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 2020-12-08 15:28:48.616205+00:00,2022-03-10 21:49:31.396804+00:00,Independent filmmaker sprayed with chemical agent in Kenosha,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-filmmaker-sprayed-chemical-agent-kenosha/,2022-03-10 21:49:31.336205+00:00,,,,Assault,,,,Ashley Dorelus (Freelance),,2020-09-01,False,Kenosha,Wisconsin (WI),42.58474,-87.82119,"
On Sept. 1, 2020, a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, sprayed independent filmmaker Ashley Dorelus with a chemical agent after she knocked away his hand, according to Dorelus and video of the encounter. Dorelus, who said she has been traveling the country to make a film about the Black Lives Matter movement, said that she batted away the officer’s hand because he had inappropriately touched her.
Dorelus told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she was reporting in a Kenosha park that had become a gathering place for protesters after the Aug. 23 shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by a white police officer. She said that before the incident with the policeman, she was trying to interview a man who described himself as a member of the Proud Boys, a far-right group, and a woman accompanying him. Dorelus said that as she sought to ask the man questions about the Proud Boys, a crowd of protesters followed them, chanting “Proud Boys go home.”
One demonstrator also antagonized Dorelus, apparently because she was trying to interview the self-described Proud Boy. “You’re media, you’re media,” the demonstrator shouts at her in a video that Dorelus live streamed on Instagram. A few minutes later, the video shows several police officers arriving to separate the man and the woman from the crowd. As Dorelus, together with other members of the press, walks along close to law enforcement escorting the self-described right-wing activists, one of the officers shoves her away “Hey that was my breast, don’t touch me,” she can be heard screaming, and then again: “don’t touch me,” right before the officer sprays her.
The incident was also caught on camera by New York Times reporter Nicholas Bogel-Burroughswho tweeted the video and it was later reported in The New York Times. Bogel-Burroughs’ footage shows the officer, who is white, shoving away Dorelus, who is Black, and then spraying her after she swatted his hand. Dorelus said that she swiped at the officer’s hand because he had touched her inappropriately. “I’m a woman, you don’t think I know when a man touches my breast, come on,” she told the Tracker. Dorelus also said that she was wearing press credentials when she was sprayed. “I was trying to explain to the police, I was interviewing these people,” she said. “He could have just told me to step back, whereas his initial reaction was to mace me.” Dorelus said that her eyes were burning badly for two days and her head was also exposed to the spray.
Dorelus said she did not file a complaint against the officer. The Kenosha Police Department has not responded to Tracker requests for comment.
The same day Dorelus was sprayed and allegedly touched inappropriately, President Donald Trump visited Kenosha, where he offered support to law enforcement but did not speak about Jacob Blake or meet with his family members.
Rubber bullets fired by law enforcement officers injured a photojournalist from a national media outlet covering a protest against police brutality in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Aug. 25, 2020.
Alyssa Schukar, who was on assignment for The New York Times, said she was hit in her left hand while documenting clashes between law enforcement and demonstrators in front of the Kenosha County Courthouse that had continued past an 8 p.m. state of emergency curfew. In an effort to disperse protesters, officers fired pepper balls and tear gas, according to several press reports.
Schukar told U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was struck as she stood to the side of the demonstration, about 30 yards from the protesters and an equal distance from the line of police. The bullet struck the base of her index finger, shattering the bone and causing fractures.
“I went straight to the medic area and then I had to go straight to the hospital, it was very obviously broken,” she said. Since then, Schukar has had two surgeries, and she is now in physical therapy.
Schukar said that law enforcement officers were firing from a narrow gap behind a barricade and that when she was hit, she was standing far away from protesters. Although she said she could not be certain whether she was deliberately targeted, “it feels a bit suspect to me.”
Schukar said she was wearing a helmet and goggles, but no body armor. She added that when she was struck, her hand was on top of her stomach, where she was carrying one of her cameras.
“These are highly trained law enforcement folks,” she said. “To me, it doesn’t make sense that they could [accidentally] hit me so squarely in the middle of my body.”
