488649+00:00,2023-09-18 16:49:51.107307+00:00,The Young Turks cameraman Ty Bayliss arrested in St. Louis,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/tyt-cameraman-ty-bayliss-arrested-st-louis/,2023-09-18 16:49:50.846539+00:00,trespassing (charges dropped as of 2018-10-04),,(2018-10-04 00:00:00+00:00) Charge dropped against journalist arrested at St. Louis protest,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Ty Bayliss (The Young Turks),,2017-10-03,False,St. Louis,Missouri (MO),38.62727,-90.19789,"Ty Bayliss — a cameraman and editor for the progressive online news organization The Young Turks — was arrested along with reporter Jordan Chariton after filming a demonstration in St. Louis on Oct. 3, 2017.
That day, protesters in St. Louis shut down Highway 40, marching on the interstate and blocking traffic. The demonstration was a response to the acquittal in September of Jason Stockley, a white former St. Louis police officer who in 2011 fatally shot Anthony Lamar Smith, a Black man.
Chariton and Bayliss followed the group and interviewed protesters as they marched on the highway. After the group of protesters exited the highway, lines of police officers enclosed them in a "kettle" and then ordered them to sit on the ground and began to arrest them. Chariton, Bayliss and other journalists covering the march were also arrested.
"Our reporter @JordanChariton and cameraman/editor Ty Bayliss have been arrested by St. Louis Police. Clear violation of first amendment," TYT founder and host Cenk Uygur tweeted. "TYT reporter & cameraman were covering St. Louis protests when police surrounded them and arrested them. We demand their immediate release."
TYT published a video on Youtube, filmed by Bayliss, that shows police arresting both him and Chariton. Bayliss appears to be one of the first people arrested.
Bayliss and Chariton were arrested despite wearing press badges and telling police officers on the scene that they were members of the press. Officers told them that they were under arrest "for being on the highway."
Uygur, the founder of TYT, criticized the arrests of Bayliss and Chariton in a short video statement posted on Youtube.
"We're demanding their immediate release," Uygur says in the video. "This is outrageous. We had camera guys there because that's our job. There is a very legitimate and ongoing protest in St. Louis. They believe that the community is not being treated fairly, and we went to go cover it. That's exactly what we're supposed to do as the press. Apparently, the police didn't like that. You can hear people on the scene saying that they're arresting people with cameras first. So it's the exact opposite of what they're supposed to do. They're supposed to let the press do their jobs, and they didn't."
After being detained for almost 20 hours, Bayliss and Chariton were released from jail.
A screengrab from a livestream filmed by Jon Ziegler shows St. Louis police officers arresting TYT cameraman Ty Bayliss on Oct. 3, 2017.
",arrested and released,St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department,2017-10-04,2017-10-03,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, court verdict, kettle, protest",,, 2017-10-04 09:25:26.001908+00:00,2023-09-18 16:50:49.222907+00:00,Independent journalist Jon Ziegler arrested in St. Louis for second time,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalist-jon-ziegler-arrested-st-louis-second-time/,2023-09-18 16:50:48.986606+00:00,trespassing (charges dropped as of 2018-10-04),,(2018-10-04 00:00:00+00:00) Charge dropped against journalist arrested at St. Louis protest,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Jon Ziegler (Independent),,2017-10-03,False,St. Louis,Missouri (MO),38.62727,-90.19789,"Independent journalist Jon Ziegler was arrested in St. Louis on Oct. 3, 2017, after livestreaming a demonstration on Highway 40. Ziegler was previously arrested in St. Louis on Sept. 17, while covering another protest.
On Oct. 3, protesters in St. Louis shut down Highway 40, marching on the interstate and blocking traffic. The demonstration was a response to the acquittal in September of Jason Stockley, a white former St. Louis police officer who in 2011 fatally shot Anthony Lamar Smith, a Black man.
Ziegler was one of the journalists who provided live coverage of the march. Once the group of protesters exited the highway, lines of police officers enclosed them in a "kettle" and then ordered them to sit on the ground and began to arrest them. Ziegler and other journalists covering the march were also arrested.
Ziegler's livestream of the march captured his arrest and the arrest of other journalists.
A screengrab of a video filmed by The Young Turks shows Jon Ziegler (in purple) sitting on the ground shortly before being arrested by St. Louis police on Oct. 3, 2017.
",arrested and released,St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, court verdict, kettle, protest",,, 2017-10-04 20:57:27.848782+00:00,2023-09-18 16:52:36.922943+00:00,Freelance photographer Daniel Shular arrested in St. Louis,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-photographer-daniel-shular-arrested-st-louis/,2023-09-18 16:52:36.638564+00:00,trespassing (charges dropped as of 2018-10-04),,(2018-10-04 00:00:00+00:00) Charge dropped against photographer arrested at St. Louis protest,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Equipment Search or Seizure",,"camera lens: count of 2, camera: count of 2",,Daniel Shular (Freelance),,2017-10-03,False,St. Louis,Missouri (MO),38.62727,-90.19789,"Daniel Shular — a St. Louis-based freelance photographer whose work has been published in NBC News, Xinhua and Riverfront Times — was arrested on Oct. 3, 2017, after covering a demonstration in St. Louis, Missouri.
That day, protesters in St. Louis shut down Highway 40, marching on the interstate and blocking traffic. The demonstration was a response to the acquittal in September of of Jason Stockley, a white former St. Louis police officer who in 2011 fatally shot Anthony Lamar Smith, a Black man.
Shular covered the protest. After the group of protesters exited the highway, lines of police officers enclosed them in a "kettle" and then announced that they would all be arrested.
Everyone is being arrested including press #stockleyprotest #stlouis #stlouisprotest #kettle pic.twitter.com/n9F5gWyz7u
— Daniel Shular (@xshularx) October 4, 2017
I'm being arrested
— Daniel Shular (@xshularx) October 4, 2017
Shular told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that officers ignored him when he said that he was a member of the press. He said that he was carrying two professional DSLR cameras and wearing a National Press Photographers Association press badge. Officers ordered him to sit on the ground and then arrested him.
He said that the police never told him specifically why he was being arrested. During the booking and process, he said, he saw a document that listed the charge as “trespassing.”
Shular said that he was held for about 17 hours before being released. His cameras were returned to him after he was released.
Al Neal, the St. Louis bureau chief for progressive online newspaper People’s World, was arrested and jailed for 26 hours while covering protests in St. Louis, Missouri, on Oct. 3, 2017.
That day, protesters in St. Louis shut down Highway 40, marching on the interstate and blocking traffic. The demonstration was a response to the acquittal in September of of Jason Stockley, a white former St. Louis police officer who in 2011 fatally shot Anthony Lamar Smith, a Black man.
Neal filmed part of the protest and posted the video on his Instagram page. The video shows protesters peacefully marching and chanting.
Neal told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that he did not witness any water bottles or other objects being thrown at police officers. He also said that the crowd was quick to comply with police orders, including moving from the street to the sidewalk.
After the group of protesters exited the highway, lines of police officers enclosed them in a “kettle” and then ordered them to sit on the ground. Around 9:30 p.m., police began arresting everyone present at the protest march, including journalists.
#police are arresting everyone now. Including members of the #press visibly showing credentials. —@PeoplesWorld
— A. A. Neal (@Al_Neal_STL) October 4, 2017
Neal said that he was wearing a press badge and standing on the sidewalk with a group of journalists when he was handcuffed. He said that he told a police officer that he was a journalist, and the officer responded, “We don’t care, you’re getting arrested.”
Neal said that he asked the police to cuff his hands in the front instead of behind him, due to his bad shoulder. He said that a police officer refused and told him, “We don’t care, too bad, just wait.”
Neal said that he was transported to the St. Louis city jail, where he was detained in a holding cell for hours. Later that night, he tweeted a photo of the inside of the holding cell.
Now sitting in a holding cell w/ an elected official, legal observers& other members of the #press #stockleyprotest #stl - @PeoplesWorld
— A. A. Neal (@Al_Neal_STL) October 4, 2017
A view from inside. #stl #StockleyProtest — @PeoplesWorld pic.twitter.com/FwJvRHdDRo
— A. A. Neal (@Al_Neal_STL) October 4, 2017
After being detained for more than a full day, Neal was finally released around 11:30 p.m. on Oct. 4. He is being charged with trespassing, a misdemeanor.
Al Neal waits in a holding cell at the St. Louis city jail, after being arrested on Oct. 3, 2017.
",arrested and released,St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department,2017-10-04,2017-10-03,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, court verdict, kettle, protest",,, 2017-10-06 06:49:26.414872+00:00,2024-03-20 20:30:36.962565+00:00,Independent journalist Aminah Ali arrested in St. Louis,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalist-aminah-ali-arrested-st-louis/,2024-03-20 20:30:36.867528+00:00,trespassing (charges dropped as of 2018-10-04),,(2018-10-04 16:31:00+00:00) Charge dropped against journalist arrested at St. Louis protest,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Aminah Ali (Independent),,2017-10-03,False,St. Louis,Missouri (MO),38.62727,-90.19789,"Aminah Ali — a St. Louis-based independent journalist who founded local news site “Real STL News” — was arrested while reporting on a demonstration on Oct. 3, 2017.
That day, protesters in St. Louis shut down Highway 40, marching on the interstate and blocking traffic. The demonstration was a response to the acquittal in September of Jason Stockley, a white former St. Louis police officer who in 2011 fatally shot Anthony Lamar Smith, a Black man.
