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 2021-08-26 13:57:36.810645+00:00,2021-08-26 19:23:32.831156+00:00,Journalist assaulted twice during anti-vaccine rally in LA,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-assaulted-twice-during-anti-vaccine-rally-in-la/,2021-08-26 19:23:32.794343+00:00,,,,Assault,,,,Tina-Desiree Berg (Status Coup),,2021-08-14,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"
Independent journalist Tina-Desiree Berg was assaulted while covering an anti-vaccine protest outside LA’s City Hall for the online outlet Status Coup on Aug. 14, 2021.
Demonstrators had gathered for a rally advertised as a “stop socialism, choose freedom march against medical tyranny” to protest COVID-19 vaccination requirements and mask mandates, LAist reported. Demonstrators carried signs from a cross-section of movements, including pro-Trump banners, signs calling for the recall of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and other signs and banners. While the demonstration on the south lawn of the City Hall grounds remained peaceful, according to LAist, some fights broke out on the edges of the rally.
Berg told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she arrived approximately 45 minutes before the violence began and was standing across from the Los Angeles Police Department headquarters with a few other journalists. In footage Berg posted shortly after 2:30 p.m., a group of men can be seen gathering in a line as multiple people call out “Fuck antifa!”
At 0:22 in the clip, a man can be seen running up to Berg, pulling down his mask and saying “Hey bitch” before appearing to strike out at Berg and her camera; Berg said the man punched her and struck her camera. Another demonstrator intervenes and pulls the man away as Berg makes her way back to the sidewalk.
A few moments later, as a brawl appears to break out between the anti-vaccine demonstrators and counterprotesters, a second man runs up to Berg and attempts to pull the mask off her face while shouting, “Unmask them! Unmask them all!”
Anti-vaxxers in LA yell "Fuck Antifa" as one ATTACKS journalist @TinaDesireeBerg, who was injured as a result while reporting. More footage to come from fights that broke out. pic.twitter.com/hHfuesJ38L
— Status Coup News (@StatusCoup) August 15, 2021
A photo of the incident shows the man pulling down Berg’s goggles and face mask; Berg’s press credentials can be seen on a lanyard around her neck.
Berg told Democracy Now that she will not let the increasing violence, especially incidents targeting the press, prevent her from covering protests across California.
“People need to see what’s going on and if I let [the Proud Boys] control what I do then they sort of win the conversation,” Berg said. “They don’t want the press, they don’t want people filming them, they don’t want to be exposed for their violent actions. And so the intention of what they’re doing is to try to silence me and other journalists like me from covering what they’re doing and I absolutely am not deterred from doing it. I will be much more aware, take more security precautions.”
Berg told the Tracker she has not filed a police report about the incident, but plans to speak with the special investigations unit about it and the assault she witnessed of videographer Rocky Romano on July 3.
This article has been updated to include comment from the journalist.
Independent photojournalist Jon Farina was shoved by a law enforcement officer while covering a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, for the online outlet Status Coup on April 16, 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.
Farina, a New York-based journalist, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that on the night of April 16 officers were using rubber bullets on the crowd and chasing people away from the police station.
Farina said he stayed off to the side of the crowd as officers pushed protesters back. He said he eventually found himself by some residential buildings near the police station, where officers were making arrests.
At first, he said, officers didn’t say anything to him.
In a video Status Coup posted to Twitter, multiple law enforcement officers holding shields marked “sheriff” can be seen in a line. An officer, who is wearing a vest that says “sheriff” on the back, turns and approaches the camera. He repeats, “back up, back up.”
“What’s the reason? nothing’s happening,” Farina replies.
“You got a zoom on that thing, back up, back up,” the officer says, referencing Farina’s camera.
The officer moves suddenly close to the camera. Farina told the Tracker that the officer held a baton with a hand at each end and used it to shove the journalist in the shoulder.
Immediately afterwards, Farina said, a second officer came up behind him, grabbed his backpack and used it to pull him back. The second officer can be heard on the video shouting “get out of here!”
Farina backs away as the second officer, who was wearing green, follows and shines a flashlight at him. Farina tries to speak with the officer, who moves toward him and shouts “get out of here!” again.
#BREAKING: Minnesota Police threaten photojournalist @JonFarinaPhoto and @StatusCoup's reporting while attacking and arresting protesters and the press during #DaunteWright protests. pic.twitter.com/J5L3plF6vl
— Status Coup News (@StatusCoup) April 17, 2021
Farina told the Tracker he decided to leave that area then because he felt he might be arrested if he stayed. As he was moving away, he saw other members of the press lying face down. He said he continued moving past them.
Eventually Farina said he came to a checkpoint where law enforcement officers were taking photographs of journalists’ credentials and faces.
Farina said he started to leave but an officer stopped him and asked if other officers had said he could go. Farina said he told him, “This is not how this works. You guys shouldn't be doing this.”
The officer brought over a lieutenant, he said, and Farina continued to explain his objections to being photographed. He said he told them the process was unconstitutional and illegal. They spoke for about a minute, Farina said, and the officers allowed him to proceed.