Schukar said she did not file a complaint with police, but legal counsel for The New York Times submitted a letter to police and to the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department asking for an investigation into the shooting.
“It’s important this is on the record, because this is happening increasingly,” she said. As of late October the Times had not received a response, according to Schukar.
The Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department and the police department have not responded to requests for comment.
Protests in Kenosha started on Aug. 23, 2020, after police officers shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, in front of his three children, leaving him paralyzed. Hundreds of people in Kenosha joined public protests against police brutality and while many demonstrations were peaceful, some buildings in the city were set on fire.
The night Schukar was hit by a rubber bullet, a group of armed vigilantes patrolled the streets of Kenosha. Later that night, two protesters were shot dead and another man was injured. A 17-year-old was arrested and now faces criminal charges for those killings.
Law enforcement officers stand guard on Aug. 25, 2020, after protests erupted in Kenosha, Wisconsin, following the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man two days before.
",None,None,None,None,False,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, shot / shot at",,, 2020-11-11 14:33:28.709978+00:00,2022-03-10 15:04:13.333852+00:00,AFP reporter hit with a rubber bullet while covering unrest in Kenosha,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/afp-reporter-hit-rubber-bullet-while-covering-unrest-kenosha/,2022-03-10 15:04:13.265718+00:00,,,,Assault,,,,Robert Chiarito (Agence France-Presse),,2020-08-25,False,Kenosha,Wisconsin (WI),42.58474,-87.82119,"Robert Chiarito, a journalist on assignment for the news agency Agence France-Presse, said he was hit in the leg by a rubber bullet while covering a confrontation between demonstrators and law enforcement in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Aug. 25, 2020. At least two other reporters were hit by rubber bullets during the same protest.
About an hour after an 8 p.m. curfew, Chiarito said he was reporting on a clash between protesters and law enforcement in front of the Kenosha County Courthouse when he was hit in the leg. He told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he thought he’d been hit with a rock, until a protester picked up a rubber bullet and gave it to him. “I think you got hit by that, you earned it,” the protester told him.
Chiarito later posted a photo of the plastic bullet, a 40-millimeter rubber baton, a type of non-lethal munition used by law enforcement. “It hit the ground first and then it hit my leg,” Chiarito told the Tracker. “I got lucky that I came out of there with a souvenir,” he said.
Chiarito told the Tracker that when he was hit, he was surrounded by protesters and the closest officers were about 50 feet away.
“It was dark out, I was wearing my press credential, but unless you were close to me, there was no way of knowing who I was,” he told the Tracker. “I don’t believe I was targeted, but it shows just how indiscriminate it was just firing in the crowd, because they weren’t targeting any specific person,” he said.
Hundreds of people protested in the streets of Kenosha against police brutality following the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by police officers on Aug. 23. Many demonstrations were peaceful but some turned violent and some buildings in the city were set on fire.
The same night Chiarito was hit, a group of civilian men carrying assault rifles and handguns began patrolling the streets. Later that night two demonstrators were shot dead and a third was wounded. Officers arrested a 17-year-old from Antioch who had arrived in Kenosha with an assault rifle.
Law enforcement officers stand guard on Aug. 25, 2020, after protests erupted in Kenosha, Wisconsin, following the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man two days before.
",None,None,None,None,False,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, protest, shot / shot at",,, 2020-12-23 14:24:08.598714+00:00,2022-03-10 15:04:32.831080+00:00,"CBS 58 reporter struck in neck by projectile during Kenosha, Wisconsin protest",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cbs-58-reporter-struck-neck-projectile-during-kenosha-wisconsin-protest/,2022-03-10 15:04:32.774229+00:00,,,,Assault,,,,Mark Stevens (WDJT-TV),,2020-08-25,False,Kenosha,Wisconsin (WI),42.58474,-87.82119,"Mark Stevens, a reporter for CBS 58 News in Milwaukee, said he was struck and injured by a projectile — possibly a crowd control weapon — while covering a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Aug. 25, 2020.