After the group of protesters exited the highway, lines of police officers enclosed them in a “kettle” and then ordered them to sit on the ground and began to arrest them. Ali, who was covering the march for Real STL News, was also arrested.
Real STL News later published a video that shows Ali, with her hands zip-tied behind her back, waiting in a holding area in the St. Louis jail.
@MissJupiter1957 our reporter in jail at the justice center after the protests pic.twitter.com/BzXdqHEQbS
— RealStlNews (@RealStlNews) October 4, 2017
“I am the founder of Real STL News and I've been apprehended,” Ali says in the video. “Once again, this is Aminah Ali, this is the founder of Real STL News, and I'm locked up. I wasn't doing anything illegal. I let them know that I was media, and I was still apprehended.”
According to Real STL News, Ali was released from jail on the morning of Oct. 4.
Independent journalist Aminah Ali shows off her zip-tied hands in a screengrab from a video filmed inside a holding area in the St. Louis jail.
",arrested and released,St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department,2017-10-04,2017-10-03,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"Black Lives Matter, court verdict, kettle, protest",,, 2017-09-21 23:01:19.364836+00:00,2023-11-03 18:24:51.196975+00:00,St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter knocked to ground by police and arrested,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/st-louis-post-dispatch-reporter-knocked-ground-police-and-arrested/,2023-11-03 18:24:51.019086+00:00,rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2018-09-17),,"(2018-09-17 00:00:00+00:00) Charges dropped against St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter arrested in September 2017, (2023-08-21 13:26:00+00:00) Former journalist gets part of $4.9 million class-action settlement, (2018-02-23 12:00:00+00:00) Mike Faulk sues St. Louis police","Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Search or Seizure","As arrests are made, protesters question the tactics used by St. Louis police (http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/as-arrests-are-made-protesters-question-the-tactics-used-by/article_e58481b7-f7c2-541e-91d2-31a6379f272c.html) via St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Post-Dispatch demands charges be dropped against reporter covering protest (http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/post-dispatch-demands-charges-be-dropped-against-reporter-covering-protest/article_bb15e07a-7147-56b3-8629-3ff9ae8eec0d.html) via St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The News Guild-CWA statement (http://www.newsguild.org/mediaguild3/?p=6852), St. Louis SPJ statement (http://www.stlspj.org/2017/09/spj-condemns-arrest-of-mike-faulk/), Journalist Sues St. Louis Police For Assaulting Him During Unconstitutional Crackdown (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mike-faulk-st-louis-police-protest-crackdown_us_5a90784de4b03b55731c11f0) via HuffPost, Faulk's lawsuit against St. Louis police officers (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4386590-Mike-Faulk-lawsuit.html)","bicycle: count of 1, cellphone: count of 1",,Mike Faulk (St. Louis Post-Dispatch),,2017-09-17,False,St. Louis,Missouri (MO),38.62727,-90.19789,"St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Mike Faulk was arrested by police on Sept. 17, 2017, while covering a protest in St. Louis, Missouri.
According to the Post-Dispatch, more than a thousand people gathered in downtown St. Louis on Sept. 17 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.
Around 11 p.m., large groups of police officers boxed in about a hundred people at the intersection of Washington Street and Tucker Boulevard. Faulk was among those caught in the kettle.
The Post-Dispatch reported what happened next:
St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Mike Faulk was caught in the kettle Sunday night. A line of bike cops formed across Washington Avenue, east of Tucker Boulevard and police in helmets carrying shields and batons blocked the other three sides of the intersection at Tucker and Washington. Faulk heard the repeated police command, “Move back. Move back.” He had nowhere to go.
The police lines moved forward, trapping dozens of people — protesters, journalists, area residents and observers alike. Multiple officers knocked Faulk down, he said, and pinned his limbs to the ground. A firm foot pushed his head into the pavement. Once he was subdued, he recalled, an officer squirted pepper spray in his face.
Police loaded Faulk into a van holding about eight others and took him to the city jail on Tucker, a few blocks to the south. He arrived about midnight and was released about 1:30 p.m. Monday after posting a $50 bond. Faulk was charged with failure to disperse, a municipal charge.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Joseph Martineau, an attorney for the Post-Dispatch, wrote a letter to St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewton, Acting Police Chief Lawrence O'Toole, City Counselor Julian Bush and Deputy City Counselor Michael Garvin demanding the city drop all charges against Faulk. The letter details the police's treatment of him:
When he was arrested, Mr. Faulk was standing on a sidewalk reporting on the protests. He was not impeding vehicular or pedestrian traffic. He was clearly identified and credentialed as a reporter for the Post-Dispatch and repeatedly advised several of the arresting officers of his status. Nonetheless, he was rounded up and restrained by police officers who surrounded a large group of people and prevented them from leaving the perimeter in a mechanism we understand is referred to as "kettling." Independent of whether the "kettle" containment activity was proper under the circumstances (and as the Post-Dispatch has reported, there are serious questions about that), there was no reason why a credentialed reporter should have been arrested or restrained from doing his job of reporting the events. Once the reporter was clearly identified as such, he should have been released immediately and allowed to continue his newsgathering activity.
Moreover, as we understand the situation, Mr. Faulk was not merely restrained and arrested. While standing on the sidewalk and making no resistance , he was forcefully pushed to the ground by police officers and a police officer's boot was placed on his head. As a result of this unneeded and inappropriate force, Mr. Faulk suffered injury to both legs, his back and wrist. Even after being restrained with zip ties and totally subdued, a police officer deliberately sprayed him in the face with pepper spray, mace or some other stinging substance. At some point during the evening, an officer also took it upon himself to review the contents of the cellphone Mr. Faulk was using to communicate and photograph the events of the evening. A bike he was using during his news coverage has not been returned to him. He was held for over thirteen hours in jail, even though one of our editors was at the jail only two hours after the arrest to secure his release. That editor was lied to by jail personnel who told her that he was still in transport, even though he was already at the jail. Jail personnel denied his repeated requests for medical attention.
Post-Dispatch letter to mayor, police chief
Faulk was held in jail for 13 hours and then released on a $50 bond on the afternoon of Sept. 18. Once released, he returned to the Post-Dispatch newsroom.
.@Mike_Faulk returns to newsroom applause after more than 12 hours in jail for doing his job. #STLVerdict pic.twitter.com/cPeKugmiEC
— Christopher Ave (@ChristopherAve) September 18, 2017
"He returned to the newsroom limping, knees bloodied and pepper spray still on his skin," the Post-Dispatch reported.
Post-Dispatch editor Gilbert Bailon condemned the police's treatment of Faulk.
"St. Louis Post-Dispatch journalists and other credentialed news media provide critical information to the public," he said in a statement. "When St. Louis police arrested Mike, after he fully identified himself while covering the protests, they violated basic tenets of our democracy. Additionally, the physical abuse he suffered during the arrest is abhorrent and must be investigated. The Post-Dispatch is calling for our city leaders to immediately implement policies that will prevent journalists from being arrested without cause."
The News Guild-CWA and the St. Louis chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists also condemned the arrest.
"The NewsGuild denounces the arrest of Guild member Michael Faulk and demands that any pending charges against him be dismissed,” Bernie Lunzer, president of The News Guild-CWA, said in a statement. "Faulk was doing his job, informing the people. There is simply no justification for his arrest and mistreatment. There has been a noticeable uptick in assaults and arrests of reporters in recent months. This is a dangerous trend that impedes journalists’ right to report and the people’s right to know."
"Journalism is the only profession protected by name in the Constitution," St. Louis SPJ chapter president Elizabeth Donald said in a statement. "The First Amendment is not a whimsical academic concept to be dismissed when it becomes inconvenient – or embarrassing to the police. The chilling effect of assaulting, arresting, jailing and charging a journalist in the course of his duties cannot be overstated."
Both The News Guild-CWA and Society of Professional Journalists are partner organizations of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
A spokeswoman for the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that no journalists have filed formal complaints of police misconduct.
"We hold our officers to the highest standards of professionalism and any officer not meeting those standards will be held accountable," she said. "No members of the media have contacted the Internal Affairs Division to make a formal complaint. If anyone would like to make a complaint of officer misconduct, they should contact our Internal Affairs Division via our website (slmpd.org), phone (444-5652) or in person at Police Headquarters, 1915 Olive."
St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Mike Faulk is arrested while covering a protest in downtown St. Louis on September 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",,, 2017-09-21 23:04:24.900549+00:00,2024-02-29 20:03:42.033465+00:00,Independent livestreamer Jon Ziegler pepper-sprayed and arrested in St. Louis,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-livestreamer-jon-ziegler-pepper-sprayed-and-arrested-st-louis/,2024-02-29 20:03:41.932007+00:00,rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2017-10-18),,"(2017-10-01 14:38:00+00:00) Charges against independent livestreamer dropped, (2023-08-03 00:00:00+00:00) Journalist gets part of $4.9 million class-action settlement","Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault",,,,Jon Ziegler (Independent),,2017-09-17,False,St. Louis,Missouri (MO),38.62727,-90.19789,"Jon Ziegler, an independent livestreamer also known as “Rebelutionary Z,” was pepper sprayed and arrested on Sept. 17, 2017, while covering a protest in St. Louis, Missouri.
On Sunday night, hundreds of people 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.
Around 11 p.m., large groups of St. Louis metropolitan police officers boxed in about a hundred people at the intersection of Washington Street and Tucker Boulevard and ordered them to get on the ground, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Ziegler was among those caught in the kettle. At the time, he was carrying a camera and an iPhone on a tripod.
