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 2021-08-10 16:27:07.884817+00:00,2023-07-13 20:16:45.008870+00:00,Photographer shoved with police baton at LA Wi Spa protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-shoved-with-police-baton-at-la-wi-spa-protest/,2023-07-13 20:16:44.889401+00:00,,,,Assault,,,,Raquel Natalicchio (ZUMA Press),,2021-07-17,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"
Raquel Natalicchio, a freelance photographer, says she was shoved against a wall by a Los Angeles Police Department officer using his baton on July 17, 2021.
Natalicchio was on an assignment for Zuma Press to cover the protests around the Wi Spa. The spa, located in LA’s Koreatown, became a flashpoint for anti-transgender demonstrators as the result of a viral video that police are now treating as a hoax, according to Slate.
She told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that just before she was shoved, the LAPD had declared an unlawful assembly after the two groups of protesters began to clash in front of the spa.
She said that LAPD also showered rubber bullets at trans-rights demonstrators, some even being shot at point blank range — apparently in violation of an April court order banning the use of “less lethal” projectiles against protesters from less than five feet away, and restricting their use to situations in which the targets pose a significant threat of violence.
The LAPD formed several kettles, or tight cordons, around the protesters, telling them to leave the area while pushing them further along the street, so that the protesters were not able to disperse, she said.
Dozens were arrested while attempting to follow police orders to disperse, Natalicchio said.
At around 11 a.m., the photographer was on the sidewalk at Rampart Boulevard and 6th Street, when LAPD officers were pushing back counterprotesters, activists and anyone walking on the street or sidewalk, she said.
“I communicated to the officer that I was press and that I would move back as the crowd behind me moved back. He then pushed me with his baton up against a wall while continuing to scream at me to move. Being I had nowhere to go, I stepped forward to turn around and find another way back and he pushed me from behind again into a crowd of protesters.”
An activist posted a video of the second part of the incident on Twitter.
The photographer said the incident had affected her mental health and she worries about her safety when covering actions in which police are involved. “It seems as if the police had no respect for me as a working journalist and treated me as if I was a protester.”
When contacted for comment, LAPD responded by email that the department had no further information to provide at this time.
This article was updated with comment from the Los Angeles Police Department.
Photojournalist Nathan Howard was hit by projectiles fired by federal law enforcement officials in the early hours of July 20, 2020, while he was covering protests in Portland, Oregon.
Howard was hit by pepper balls while 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 after 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.
The Portland protests, held nightly since late May, 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. Howard gave declarations in support of the class action lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon, that led to the TRO.
In the early morning of July 20, Howard was covering federal officers clear protesters from the area outside the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse, according to the ACLU declaration. One group of officers exited the courthouse and pushed protesters across Chapman Square to Southwest Fourth Avenue. Howard remained in the square to document a second group of federal agents, which then emerged from another federal building two blocks away. At the time, the only other people in Howard’s proximity were journalists, as the protesters had already dispersed.
When the second line of agents advanced north through the park, some of them turned their attention to Howard, he said in the filing. He held up his National Press Photographers Association press pass and shouted, “I’m press!” Then the agents told him to stay where he was.
After the two groups of officers merged, some agents once again noticed Howard, according to the filing. When he held up his press pass again and repeated that he was press, one of the agents told him to stay where he was. However, another agent fired at least two pepper balls at Howard at close range, he said. Howard then hid behind a tree until he felt safe to continue working.
Howard tweeted about the incident at 12:12 a.m., though he said in the declaration that it may have occurred just before midnight.
Myself and a few other photogs yelled press. Feds said "Okay just stay there," then shot me with pepper balls. Gee thanks guys.
— Nathan Howard (@SmileItsNathan) July 20, 2020
He told the Tracker that he had been wearing a puffy jacket, so the initial effect of the pepper ball was a mild sting. But he also experienced the full chemical effects of the projectiles.
Howard, who had been on assignment for ZUMA Press that day, said that he has no doubt that he was targeted. “During the 2020 Portland protests, I have been hit by pepper balls three times. The first two times, they were not obviously targeted at me, so I gave the police the benefit of the doubt. This time was radically different,” he wrote in his declaration.
The Department of Homeland Security, which has coordinated the federal presence in Portland, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
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",,,