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 2020-11-18 14:34:48.347339+00:00,2022-08-04 21:23:15.011130+00:00,Brazilian photojournalist arrested during NYC election protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/brazilian-photojournalist-arrested-during-nyc-election-protest/,2022-08-04 21:23:14.938742+00:00,"blocking traffic: pedestrians on roadways (charges dropped as of 2020-11-12), rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2020-11-12)",,(2020-11-12 16:22:00+00:00) Charges dropped against Brazilian photojournalist arrested during NYC election protest,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Gabriel Boaz Munhoz (Freelance),,2020-11-04,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"
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",,, 2020-11-10 21:44:08.880395+00:00,2022-08-04 20:47:45.055094+00:00,"NYPD arrests, assaults photojournalist during protest",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/nypd-arrests-assaults-photojournalist-during-protest/,2022-08-04 20:47:44.987652+00:00,blocking traffic: pedestrians on roadways (charges dropped as of 2021-01-22),,(2021-01-22 13:43:00+00:00) Charges dropped against photojournalist arrested during NYC protest,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault",,,,Chae Kihn (Freelance),,2020-11-01,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"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.