Protests began in Kenosha after police shot Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, on a residential street on Aug. 23. Demonstrations against police violence and racism had been held across the country, including in Wisconsin, since late May.
Stevens told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was covering a protest outside the Kenosha County Courthouse with a CBS 58 photojournalist and a security guard on the evening of the second day of demonstrations. The protest was largely peaceful at the beginning, but Stevens said some protesters became more aggressive as the evening wore on.
In preparation for a live broadcast at 9 p.m, Stevens said he initially set up with a view of the burned wreckage of dump trucks parked near the courthouse. However, he said the CBS 58 team moved into a nearby park, farther away from protesters, when some people started pulling debris from the trucks to throw at police and the National Guard.
Stevens said the team kept the camera light off to avoid attracting attention, then turned it on just before the broadcast was set to begin.
About two minutes before he was supposed to go live, Stevens said, a projectile struck him in the back of his neck, knocking him to the ground and leaving him with a bruise and broken skin.
Protest medics who came to help him told him they believed he was hit by a rubber bullet. Based on footage his colleague recorded of the incident, Stevens said he thought it might have been a bean bag, a cloth sack of lead shot that police use for crowd control.
But Stevens said he wasn’t certain what the projectile was, or who fired it, though it may have come from police. Law enforcement parked an armored vehicle near where the journalists were filming, he said, and there were reports that police had used projectiles for crowd control during protests the previous night.
A spokesperson for the Kenosha Police Department said police had no report about the incident and declined to comment on it.
Stevens said he was wearing press credentials on a lanyard around his neck when he was hit. He said his group was clearly identifiable as a television news crew because of the camera gear they carried. He said he didn’t seek further medical attention or report the incident to police.
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.
Scott Olson, a Getty photojournalist, said he was struck in the head with a rubber bullet fired by law enforcement officers while covering a protest against police brutality in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Aug. 25, 2020.
Olsen was documenting clashes between law enforcement and demonstrators in front of the Kenosha County Courthouse that had continued past an 8 p.m. state of emergency curfew. In an effort to disperse protesters, officers fired pepper balls and tear gas, according to several press reports.
Olson told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was hit during the same protest as he photographed demonstrators taking cover behind a dumpster. He said he was wearing a helmet and a gas mask for protection when a rubber bullet struck the side of his head, tearing cartilage in his ear and leaving him bleeding and with a temporary hearing loss. He said his hearing came back about twenty minutes later, and his physical injury did not result in long-term damage.
Olson said he was standing about 15 feet from protesters and roughly 30-50 feet from police officers. He added that from where he stood, the side profile of his body would have been visible to law enforcement officers, who were behind a fence surrounding the courthouse.
“I think they were firing in between the opening of the fence,” he told the Tracker.
Because of his position, and because he was carrying two professional cameras, Olson believed it was clear that he was a member of the press. He said that there was also another photojournalist close to him.
“I think we were pretty identifiable,” he told the Tracker, adding that, since he was far away from demonstrators, he felt that the rubber bullet that hit him had been deliberately targeted.
“I was further up away from them [protesters] where I wouldn’t look like I was part of that group and there was really no one around me other than another photojournalist,” he said. “So not only I think I was targeted, I think I was targeted in my head.”
The Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department and the police department have not responded to requests for comment.
Protests in Kenosha started on Aug. 23, 2020, after police officers shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, in front of his three children, leaving him paralyzed. Hundreds of people in Kenosha joined public protests against police brutality and while many demonstrations were peaceful, some buildings in the city were set on fire.
The night Scott Olson was hit by rubber bullets, a group of armed vigilantes patrolled the streets of Kenosha. Later that night, two protesters were shot dead and another man was injured. A 17-year-old was arrested and now faces criminal charges for those killings.
During an Aug. 24 clash between law enforcement and protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, officers fired a tear gas canister at two journalists who say they were standing several feet away from any protesters. One of the journalists, Jesus J. Montero, said the canister hit him on his right arm, and that he experienced itching and difficulty breathing but did not require medical care.