Ziegler told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that police officers repeatedly doused him and other journalists and protesters in the kettle with pepper spray.
“I was drenched in spray” he said. “I remember my tripod looking like it had rained on it.”
He said that while he lay on the ground, one officer sprayed pepper spray directly at his mouth and others physically assaulted him.
“I start feeling jabs in my back,” he said. “All of a sudden, I feel a foot or a knee on the back of my head just pushing it into the concrete and grinding it into the concrete.”
Ziegler said that police officers celebrated after arresting everyone in the kettle, smoking cigars and mocking the journalists, protesters and legal observers who had been arrested. A bystander interviewed by NPR also claimed that officers smoked cigars and mocked protesters after making arrests. Post-Dispatch photojournalist David Carson tweeted a video on which officers can be heard chanting, “Whose Streets? Our Streets,” in mockery of protesters.
Asked about the video, a police department spokeswoman told Reuters: “The Department is aware of the video circulating on social media, and is reviewing the footage. We hold our officers to the highest standards of professionalism and any officer not meeting those standards will be held accountable.”
Ziegler said that officers specifically alluded to and mocked his journalistic work while arresting him, repeatedly calling him “superstar” and taking selfies with him. He said that the officer who arrested him joked that he was his “biggest fan” and bragged that he watched all of his livestreams.
“They were quoting back my tweets to me and quoting back parts of the stream,” he said. “That kind of joking and sarcastic behavior continued inside the precinct with some of the officers.”
Like others arrested in the kettle, Ziegler was taken to a nearby jail. He said that he was held for more than 12 hours, before finally being released on a $50 bond.
Ziegler’s livestream from Sept. 17 shows police officers surrounding the protesters from all sides and pepper spraying them.
“They maced me for having my camera going,” Ziegler says on the livestream at one point. “We’re all just choking on mace now. We’re drowning in mace here.”
Later in the stream, officers approach Ziegler to handcuff and arrest him. One person offscreen calls him “superstar.”
“You heard them call me superstar on camera, guys,” Ziegler says. “They’re putting on the cuffs real tight, real fucking right. They’re beating the shit out of me. They’re fucking beating the shit out of me! Stop pushing my head in the ground!”
“Shut up,” someone says offscreen.
“They’re pushing my head in the ground, real tight.” Ziegler says, just before screaming out in pain. “Fuck, they sprayed me again!”
As Ziegler is led away from the scene, an officer approaches his phone and shuts off the livestream.
A police department spokeswoman told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that no journalist has made a formal complaint of police misconduct.
"We hold our officers to the highest standards of professionalism and any officer not meeting those standards will be held accountable," the spokeswoman said. "No members of the media have contacted the Internal Affairs Division to make a formal complaint. If anyone would like to make a complaint of officer misconduct, they should contact our Internal Affairs Division via our website (slmpd.org), phone (444-5652) or in person at Police Headquarters, 1915 Olive."
Screengrab from Jon Ziegler's livestream shows a police officer pepper-spraying Ziegler before arresting him, in downtown St. Louis, on September 17, 2017.
",arrested and released,St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department,None,None,True,4:19-cv-02590,['SETTLED'],Class Action,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"Black Lives Matter, chemical irritant, court verdict, kettle, protest",,, 2017-09-22 02:13:59.625024+00:00,2023-08-24 01:01:10.404952+00:00,Getty photographer arrested while covering protest in St. Louis,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/getty-photographer-arrested-while-covering-protest-st-louis/,2023-08-24 01:01:10.272529+00:00,rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2018-09-17),,(2018-09-17 00:00:00+00:00) Charges dropped against Getty photographer,Arrest/Criminal Charge,Police in Ferguson arrest Getty photographer Scott Olson (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/18/ferguson-police-arrest-photographer-scott-olsen) via Guardian U.S.,,,Scott Olson (Getty Images),,2017-09-17,False,St. Louis,Missouri (MO),38.62727,-90.19789,"Getty photographer Scott Olson was arrested while covering a protest in St. Louis on Sept. 17, 2017.
That night, hundreds of people 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.
Olson told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that more than a hundred St. Louis police officers converged from all sides on the intersection of Washington Street and Tucker Boulevard, where a crowd of people had gathered. He described the crowd as a mix of a few activists, some journalists and many bystanders. He said that the police ordered everyone to disperse while simultaneously cutting off their exits and then ordered everyone to lie down on the ground and started to arrest them.
“They did it kind of violently,” he said. “A lot of people were pepper sprayed or Maced while they were still on the ground.”
He said that he was not pepper sprayed by police officers, which he attributes to his use of a gas mask.
“One of the reasons I may not have been pepper sprayed before my arrest is that it wouldn’t have had much effect,” he said. “I’m pretty sure I was wearing my gas mask because I was anticipating the use of mace or pepper spray. During the protest, I was wearing body armor, a bump cap, mil-spec eye protection and carrying/using a gas mask. Unfortunately, most of this protective gear is used to protect me from police tactics, not those of protesters.”
Although police did not pepper spray him, he said that that police did forcefully push him to the ground.
“I was holding my cameras, they told me to put them down, I didn’t do that, so I just took a knee, and then they forced me all the way down and then zip-tied me,” he said. “They were telling me to drop my cameras. They would not let me take my camera.”
According to Olson, one officer said “Fuck your camera!” after he asked to take it with him.
A spokeswoman for the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that no journalists have filed formal complaints alleging police misconduct.
“We hold our officers to the highest standards of professionalism and any officer not meeting those standards will be held accountable,” she said. “No members of the media have contacted the Internal Affairs Division to make a formal complaint. If anyone would like to make a complaint of officer misconduct, they should contact our Internal Affairs Division via our website (slmpd.org), phone (444-5652) or in person at Police Headquarters, 1915 Olive.”
Olson said that he was arrested and taken to jail, where he was held for around 12 hours and then released on $50 bail. He said that the police returned his cameras to him when he was released and he does not believe that they were searched.
Before the arrest in St. Louis on Sept. 17, Olson said, he had only been arrested once in the course of his roughly 30 years as a photojournalist. His first arrest occurred in 2014, when he was covering protests in neighboring Ferguson, Missouri.
Scott Olson, a Getty photographer, was arrested by St. Louis police on September 17, 2017, shortly after taking this photograph of police arresting demonstrators.
",arrested and released,St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department,None,None,True,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, court verdict, kettle, protest",,, 2017-10-06 08:03:15.085973+00:00,2023-08-21 16:06:06.909938+00:00,"Filmmaker Drew Burbridge beaten, pepper sprayed and arrested by St. Louis police",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/filmmaker-drew-burbridge-beaten-pepper-sprayed-and-arrested-st-louis-police/,2023-08-21 16:06:06.740645+00:00,rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2017-10-18),,"(2019-04-15 00:00:00+00:00) Charges dropped against filmmaker Drew Burbridge, (2021-11-19 00:00:00+00:00) City of St. Louis agrees to pay deceased filmmaker $115k to settle lawsuit","Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault","Filmmakers sue St. Louis police for arrest in 'kettle' (http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/filmmakers-sue-st-louis-police-for-arrest-in-kettle/article_7e3abf60-67e4-54c6-b7cd-a584eeded886.html) via St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Full complaint for damages (https://pressfreedomtracker.us/documents/2/Burbridge_complaint.pdf) via Click to download",,,Drew Burbridge (Independent),,2017-09-17,False,St. Louis,Missouri (MO),38.62727,-90.19789,"Drew Burbridge and his wife, Jennifer, were assaulted and arrested while filming protests in St. Louis, Missouri on Sept. 17, 2017, according to a federal lawsuit that the two of them filed against the city. Both Drew and Jennifer are documentary filmmakers.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri on Sept. 26 and accuses St. Louis police officers (referred to as “John Does”) of violating their First Amendment rights.
The complaint states that Drew and Jennifer Burbridge were filming protests in downtown St. Louis on Sept. 17 when they — along with protesters and other journalists — were enclosed by police in a “kettle” at the intersection of Tucker Boulevard and Washington Ave.
The complaint describes what happened next to Drew Burbridge:
After the initial deployment of chemical agents by the police, Drew Burbridge, who was sitting cross legged on the ground with his arms around his wife, was approached by two St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officers, Defendants John Doe #1 and John Doe #2, in full riot gear.
One of the two officers (John Doe #1) stated “that’s him” and grabbed Drew Burbridge by each arm and roughly drug him away from his wife.
Drew Burbridge immediately identified himself to the Defendants as a journalist and specifically stated that he was not a protester, not resisting arrest, and was part of the media.
Defendants John Doe #1 and Defendant John Doe #2 then purposely deployed chemical spray into his mouth and eyes and ripped his camera from his neck.
At the time Defendants John Doe #1 and #2 purposely sprayed chemical spray into Drew Burbridges mouth and eyes, Drew Burbridge was not resisting and was willing and ready to comply with any order given by the Defendants.
John Doe #1 and #2 threw Drew Burbridge to the pavement, face first, and twisted his arms behind his back, and repeatedly kicked Drew Burbridge in the back while restraining his arms behind his back with zip-ties. During this entire time, Plaintiff was submissive and complying with the officers.
After Drew Burbridges hand were restrained behind his back and while on the ground, SLMPD officers Defendants John Does #1, 2, and 3, then proceeded to strike him on the ankles, legs, body, and head, with their feet, hands, and batons.
While beating Drew Burbridge, one of the John Doe Defendants stated: “Do you want to take my picture now motherfucker? Do you want me to pose for you?”