Farina said he was wearing a lanyard around his neck with press credentials displayed, including cards issued by the National Press Photographers Association, the New York Press Photographers Association and the New York City Police Department.
Farina told the Tracker he believed he was targeted for being a journalist. He said he believed the officers tried to intimidate journalists.
“It's very clear and obvious all journalists were targeted that day,” he said.
The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or who had their equipment damaged in the course of reporting. Find all incidents related to Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests here.
Independent journalist Tina-Desiree Berg was shoved by a police officer while reporting on a protest near Echo Park Lake in Los Angeles, California on March 24, 2021, Berg told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
Protesters gathered near Echo Park Lake to demonstrate against the city’s plan to clear a homeless encampment, blocking Los Angeles Police Department officers from the park, LAist reported.
In the evening protesters were trying to block police from putting up a barrier around the park, Berg told the Tracker.
Berg, who reports for Status Coup, which describes itself as a progressive, independent news outlet, said she was one of about a half dozen journalists between a line of police officers and protesters. She said she asked if she could move through to the other side of the police line, but an officer refused, telling her, “you’ve made your choice.”
Berg, who was filming using a video camera with a light attachment, said that police were objecting to journalists’ use of camera lights, saying that they were trying to blind the officers.
In a video published by Status Coup on YouTube, officers multiple times ask people, including Berg, to turn off their camera lights. Berg can be heard refusing, at times confrontationally.
In one clip multiple people with cameras can be seen near an officer, who says, “Turn off that light please.”
“I’m not turning off my light, dude, it is necessary for my job,” Berg can be heard saying.
In another clip, an officer can be heard saying “Leave the area, ma’am.”
The video then shows the top of another officer’s helmet, abruptly shakes, and Berg can be heard saying “no!”
Berg told the Tracker that’s when an officer hit her camera lens with a baton, then jabbed her in the abdomen with the baton.
Berg told the Tracker she was wearing a Kevlar vest and was not hurt by the baton. The blow to her camera lens cracked the outer casing of the lens, she said. The interior of the lens was not damaged and it is still usable, she said, though she has not gotten the casing repaired.
Berg said she was wearing multiple press credentials on a lanyard around her neck, including one issued by the Los Angeles Press Club and another that identified her as a journalist for Status Coup.
LAPD spokesperson Raul Jovel said the department opened an investigation into the incident after the Tracker reached out to the department for comment.
At a protest in Echo Lake Park the following day, March 25, at least 20 journalists were arrested, detained or assaulted. Find all documented press freedom violations from the Echo Park Lake protests here.
Journalist Jenn Dize said law enforcement officers shot her with a projectile and pushed her to the ground twice, causing her to lose her grip on her equipment, while covering protests for progressive independent outlet Status Coup in Washington, D.C., on May 30, 2020.
Protests that began in Minnesota on May 26 have spread across the country, sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, during an arrest the day before. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
Dize, the co-founder of Status Coup, was livestreaming the protests near Lafayette Square park on YouTube, when someone lobbed an object at police. The livestream shows police firing at the crowd. Dize was shot in the right arm by a projectile; she believes it may have been a pepper ball, she told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. The projectile left her arm bruised with a red, raised welt. Dize, who was standing outside a crowd at the time, was wearing Status Coup press credentials and was carrying a monopod and microphone. "They had to have been aiming at me," she told the Tracker.
Based on the design of officers’ shields in the livestream, they appear to be with the United States Park Police. Park Police spokesman Sergeant Eduardo Delgado told the Tracker via email that this was the first he had heard of this incident; he did not provide comment on Dize’s claims.
Dize continued reporting. A few hours later, she said she was livestreaming a burning vehicle and interviewing onlookers when someone lobbed a firecracker at the feet of police. Dize started to leave, but stopped to help a protester who had fallen down.
Law enforcement officers advanced toward the crowd, and Dize said one of them knocked her down with his riot shield. Her monopod, phone, and microphone slipped from her fingers. She could see her phone a short distance away on the sidewalk.
“I didn’t want to make any sudden moves, so I asked the officers ‘Can I bend down and pick up my phone?’” she told the Tracker.
The officer who had initially knocked her down reacted by ramming her multiple times in the upper body with his shield, knocking her onto her right hip, she said.
"I will never forget the look on the cop's face who was attacking me," she said. “He did not care.”
Protesters intervened, grabbing her underneath her arms and helping her reach safety. “My hip is quite sore still, and all my equipment is lost,” she said. Her phone, which she could not locate, continued to livestream for 90 additional minutes. Status Coup edited a short video on YouTube including footage from Dize’s perspective as she was knocked down the first time.
The Tracker shared a screenshot from the video with Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia spokesperson Alaina Gertz, who confirmed that the officers depicted were part of its force. Gertz did not respond to a request for comment about Dize’s claims.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred total incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country related to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Find all of these cases here.
This article has been updated to reflect that Dize was hit in the right arm with a projectile, not the left arm as originally reported.
U.S. Park Police and protesters gather near the White House on May 30, 2020, in Washington, D.C.
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