Montero, an independent reporter who was covering the protest on his social media, and Maria Guerrero, from the Chicago-based DePaul University newspaper The DePaulia, were outside the Kenosha County Courthouse as protesters defied an 8 p.m. curfew. According to the journalists, police and sheriff’s deputies warned demonstrators that they would use tear gas if the crowd didn’t leave. When demonstrators and press remained, police moved to break up the crowd, according to Guerrero, who tweeted a video of the scene. The journalists said they were about six feet away from the demonstrators and opposite the line of police, when police fired a tear gas canister that hit Montero in his right arm, causing him itching and difficulty breathing for some hours. Guerrero said she was able to run away from the gas without suffering any difficulties.
Both journalists say they were wearing press credentials at the time. Montero told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he does not believe he was targeted as a member of the press. He said that as he was in the area not far from demonstrators, officers may have had trouble clearly distinguishing journalists from protesters. Aug. 24 was the second day of protests in Kenosha.
“As the weeks went on police had a better understanding that this is the press,” Montero told the Tracker. But when protests first began, he said, “there was no regard to who you were affiliated with.”
However, Guerrero, who is also managing editor of La DePaulia, the Spanish-speaking sister newspaper of The DePaulia, said she believes that she and Montero were deliberately targeted as journalists. “I try my best to stand out from demonstrators,” she said, explaining that on that night she felt she was clearly identifiable as press because she wore goggles and press credentials and carried a professional camera. “As press we’re just there to tell a story and to tell what’s going on,” she told the Tracker.”
Protests in Kenosha were ignited on Aug. 23 by the killing of Jacob Blake, a Black man who was shot seven times by a white police officer in front of his children. While many demonstrations were peaceful, some escalated into violence with some buildings being vandalized and set on fire. The evening after Montero was struck by the tear gas canister, two protesters were killed and a third was injured when civilians armed with assault rifles and guns also took to the streets claiming their intention was to protect private property. A 17-year-old was accused of the killings.
Eric Kriesel, a photojournalist for CBS 58 television, said he was struck in the leg with a brick or rock while covering protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Aug. 23, 2020.
Protesters began to gather hours after police shot Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, in the back seven times on a residential street in Kenosha. Demonstrations against police violence and racism had been held across the country, including in Wisconsin, since late May.
Kriesel told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he and a reporter with CBS 58 arrived to cover the police shooting and the community’s reaction in the evening shortly after Blake was shot. He said a couple of hundred people had gathered to protest. Police had put up police tape around the perimeter of the scene, and a few other police cars were parked outside of the perimeter, he said.
Kriesel said protesters began jumping on the police cars, damaging them and breaking their windshields. Someone threw some sort of projectile that hit a police officer and knocked the officer to the ground, he said. Other officers retrieved the one who had been hit, who Kriesel said appeared to be unconscious, and police began to leave.
Kriesel and the CBS 58 reporter started to walk away from the scene, ahead of a live broadcast at 9 p.m., he said. They were walking alongside the police vehicles that were driving away, and protesters were throwing objects at the cars.
As he walked, Kriesel said, an object struck him in the lower left shin. He said he believes a brick or a rock ricocheted off of the back windshield of a police car into his leg, and that he didn’t think it was directed at him.
Kriesel said he had a bruise and swelling on his leg for about a month. He had the injury checked at a hospital, but said he didn’t require any treatment.
Kriesel said he was carrying a large and noticeable professional television camera at the time he was hit. He couldn’t recall whether he had his ID card issued by CBS 58 on him at the time, but said he typically carries the credentials when reporting on situations like the demonstration in Kenosha. The Kenosha Police Department didn’t return a request for 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.
Protesters confront Kenosha County Sheriffs Deputies outside the Kenosha Police Department in Wisconsin following the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, on Aug. 23, 2020.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,unknown,unknown,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, protest",,,