At no point during the illegal beating was Drew Burbridge resisting or in any other way failing to comply with the officers, and his hands were zip-tied behind his back during the beating.
Defendants continued to beat and pepper spray Drew Burbridge until he lost consciousness from the sustained beating. He awoke to an officer pulling his head up by his hair and spraying him with chemical agents in the face.
Despite repeated requests by Drew Burbridge, none of the law enforcement officers would identify themselves. All of the law enforcement officers involved had removed their name identifications.
Drew Burbridge was transferred to the custody of a uniformed SLMPD officer who placed him in a van for transport to jail.
Although he had been pepper-sprayed and beaten and could not see, the SLMPD officers did not allow or assist Drew Burbridge in rinsing the chemical agent from his eyes and would laugh as he stumbled and ran into objects as he tried to make his way into the van and jail.
Drew Burbridge was jailed for nearly 20-hours.
Drew Burbridge was released with a municipal charge of “failure to disperse.”
Complaint for damages
Jennifer Burbridge was arrested while filming protests in St. Louis, Missouri on Sept. 17, 2017, according to a federal lawsuit that she and her husband, Drew, filed against the city. Both Jennifer and Drew are documentary filmmakers.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri on Sept. 26 and accuses St. Louis police officers (referred to as “John Does”) of violating their First Amendment rights.
The complaint states that Jennifer and her husband were filming protests in downtown St. Louis on Sept. 17 when they — along with protesters and other journalists — were enclosed by police in a “kettle” at the intersection of Tucker Boulevard and Washington Ave.
The complaint describes what happened next to Jennifer Burbridge:
Jennifer Burbridge was among those who were initially indirectly subjected to chemical spray by the police.
Jennifer Burbridge was forced to watch her husband and film partner Drew Burbridge being drug away by Defendants John Does #1, #2 and #3.
She was physically prevented from following or assisting her husband.
She observed the law enforcement assault and beating of her husband.
At one point, while two officers were carrying Jennifer Burbridge away, one of the officers passed another male officer and stated, “Look who I have.” Such statements illustrated a clear intent on the part of the officers to target members of the media, like the Burbridges, who were attempting to document the protests and the SLMPD police response.
Another SLMPD officer made a point to walk up to Jennifer Burbridge after she had observed her husband pepper sprayed and assaulted and exclaim, “Did you like that? Come back tomorrow and we can do this again.” Another SLMPD officer stated, “What did you think was going to happen?”
Like her husband, Jennifer Burbridge was taken into custody of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department who placed her in a van for transport to jail.
On the way to the jail, a detainee in the van requested the name of the transporting officers, one of who responded, “I’m Father Time.”
Jennifer Burbridge was jailed for nearly 20-hours.
Jennifer Burbridge was required to submit to a jail administered pregnancy test as a condition of being released.
Jennifer Burbridge was release with a municipal charge of “failure to disperse.”
Complaint for damages
Chris Burke — a videographer working for Fusion — was forcibly pushed into a wall, handcuffed, and detained by police while covering protests in St. Louis, Missouri, on Sept. 17, 2017.
The protest was a response to the acquittal in September of of Jason Stockley, a white former St. Louis police officer who in 2011 fatally shot Anthony Lamar Smith, a black man.
Burke told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that he was part of a group of photojournalists who were moving alongside demonstrators as they marched in downtown St. Louis on Sept. 17.
“We were obviously journalists”, Burke said, adding that the group was easily identifiable as press because many of them wore press badges and carried cameras and video equipment.
Burke said the police presence swelled in size as the demonstrators moved away from downtown St. Louis. When the march turned a corner, he said, police drove an unmarked van into the crowd and began shooting pepper spray balls at the crowd.
“They pepper balled journalists as well as protesters,” Burke said.
Burke said that he was not hit by any of the balls, but he saw several journalists who were.
Burke said that he was later detained along with another photojournalist, Davis Winborne, after police enclosed a group of demonstrators and journalists. Burke said that police let some journalists leave the area but pushed him and Winborne into a brick wall.
Burke said that he felt one officer press his thumb behind his jawline.
“It seemed like he was trying to find a pressure point,” he said.
Burke said that, when he asked the officer to remove his hand from his jaw, the officer ordered him to put his hands behind his back and handcuffed him. He also said that police used aggressive and profane language, calling Burke and Winborne “bitches.”
According to Burke, he and several journalists were loaded into a police van and detained for about 30 minutes.
“They never read us our rights, and it seemed like the police were trying to scare us,” he said.
Burke said that he was eventually released after another photojournalist, Marcus DiPaola, was vouched for his identity. Burke also said that a police officer apologized to him after he was released.
Burke told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that the tactics used by the St. Louis police on September 17 seemed “pretty aggressive,” relative to previous protests that he has covered in other cities.
“They felt like scare tactics, to make sure media doesn’t get in the way anymore,” he said.
Chris Burke
",detained and released without being processed,St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department,None,None,True,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, court verdict, kettle, protest",,, 2020-01-27 17:22:34.337149+00:00,2023-08-28 19:02:39.445059+00:00,"Independent filmmaker pepper-sprayed, arrested in St. Louis protests",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-filmmaker-pepper-sprayed-arrested-st-louis-protests/,2023-08-28 19:02:39.197843+00:00,rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2017-10-18),,(2023-08-03 13:29:00+00:00) Filmmaker gets part of $4.9 million class-action settlement,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault",,,,Mark Gullet (Independent),,2017-09-17,False,St. Louis,Missouri (MO),38.62727,-90.19789,"In a lawsuit filed on his behalf, freelance filmmaker Mark Gullet says he was assaulted and arrested by police officers in St. Louis, Missouri, on Sept. 17, 2017, while recording footage of a protest for his film on crime.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that more than 1,000 people had gathered in downtown St. Louis that day 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.
The Post-Dispatch reported that Gullet said he arrived downtown around 11 p.m., “after all the vandalism had happened.”
“I was on the sidelines with other media. Out of nowhere, we hear marching and batons hitting shields,” Gullet told the Post-Dispatch.
Three lines of police in riot gear and one of bicycle 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.
According to the lawsuit filed on Gullet’s behalf, Gullet saw the bicycle officers approaching and asked them if he could leave. The lawsuit says the officers wouldn’t allow him to pass, and instead pushed their bicycles towards him and told him to get back. Trapped in the kettle, Gullet got on his knees on his own volition.
“At this point, Mr. Gullet observed officers unleash pepper spray without warning,” the lawsuit states. “Also without warning, a police officer grabbed Mr. Gullet’s arms so forcefully that Mr. Gullet thought his right shoulder was going to pop out. The officer then restrained Mr. Gullet’s hands with zip ties and pepper sprayed him directly in the face.”
Gullet was taken to St. Louis City Justice Center alongside others arrested at the scene, where he was jailed for approximately 20 hours without receiving medical attention, the lawsuit states.
On Sept. 17, 2018, one year after the kettling arrests, ArchCity Defenders, a legal advocacy group, 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. Gullet and two video journalists, Fareed Alston and Demetrius Thomas, were among those represented.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documented 10 journalists detained, arrested, assaulted or had their equipment damaged while covering the protests that night.
Gullet, Thomas, Alston and the other plaintiffs are seeking damages, attorneys fees, expenses and any other relief the court deems appropriate. A trial for Gullet’s case has not been scheduled.
Around 100 demonstrators and multiple journalists were arrested during protests following a verdict of not guilty 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,None,False,None,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 17:24:18.063629+00:00,2023-10-27 21:17:42.041017+00:00,"Independent video journalist assaulted, arrested in St. Louis protests",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-video-journalist-assaulted-arrested-st-louis-protests/,2023-10-27 21:17:41.906644+00:00,rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2017-10-18),,(2023-08-03 13:32:00+00:00) Video journalist gets part of $4.9 million class-action settlement,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Damage",,,camera: count of 1,Demetrius Thomas (Independent),,2017-09-17,False,St. Louis,Missouri (MO),38.62727,-90.19789,"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",,, 2019-11-14 16:44:01.092832+00:00,2024-02-27 20:30:26.094734+00:00,"Independent journalist covering pipeline protest arrested, camera seized",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalist-covering-pipeline-protest-arrested-camera-seized/,2024-02-27 20:30:25.994302+00:00,"trespassing: trespass to land (convicted as of 2018-02-12), obstruction: disorderly conduct (charges dropped as of 2018-02-12)",,,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Equipment Search or Seizure",,camera: count of 1,,Leana Hosea (Independent),,2017-08-29,False,Douglas County,Minnesota (MN),None,None,"Independent journalist Leana Hosea was arrested while filming a protest at a pipeline construction site in rural Douglas County, Minnesota, on Aug. 29, 2017.
Protesters had gathered at a construction site for Enbridge Energy’s Line 3, where one activist had chained himself to an excavator. Two other activists were standing atop that piece of machinery.
The protesters Hosea was documenting were trying to halt the replacement of an aging segment of the pipeline constructed in the 1960s. Around 390,000 barrels of oil per day flow through Enbridge's Line 3, originating at the tar sands of Alberta, Canada, then stretching across northern Minnesota to the company’s terminal in Superior, Wisconsin, according to Wisconsin Public Radio.
Hosea was filming from a public road as well as from the side of the road where the excavator was located. When a Douglas County Sheriff’s Deputy asked her to move off the side of the road, she complied. “In under 10 seconds I had obeyed their orders,” Hosea told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
Footage from the protest is included in Hosea’s 2019 film about clean water, “Thirst for Justice.” The incident in question can be seen at the 2:49 to 3:12 minute mark on the film’s trailer. “You're under arrest, too,” one of the deputies tells her.
Deputies arrested Hosea along with the activists, and even though she informed them she was a journalist, she was still searched and detained. “I was just not recognized as a journalist,” Hosea told the Tracker. “There were five activists and there was me, we were all being lumped together.”
Hosea was charged with one count of disorderly conduct and trespass to land. Two activists faced the same charges, and three others were charged with resisting an officer, disorderly conduct and trespass to land. Hosea posted bond and was released, but her video camera was not returned to her for another two months, rendering her unable to continue work on her film.
On Feb. 12, 2018, Hosea pleaded no contest to the trespass charge and received a $358 fine, according to court records published by the Superior Telegram. The disorderly conduct charge was dismissed. First Amendment lawyer Henry Kaufman represented her on a pro bono basis.
In order to start a journalism fellowship at the University of Michigan’s School of Environment and Sustainability, Hosea, a British citizen, had to leave the country to renew her U.S. visa while the charges were still pending. Due to the charges, she was called into a special interview at the U.S. Embassy. “I was very lucky I got my visa,” she told the Tracker.
Hosea said that the arrest was a “complete overreaction” and the legal process left her feeling intimidated. “As a foreign journalist it made me very nervous,” Hosea said. “I am going to be much more cautious working in America. My status as a journalist didn't mean anything; it was shocking.”
While filming protesters at this pipeline construction site in Minnesota for her documentary, journalist Leana Hosea was arrested and her video camera was seized for two months.
",arrested and released,Douglas 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,[],,"environmentalism, protest",,, 2017-08-18 19:48:16.848662+00:00,2023-12-18 20:56:01.314315+00:00,Journalist arrested while interviewing students at public college in New York City,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-arrested-while-interviewing-students-public-college-new-york-city/,2023-12-18 20:56:01.212380+00:00,trespassing (charges dropped as of 2017-09-30),,(2017-09-30 13:45:00+00:00) Charges dropped for journalist arrested while interviewing students at a New York City public college,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,J.B. Nicholas (Gothamist),,2017-08-16,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"Journalist J.B. Nicholas was interviewing students on the campus of Bronx Community College, a public college that is part of the City University of New York, when he was arrested by CUNY public safety officers and charged with trespassing.
Nicholas was on BCC's campus on Aug. 16, 2017, reporting a story for Gothamist, a local news site, about the presence of statues of Confederate generals in BCC's "Hall of Fame."
Nicholas documented part of his interaction with public safety officers on video.
"I was interviewing the last student for the story, and she was very cool, and then I notice the white police car pull up," Nicholas told Gothamist. "I had my press pass on, I had my credentials. They come up and say, 'This interview is over. Leave.' So I turn my camera on."
Video published by Gothamist shows the officers telling him that he needs to leave the campus, because BCC is "not an open campus" and what he is doing "is not official college business."
Nicholas told Gothamist that officers then restrained him, handcuffed him and issued him a summons for trespassing.
After Gothamist published Nicholas' story on the statues, a BCC administrator sent an email to Nicholas and BCC faculty about the arrest.
"The journalist was on campus today aggressively questioning students and faculty and became combative with our Public Safety Officers," Karla Renee Williams, executive legal counsel and deputy to the president, wrote in the email. "He was arrested for trespassing. We will keep you updated and have increased public safety monitoring of the campus and Hall."
Nicholas' case is scheduled to go to court in October 2017.
A screenshot from a video recorded by J.B. Nicholas at Bronx Community College shows two CUNY Public Safety Officers. The officers arrested Nicholas for trespassing.
",arrested and released,CUNY public safety officers,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,,,, 2018-01-16 09:22:24.312665+00:00,2024-03-20 19:23:20.268814+00:00,Freelance photojournalist arrested by police while filming aftermath of car crash,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-photojournalist-arrested-police-while-filming-aftermath-car-crash/,2024-03-20 19:23:20.183211+00:00,"obstruction: resisting, delaying or obstructing a public officer (charges dropped as of 2017-07-25)",,(2023-07-25 10:25:00+00:00) Charges dropped against CA photojournalist arrested while filming,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,John Strangis (Freelance),,2017-07-24,False,Hemet,California (CA),33.74761,-116.97307,"John Strangis, a freelance videographer and photojournalist, was arrested while filming the scene of a car crash in Hemet, CA, on July 24, 2017.
According to Riverside County News Source, Strangis responded to the location of the three-vehicle crash to film footage that he intended to sell to news organizations.
Although the scene had not been established or indicated to be a crime scene, Strangis was ordered several times to stop filming by City of Hemet police officers and to move further away from the scene.
When he did not comply and remained filming, he was handcuffed and arrested on suspicion of resisting, delaying or obstructing a public officer and given a citation to appear in court, according to the Press-Enterprise.
Strangis and the Hemet Police Department did not respond to requests by the Freedom of the Press Foundation for comment.
David Clarey, the campus editor for University of Minnesota student newspaper Minnesota Daily, was arrested along with 18 others after a mass protest following the acquittal of former police officer Jeronimo Yanez in the shooting death of Philando Castile.
In the early evening of June 17, 2017, around 500 protesters obstructed Interstate 94 in both directions. As the protest ended, Minnesota State Patrol and St. Paul police corralled dozens who remained onto an exit ramp.
Clarey was arrested while filming shortly after midnight on June 17, 2017, alongside City Pages reporter Susan Du. The two journalists were held for nine hours and charged with unlawful assembly and being a public nuisance.
The charges were later dropped.
Members of the Minnesota State Patrol arrest protesters on Interstate 94 after a jury found St. Anthony Police Department officer not guilty in the death of Philando Castile in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 16, 2017.
",arrested and released,Minnesota State Patrol,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, court verdict, kettle, protest, student journalism",,, 2017-07-28 06:16:26.534887+00:00,2023-11-03 18:29:44.968403+00:00,Minneapolis journalist arrested while covering protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/minneapolis-journalist-arrested-while-covering-protest/,2023-11-03 18:29:44.825240+00:00,"obstruction: being a public nuisance (charges dropped as of 2017-07-28), rioting: unlawful assembly (charges dropped as of 2017-07-28)",,,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Equipment Search or Seizure","Two journalists among 18 arrested during overnight freeway standoff (http://www.startribune.com/18-arrested-in-overnight-protests-over-yanez-verdict/429098693/) via Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Journalists among those arrested at Castile rally (http://www.mndaily.com/article/2017/06/journalists-among-those-arrested-at-castile-rally) via Minnesota Daily, 18 Arrested, Including 2 Journalists, During Protests Over Officer’s Acquittal in Philando Castile Killing (http://splinternews.com/18-arrested-including-2-journalists-during-protests-o-1796195652) via Splinter News","camera: count of 1, computer: count of 1, work product: count of 1, cellphone: count of 1",,Susan Du (City Pages),,2017-06-17,False,Minneapolis,Minnesota (MN),44.97997,-93.26384,"Susan Du, a journalist at Minneapolis alt-weekly City Pages, was arrested shortly after midnight on June 17, 2017, after covering a mass protest against the acquittal of former police officer Jeronimo Yanez in the shooting death of Philando Castile.
On the evening of June 16, around 500 protesters obstructed Interstate 94 in both directions. As the protest ended, Minnesota State Patrol and St. Paul police corralled dozens who remained onto an exit ramp.
Du attempted to follow other members of the media over a fence in order to get off the exit ramp but was stopped by an officer. She was arrested alongside another reporter — Minneapolis Daily city editor David Clarey — and detained for nine hours. Minneapolis State Patrol officers seized her cellphone, camera, keys, notes, and laptop, which were returned to her hours after she was released from custody.
Du was being charged with unlawful assembly and being a public nuisance. The charges against her were later dropped.
SWAT teams move to arrest protesters on Interstate 94 after a jury found police officer Jeronimo Yanez not guilty in the death of Philando Castile in St. Paul, Minnesota, on June 16, 2017.
",arrested and released,Minnesota State Patrol,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,,"Black Lives Matter, court verdict, protest",,, 2017-07-26 02:21:16.507855+00:00,2021-10-21 17:07:33.428470+00:00,"Courthouse security officer handcuffs Syracuse court reporter, seizes his phone",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/security-officer-seizes-journalists-phone-after-he-photographs-arrest-courthouse/,2021-10-21 17:07:33.365422+00:00,,,,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Equipment Search or Seizure","Courthouse guard handcuffs Syracuse.com reporter, seizes phone for photographing arrest (http://www.syracuse.com/crime/index.ssf/2017/06/court_officer_handcuffs_syracusecom_reporter_who_photographed_arrest_in_courthou.html)",cellphone: count of 1,,Douglass Dowty (Syracuse Post-Standard),,2017-06-14,False,Syracuse,New York (NY),43.04812,-76.14742,"Syracuse Post-Standard court reporter Douglass Dowty was briefly detained by a security officer in the Onondaga County Courthouse in upstate New York on June 14, 2017, the Post-Standard reported.
Dowty reportedly took a photograph of officers arresting a man in the courthouse hallway. Another officer then approached Dowty, ordered him to hand over his mobile phone and handcuffed him.
Dowty was then escorted to a security office, where he waited for a few minutes before being released. The security officers returned his equipment to him and Dowty told the Post-Standard that it did not appear that his phone had been searched.
Handcuffs
,detained and released without being processed,Onondaga County Courthouse Security,None,None,False,None,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,,,,, 2017-05-18 06:14:28.159430+00:00,2022-05-13 14:54:42.058457+00:00,Reporter arrested for shouting questions at Trump cabinet official,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-dan-heyman-arrested-shouting-questions-hhs-secretary/,2022-05-13 14:54:41.962510+00:00,obstruction: willful disruption of governmental process (charges dropped as of 2017-09-06),,(2017-09-06 15:12:00+00:00) Charges dropped against Heyman,Arrest/Criminal Charge,"Press agency condemns arrest of journalist at WV Capitol (http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/20170517/press-agency-condemns-arrest-of-journalist-at-wv-capitol) via Charleston Gazette-Mail, Journalist arrested at healthcare event after asking Trump officials questions about pre-existing conditions (https://www.dailydot.com/layer8/reporter-arrested-kellyanne-conway-tom-price/) via The Daily Dot, Criminal complaint against Dan Heyman (https://twitter.com/jake_zuckerman/status/862081963242532864), I was arrested for asking Tom Price a question. I was just doing my job. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/05/16/i-was-arrested-for-asking-tom-price-a-question-i-was-just-doing-my-job/) via The Washington Post, Daniel Heyman on Getting Arrested for Asking Tom Price a Question (https://www.corporatecrimereporter.com/news/200/daniel-heyman-getting-arrested-asking-question/) via Corporate Crime Reporter, Public News Service statement after charges were dropped (https://twitter.com/PNS_News/status/905488443148353536)",,,Dan Heyman (Public News Service),,2017-05-09,False,Charleston,West Virginia (WV),38.34982,-81.63262,"Public News Service radio journalist Dan Heyman was arrested in the West Virginia Capitol building on May 9, 2017, while attempting to interview Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price.
Video footage of the incident shows two police officers holding Heyman and escorting him to a police office in the capitol building. Heyman was released on a $5,000 bail about four hours after being arrested.
Heyman was charged with “willful disruption of governmental processes,” a misdemeanor. The criminal complaint against him accused him of “causing a disturbance by yelling questions at Ms. Conway and Secretary Price.”
Heyman appeared at a court hearing on Aug. 29.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price testifies on Fiscal Year 2018 Budget Blueprint before the Committee on Appropriations at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on March 29, 2017.
",arrested and released,West Virginia Capitol Police,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,,,, 2017-05-18 06:56:39.556525+00:00,2023-12-18 20:26:13.621829+00:00,Photojournalist Nebyou Solomon arrested at Trump rally,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-nebyou-solomon-arrested-trump-rally/,2023-12-18 20:26:13.489287+00:00,"obstruction: obstruction of a police officer (charges dropped as of 2019-04-17), trespassing (charges dropped as of 2019-04-17)",,"(2023-12-11 15:24:00+00:00) Photojournalist’s lawsuit dismissed, appeal filed, (2019-04-17 13:28:00+00:00) Solomon files First Amendment lawsuit against Las Vegas police",Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Nebyou Solomon (KLAS-TV),,2017-04-15,False,Las Vegas,Nevada (NV),36.17497,-115.13722,"Nebyou Solomon, a photojournalist for 8 News Now, was arrested on April 15, 2017, while documenting a rally held outside Trump International Hotel Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department released a statement saying that Solomon continued recording from private property belonging to the Fashion Show Mall after security officers requested him to move. Amy Rose, of the ACLU's Nevada chapter, said that Solomon was recording from a sidewalk.
Solomon was released eight hours later on the night of his arrest. He was charged with trespassing and obstruction of a police officer.
Las Vegas police stand between protesters against and supporters of the election of Republican Donald Trump as President of the United States on Nov. 12, 2016, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
",arrested and released,Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department,None,None,False,2:19-cv-00652,['APPEALED'],Civil,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"Donald Trump rally, protest",,, 2017-05-24 21:51:13.234889+00:00,2023-11-03 18:30:52.204992+00:00,Journalist Tracie Williams arrested at Standing Rock,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-tracie-williams-arrested-standing-rock/,2023-11-03 18:30:52.077971+00:00,obstruction: physical obstruction of a government function (charges dropped as of 2018-07-11),,"(2018-07-11 17:20:00+00:00) Charges dismissed, (2018-01-29 12:00:00+00:00) Tracie Williams statement","Arrest/Criminal Charge, Equipment Search or Seizure",Photojournalists Arrested at Protests Work to Have Confiscated Gear Returned (https://nppa.org/news/confiscated-cameras-returned),"camera: count of 1, cellphone: count of 1, storage device: count of 3, recording equipment: count of 1",,Tracie Williams (Independent),,2017-02-23,False,Morton County,North Dakota (ND),None,None,"Tracie Williams, an independent photojournalist, was arrested on Feb. 23, 2017, while covering events at the Dakota Access Pipeline camp. Police seized her phone, camera, lenses, external battery packs, blank flash cards, and data discs and held them as evidence.
Williams is charged with physical obstruction of government function, a Class A misdemeanor that could result in a year in jail. According to police records, Williams pleaded not guilty.
According to the National Press Photographers Association, Williams’ seized equipment was returned to her on March 1.
Williams is scheduled to go to trial in June 2018.
A law enforcement officer points his gun at two Water Protectors praying near a Dakota Access Pipeline resistance camp, on Feb. 23, 2017. Photojournalist Tracie Williams took this photograph moments before she was arrested.
",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",,, 2017-05-23 20:03:46.122162+00:00,2024-03-10 23:11:16.923821+00:00,Filmmaker Jahnny Lee charged with obstruction at Standing Rock,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/filmmaker-jahnny-lee-charged-obstruction-standing-rock/,2024-03-10 23:11:16.780623+00:00,obstruction: physical obstruction of a government function (charges dropped as of 2018-04-27),,"(2018-04-27 12:40:00+00:00) Charges dismissed, (2017-02-25 17:17:00+00:00) Law enforcement returns equipment seized during filmmaker’s arrest","Arrest/Criminal Charge, Equipment Search or Seizure",Reed Lindsay's Facebook post about Jahnny Lee's arrest (https://www.facebook.com/reed.lindsay.33/posts/10154135894940653),"cellphone: count of 1, camera: count of 1",,Jahnny Lee (Sundance Institute),,2017-02-22,False,Morton County,North Dakota (ND),None,None,"Jahnny Lee, a filmmaker working with the Sundance Institute, was arrested on Feb. 22, 2017, while filming a standoff between police and protesters at Standing Rock. On the day of his arrest, Lee was filming on Highway 1806, along with Jack Smith IV. During his arrest, Lee’s camera and phone were seized.
Reed Lindsay, who witnessed the arrest, claimed on Facebook that police initially told journalists that they could film events on Highway 1806, but then later arrested journalists who did so.
Lee was charged with physical obstruction of government function, a Class A misdemeanor that could result in a year in jail. He is scheduled to go to trial in June 2018.
The Oceti Sakowin camp is seen at sunrise during a protest against plans to pass the Dakota Access pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, U.S. November 2, 2016.
",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,[],,"environmentalism, protest",,, 2017-05-23 20:20:24.754797+00:00,2023-11-03 18:32:42.789631+00:00,Reporter Jack Smith IV charged with obstruction at Standing Rock,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-jack-smith-iv-charged-obstruction-standing-rock/,2023-11-03 18:32:42.632684+00:00,obstruction: physical obstruction of a government function (charges dropped as of 2017-12-07),,"(2017-12-07 15:14:00+00:00) Charges dropped, (2018-02-01 00:00:00+00:00) North Dakota authorities return equipment a year after seizure, but with damage","Arrest/Criminal Charge, Equipment Search or Seizure, Equipment Damage",I watched Standing Rock protesters dance for victory. Then the police arrested us. (https://mic.com/articles/169482/i-watched-standing-rock-protesters-dance-for-victory-then-the-police-arrested-us) via Mic,"camera: count of 1, computer: count of 1, external battery: count of 1",camera: count of 1,Jack Smith IV (Mic),,2017-02-22,False,Morton County,North Dakota (ND),None,None,"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",,, 2017-05-24 22:01:58.221086+00:00,2024-03-22 15:16:04.235104+00:00,Journalist Tonita Cervantes arrested at Standing Rock,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-tonita-cervantes-arrested-standing-rock/,2024-03-22 15:16:04.069366+00:00,obstruction: physical obstruction of a government function (charges dropped as of 2017-07-09),,"(2022-12-19 00:00:00+00:00) Freelance photojournalist sues ND county, city, officers for wrongful arrest at pipeline protest, (2024-03-01 00:00:00+00:00) Journalist’s suit against North Dakota law enforcement dismissed","Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Search or Seizure",,"camera: count of 1, camera lens: count of 1, cellphone: count of 1, external battery: count of 1, storage device: count of 14",,Tonita Cervantes (Freelance),,2017-02-22,False,Morton County,North Dakota (ND),None,None,"Tonita Cervantes, a freelance photojournalist, was arrested on Feb. 22, 2017, while covering events at the Dakota Access Pipeline camp. Police seized her phone, camera, lenses, external battery packs, blank flash cards, and data discs and held them as evidence.
Cervantes is charged with physical obstruction of government function, a Class A misdemeanor that could result in a year in jail. According to police records, Cervantes pleaded not guilty.
Cervantes’ seized equipment was returned to her on March 1, according to the National Press Photographers Association.
Cervantes is scheduled to go to trial in June 2018.
Photojournalist Tonita Cervantes was arrested shortly after taking this photo of law enforcement officers enforcing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer’s evacuation order for the Oceti Sakowin camp in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, on Feb. 22, 2017.
",arrested and released,Morton County Sheriff's Department,2017-02-23,2017-02-22,True,1:22-cv-00211,['DISMISSED'],Civil,returned in full,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"environmentalism, protest",,, 2017-05-25 21:05:01.655397+00:00,2024-03-20 16:36:18.309940+00:00,Reporter Jenni Monet arrested at Standing Rock,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-jenni-monet-arrested-standing-rock/,2024-03-20 16:36:18.148947+00:00,"rioting: engaging in a riot (charges dropped as of 2018-05-10), trespassing: criminal trespass (acquitted as of 2018-06-01)",,"(2018-05-10 13:24:00+00:00) Rioting charge dropped, (2018-06-01 18:47:00+00:00) Not guilty",Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Jenni Monet (Freelance),,2017-02-01,False,Morton County,North Dakota (ND),None,None,"Jenni Monet — a freelance journalist who has written for The Center for Investigative Reporting, Indian Country Today, and Yes! Magazine — was arrested while covering protests opposing the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota. Monet had been continuously embedded at Standing Rock since December 2016. On Feb. 1, 2017, she was detained and arrested after presenting law enforcement officers with her press credentials.
Writing in Indian Country Today, Monet reported that she was denied a phone call to her attorney until 25 hours after her arrest and was detained for more than 30 hours before finally being released. She also said that she and other Native American and non-white detainees were subjected to strip searches that their white counterparts were not.
Monet was charged with criminal trespassing and engaging in a riot, both Class B misdemeanors that could result in up to two months in jail, a fine, or both.
She is scheduled to go to trial in June 2018.
For her coverage of the Standing Rock protests, she has received Columbia University's 2017 Paul Tobenkin Memorial Award and the Hugh M. Hefner Foundation's 2017 First Amendment Award.
Jenni Monet at Standing Rock
",arrested and released,Morton County Sheriff's Department,2017-02-02,2017-02-01,True,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"environmentalism, protest",,, 2017-05-24 01:48:49.773084+00:00,2023-11-03 18:33:48.368171+00:00,"Vocativ journalist charged with rioting in Washington, D.C.",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/vocativ-journalist-charged-with-rioting-in-washington/,2023-11-03 18:33:48.240158+00:00,rioting (charges dropped as of 2017-01-27),,(2021-09-17 00:00:00+00:00) Vocativ journalist receives payout from class-action settlement with District of Columbia,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Search or Seizure",What happened during my arrest at Trump's Inauguration (https://freedom.press/news/what-happened-during-my-arrest-trumps-inauguration/),"camera: count of 1, cellphone: count of 1",,Evan Engel (Vocativ),,2017-01-20,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"Evan Engel was arrested on Jan. 20, 2017, while covering protests in Washington, D.C., on the day of President Donald Trump's inauguration. At the time, Engel was a senior producer at Vocativ. Vocativ spokeswoman Ellen Davis told the Committee to Protect Journalists that police seized Engel’s camera and mobile phone.
In a blog post for the Freedom of the Press Foundation, Engel wrote about the circumstances of his arrest:
The group – which included protesters, journalists (including myself), medics, and legal observers – raised their hands in the air and awaited further instructions from the police.
I livestreamed the detention on Facebook. After about 40 minutes, police officers from DC’s Metropolitan Police Department began pulled me from the group (livestreamers were among the first arrested). As I’ve done in numerous protests since 2008, I showed officers my camera and business cards and explained that I was a journalist.
“That’s great,” one officer replied. “I’m a sergeant.”
Engel was charged with the highest level of offense under Washington, D.C.’s law against rioting, which applies when there are injuries as a result of the activity or property damage in excess of $5,000, which can be punished by a maximum of 10 years in jail and fines of up to $25,000.
Engel wrote that he was detained for over 27 hours. He said that he and other detainees were subjected to abusive treatment, including being locked in the back of an overheated van.
On Jan. 27, all charges against Engel were dropped. Police later returned his phone and camera.
Aaron Cantú — an independent journalist who has written for The Baffler, the website Truthout, and Al-Jazeera — was arrested on Jan. 20, 2017, while covering protests on the day President Donald Trump's inauguration.
Cantú was among more than 230 people arrested in Washington on Inauguration Day after some individuals set fire to a car and broke windows of downtown businesses.
Cantú was one of nine journalists arrested during the protests. Charges were later dropped against most of the journalists, but not Cantú. On April 27, a grand jury indicted him on eight separate felony counts — inciting a riot, rioting, conspiracy to riot, and five counts of destruction of property. If convicted on all counts, he could face to 75 years in prison.
He is scheduled to go to trial in October 2018.
Journalist Aaron Cantú was required to wear this bracelet while detained, after he was arrested while covering protests against President Trump's inauguration in Washington, D.C.
",arrested and released,Metropolitan Police Department,None,None,False,1:20-cv-00130,['SETTLED'],Civil,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"chemical irritant, election, Election 2016, kettle, protest",,, 2017-05-25 21:09:36.767540+00:00,2023-11-03 18:35:20.284957+00:00,Producer Jack Keller arrested at Trump inauguration protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/producer-jack-keller-arrested-trump-inauguration-protest/,2023-11-03 18:35:19.906193+00:00,rioting (charges dropped as of 2017-01-30),,,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Equipment Search or Seizure",,"camera: count of 1, cellphone: count of 1, storage device: count of 1",,Jack Keller (Story of America),,2017-01-20,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"Jack Keller, producer of the web documentary series Story of America, was arrested on Jan. 20, 2017, while covering protests on the day of President Donald Trump's inauguration. Annabel Park, the co-director of the web series, confirmed that Keller was arrested and detained for 36 hours while covering the protest. He was returned his video camera after being released, but both the video and his cellphone remained in police custody.
He was charged with the highest level of offense under Washington D.C.’s law against rioting, which applies when there are injuries as a result of the activity or property damage in excess of $5,000, which can be punished by a maximum of 10 years in jail and fines of up to $25,000.
On Jan. 30, the charges against Keller were dropped.
A demonstrator smashes a Starbucks window using a trash can at 12th and I streets in Washington, D.C., on Friday, during a march that ended with a partial encirclement and mass arrest.
",arrested and released,Metropolitan Police Department,2017-01-21,2017-01-20,False,None,[],None,returned in part,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"election, Election 2016, kettle, protest",,, 2017-05-25 21:15:44.100054+00:00,2022-09-21 19:08:34.958901+00:00,Photojournalist Matthew Hopard arrested at Trump inauguration protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-matthew-hopard-arrested-trump-inauguration-protest/,2022-09-21 19:08:34.896746+00:00,rioting (charges dropped as of 2017-01-30),,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Matthew Hopard (Independent),,2017-01-20,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"Matthew Hopard — an independent photojournalist who has published with The New York Times, Fox News, and Business Insider — was arrested on Jan. 20, 2017, while covering protests on the day of President Donald Trump's inauguration.
He was charged with the highest level of offense under Washington D.C.’s law against rioting, which applies when there are injuries as a result of the activity or property damage in excess of $5,000, which can be punished by a maximum of 10 years in jail and fines of up to $25,000.
On Jan. 30, the charges against Hopard were dropped.
Washington DC police made a number of arrests, including of journalists, after protests against Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2017, resulted in windows being smashed and other damage.
",arrested and released,Metropolitan Police Department,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"election, Election 2016, kettle, protest",,, 2017-05-25 21:19:08.544615+00:00,2023-11-03 18:35:39.506952+00:00,Reporter Alex Stokes charged with rioting at Trump inauguration protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-alex-stokes-charged-rioting-trump-inauguration-protest/,2023-11-03 18:35:39.363390+00:00,rioting (charges dropped as of 2017-02-21),,(2021-09-17 00:00:00+00:00) Independent journalist receives payout as plaintiff in class-action lawsuit,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Equipment Search or Seizure",,"camera: count of 2, cellphone: count of 1",,Alex Stokes (Independent),,2017-01-20,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"Alexander Stokes — an independent journalist whose show was broadcast on Albany Public Access TV news show — was arrested on Jan. 20, 2017, while covering protests on the day of President Donald Trump's inauguration. Stokes, whose full name is Alexander Stokes Contompasis, stated that he was never asked for press credentials despite informing officers that he was press, and his cellphone and two cameras were seized by police during his arrest.
He was charged with the highest level of offense under Washington D.C.’s law against rioting, which applies when there are injuries as a result of the activity or property damage in excess of $5,000, which can be punished by a maximum of 10 years in jail and fines of up to $25,000.
On Feb. 21, the charges against Stokes were dropped. On March 1, his cameras and cellphone were returned, though he told Buzzfeed that he was uncertain whether they had been searched.
Stokes is now a member of "Press Connection," a group that advocates for those still facing criminal charges in connection with the Inauguration protests.
Protesters and journalists scramble as stun grenades are deployed by police during a protest near the inauguration of President Donald Trump in Washington, DC, U.S., Jan. 20, 2017.
",arrested and released,Metropolitan Police Department,None,None,False,1:18-cv-00120,['SETTLED'],Class Action,returned in full,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"election, Election 2016, kettle, protest",,, 2017-05-25 21:25:00.130739+00:00,2023-11-03 18:36:09.505614+00:00,Photojournalist Cheney Orr arrested at Trump inauguration protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-cheney-orr-arrested-trump-inauguration-protest/,2023-11-03 18:36:09.357441+00:00,rioting (charges dropped as of 2017-02-21),,,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Equipment Search or Seizure",,"camera: count of 3, storage device: count of 3, work product: count of 1, cellphone: count of 1",,Cheney Orr (Independent),,2017-01-20,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"Cheney Orr, an independent photographer, was arrested on Jan. 20, 2017, while covering protests on the day of President Donald Trump's inauguration. Orr was doing a portrait series that day when he was arrested with a group of 60 protesters, handcuffed with zip ties, and his gear confiscated: this included his digital Canon DSLR camera, two lenses, a Contaxt point-and-shoot, memory cards, a Rolleiflex 120 film camera, and his cellphone.
He was one of more than 200 people arrested and charged with felony rioting, the highest level of offense under Washington D.C.’s law against rioting. While he was released the next day, law enforcement wanted to use his images as evidence, but couldn’t access them without a warrant or Orr’s permission. When Orr’s attorney advised him that the warrant would almost certainly be granted and that waiting for the warrant would leave his equipment impounded for weeks or months, Orr granted his permission.
The felony charges were dropped on Feb. 21, though Orr is still waiting for the return of both his film and memory cards.
DC riot police form a line across K Street Northwest at 13th Street as protesters react to the swearing in of U.S. President Donald Trump in downtown Washington, U.S., Jan. 20, 2017.
",arrested and released,Metropolitan Police Department,None,None,False,None,[],None,returned in part,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"election, Election 2016, kettle, protest",,, 2017-07-12 19:39:24.339114+00:00,2022-09-21 19:09:13.504114+00:00,RT America reporter arrested at Trump inauguration protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/rt-america-reporter-arrested-trump-inauguration-protest/,2022-09-21 19:09:13.416275+00:00,rioting (charges dropped as of 2017-01-30),,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,"RT America reporter arrested while covering inauguration protests (https://www.rt.com/usa/374421-rt-reporter-arrested-inauguration-protests/) via RT America, Two journalists covering inauguration protests face felony riot charges (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/23/two-journalists-trump-inauguration-protests-felony-riot-charges-evan-engel-alex-rubinstein) via Guardian U.S., Updates on journalists arrested and charged with rioting during Presidential Inauguration protests (RCFP) (https://www.rcfp.org/inauguration-protest-arrests)",,,Alexander Rubinstein (RT America),,2017-01-20,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"Alexander Rubinstein, a reporter with the Russian state-funded broadcaster RT America, was arrested while covering protests on the day of the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump. RT said in a Jan. 20, 2017, report on its website that Rubinstein showed his media credentials to police before he was encircled with a crowd of people who were all arrested.
He was charged with the highest level of offense under Washington D.C.’s law against rioting, which applies when there are injuries as a result of the activity or property damage in excess of $5,000, which can be punished by a maximum of 10 years in jail and fines of up to $25,000.
On Jan. 30, the charges against Rubinstein were dropped.
Protesters and journalists scramble as stun grenades are deployed by police during a protest near the inauguration of President Donald Trump in Washington, DC, U.S., January 20, 2017.
Independent photojournalist Alexei Wood was arrested while covering protests on Jan. 20, 2017 — the day of the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Wood was among more than 230 people arrested in Washington on Inauguration Day after some individuals set fire to a car and broke windows of downtown businesses.
Wood told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that, when he was arrested, he was carrying a lot of professional equipment — including a Canon 7D camera body with a 16–35 L lens, at least four memory cards with over 200 GB of photos, a Rode external microphone, a monopod, and an Android phone (which he used to livestream the protest on Facebook Live).
All of his equipment was seized and searched by police after he was arrested. The lens was later returned to him, but the rest of his equipment was not.
Like other journalists arrested during the Inauguration protests, Wood was initially charged with one count of rioting, a felony which carries a penalty of up to 10 years in jail.
But on April 27, a grand jury indicted him on eight separate felony counts:
The eight counts carry a combined maximum sentence of more than 60 years in prison.
Alexei Wood stands outside D.C. superior court.
",arrested and released,Metropolitan Police Department,None,None,False,1:20-cv-00130,['SETTLED'],Civil,returned in full,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"chemical irritant, election, Election 2016, kettle, protest",,, 2017-08-01 15:19:53.063008+00:00,2024-02-27 21:33:31.073009+00:00,Shay Horse arrested at Trump inauguration protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/shay-horse-arrested/,2024-02-27 21:33:30.975733+00:00,rioting (charges dropped as of 2017-02-01),,"(2017-06-21 15:45:00+00:00) Photojournalist arrested while covering Inauguration Day protests named as plaintiff in ACLU lawsuit, (2021-04-26 00:00:00+00:00) DC settles class action lawsuit brought by independent journalist, others","Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault",,,,Shay Horse (Freelance),,2017-01-20,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"Independent journalist Shay Horse was arrested on Jan. 20, 2017, in Washington, D.C., while covering protests around the inauguration of President Donald Trump.
Like other journalists and protesters arrested that day, Horse was charged with the highest level of offense under the district's law against rioting, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail and fines of up to $25,000.
In February, the charges against Horse were dropped.
Activists stand amid smoke from a stun grenade during a protest against President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the inauguration in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 2017.
",arrested and released,Metropolitan Police Department,2017-01-21,None,True,1:17-cv-01216,['SETTLED'],Class Action,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"chemical irritant, election, Election 2016, kettle, protest",,, 2017-07-26 05:10:07.285730+00:00,2024-01-09 14:12:22.221228+00:00,Journalist Jenifer Stum charged with trespassing and rioting at Standing Rock,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-jenifer-stum-charged-trespassing-and-rioting-standing-rock/,2024-01-09 14:12:22.089006+00:00,"rioting: engaging in a riot (charges pending as of 2017-01-16), trespassing: criminal trespass (charges pending as of 2017-01-16)",,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Jenifer Stum (Independent),,2017-01-16,False,Morton County,North Dakota (ND),None,None,"Stum, an independent journalist, was arrested on Jan. 16, 2017, while filming an anti-pipeline protest on a bridge at the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota.
She was charged with criminal trespass, a Class A misdemeanor, and engaging in a riot, a class B misdemeanor. If convicted, she faces 60 days imprisonment and a $3,000 fine.
Stum is scheduled to go to trial in April 2018.
A man walks through the Dakota Access Pipeline protest camp on the edge of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, U.S., Jan. 24, 2017.
",arrested and released,Morton County Sheriff's Department,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"environmentalism, protest",,, 2017-07-26 05:42:38.049644+00:00,2023-03-09 15:45:56.348866+00:00,Journalist Adam Schrader arrested at Standing Rock,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-adam-schrader-arrested-standing-rock/,2023-03-09 15:45:56.199326+00:00,"endangerment: endangering by fire or explosion (charges dropped as of 2016-11-01), obstruction: maintaining a public nuisance (charges dropped as of 2017-08-21), rioting: engaging in a riot (charges dropped as of 2017-08-21)",,(2017-08-21 19:00:00+00:00) All charges against Schrader dropped,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Equipment Search or Seizure",,"work product: count of 1, recording equipment: count of 1",,Adam Schrader (Independent),,2016-10-27,False,Morton County,North Dakota (ND),None,None,"Adam Schrader, an independent journalist who contributes to the New York Daily News and other outlets, was arrested on Oct. 27, 2016 while filming clashes between police and protesters. Schrader told the Bismarck Tribune that he was arrested after asking a police officer about the use of pepper spray against protesters.
Schrader was initially charged with endangering by fire or explosion (a class C felony), maintaining a public nuisance (a class A misdemeanor), and engaging in a riot (a class B misdemeanor). The felony endangerment charge was dropped in November 2016, though he still faces the misdemeanor charges. If convicted, he faces one year and 30 days imprisonment and a $4,500 fine.
Police impounded Schrader's rental car following his arrest. Schrader told the Tribune that some items he left in the car — including a notebook and a $400 voice recorder — disappeared while the car was in police custody. A police spokeswoman told the Tribune that police did not search or take any evidence from cars that were impounded.
Sara Lafleur-Vetter, an independent photojournalist and filmmaker, was arrested and charged with three misdemeanors while filming protests at Standing Rock for The Guardian U.S. on Oct. 22, 2016.
Lafleur-Vetter told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that Morton County police arrested her while she was filming a prayer walk near the construction site of the Dakota Access Pipeline near State Highway 1806 in North Dakota.
Lafleur-Vetter said that she identified herself as a journalist to the police, and a video of her arrest posted on Facebook shows another person informing police that Lafleur-Vetter was a member of the press. Still, police arrested her.
“It didn’t matter to them who was and wasn’t press,” Lafleur-Vetter said.
She said that she was swept up in a mass arrest of over 140 people and was held in jail for two nights. She said that police seized her camera and SD cards. When she was released from jail, police returned her camera but not the SD cards.
Lafleur-Vetter was initially charged with criminal trespass and engaging in a riot. Those charges were dismissed on June 8, 2017.
But on May 17, 2017, Lafleur-Vetter was charged with three other misdemeanors: physical obstruction of a government function, disobedience of safety orders during a riot, and disorderly conduct.
On Oct. 18, nearly a year after she was first arrested, Lafleur-Vetter appeared at the Morton County courthouse for a trial before surrogate judge Thomas Merrick. She was the first journalist to be tried in connection with the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. She was acquitted on all charges, according to the Tribune.
“There's no evidence against her," judge Merrick said at the trial. "All it shows is she was working."
After the trial, police returned Lafleur-Vetter's SD cards to her.
Lafleur-Vetter said that she believes that the charges brought against her were intended to scare other journalists and deter them from covering protests.
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,,,,,