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 2021-07-12 15:30:43.114431+00:00,2022-02-01 18:04:09.572624+00:00,Journalist says he feared for his life while covering anti-vaccine rally in Oregon,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-says-he-feared-for-his-life-while-covering-anti-vaccine-rally-in-oregon/,2022-02-01 18:04:09.354161+00:00,,,,Assault,,,,James Croxton (Independent),,2021-06-23,False,Springfield,Oregon (OR),44.04624,-123.02203,"
Independent journalist James Croxton, managing editor of Oregon-based website DoubleSidedMedia, said his life was threatened as he covered an anti-vaccine rally in Springfield, Oregon, on June 23, 2021.
He said he was in the plaza in front of Springfield Library around 4 p.m. to cover the event, which was also advertised as a protest against mask-wearing to combat COVID-19, and against critical race theory. Croxton said there were around 40 protesters at the rally.
“Many of them held signs about keeping critical race theory out of schools and mask mandates,” he wrote in a post for Left Coast Right Watch, a California-based website.
Two men approached Croxton and asked him who he worked for. Croxton wrote in the post that when he replied ”‘Double Sided Media” they muttered “fake press.” He said he was later circled by two protesters, one carrying a large pole. He wrote that the one carrying the flagpole was “notorious” for beating people with it.
He added that a man walked toward him and told him it would be wise if he walked away.
“Knowing I was largely outnumbered and the only member of the press there by this point, I agreed and stated, ‘Sure, I’ll walk away. No problem’,” Croxton wrote.
Two of the men then followed Croxton down the road, he said, and one said: “If you ever come back, it’ll be the last thing you do.”
“I was physically scared for myself. I thought I was about to be ambushed as two grown men—one with a large flagpole as normal—circled me like predatory vultures,” Croxton tweeted after the incident.
“In retrospect, I think this was the most dangerous situation I have found myself in so far. I say this because I was entirely alone and with a bunch of people who still think that 'the press is the enemy of the people,'” Croxton wrote.
Croxton told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he had feared for his life.
“I felt scared due to the fact that I was all alone knowing that if anything happened, nobody was there to either document it or help me.”
He said he hadn’t filed a complaint to the police.
James Croxton, managing editor of Oregon-based independent media collective DoubledSided541, was hit by what he described as pepper ball rounds, shot by a Federal Protective Service officer, as Croxton covered a protest in Portland in the early hours of April 11, 2021.
Croxton was covering a “few dozen protesters” gathered near the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland, he wrote in a piece for DoubleSided541 a few days later.
Croxton told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he did not believe he was deliberately targeted by the rounds that he said struck him around midnight that night: “Agent just opened the door and shot out. I happened to be across the street right in his sight.”
The journalist said he was wearing a “PRESS” jacket and badge at the time.
He added: “There’s no doubt that I was shot and injured. Still have the scar.”
Croxton was with independent researcher and scientist Juniper Simonis, who also reported to the Tracker that they were hit by rounds. Croxton works with Simonis on gathering research about law enforcement use of crowd-control munitions.
Croxton posted video on Twitter showing what appear to be FPS agents, along with the sound of firing. “Been hit in the right knee with some sort of projectile. Medics have provided an ice pack,” he wrote.
In his story on Double Sided Media Croxton posted photographs of the rounds that he says hit him as well as photos of what look like injury to his knees caused by crowd-control munitions.
The protest near the ICE facility began around 9 p.m. when protesters gathered around the building, took down a fence and a fire started, Croxton said.
“Just over a half an hour later, what began as a separate small fire on the side of the [ICE] entryway, turned into the entire side of it being engulfed,” he said.
According to reports from the night, the side of the ICE building was on fire and Portland Fire and Rescue officers were sent to the scene to put out the blaze.
“Agents tried to exit. Unsuccessful, they went across their driveway and out the side gate, running towards protesters and shooting both PepperBalls and FN 303 rounds,” wrote Croxton. FN 303 rounds are a “less lethal” form of crowd control munition.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Federal Protective Service, has not responded to a request by Tracker for comment.
James Croxton, managing editor of Oregon-based DoubledSided541, which describes itself as an independent media collective, said he was hit when federal officers fired crowd-control munitions at a small group of journalists covering a March 11, 2021, protest near the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse in Portland, Oregon.
The protest was one of many during March in the city’s Pearl District, a popular downtown area where former warehouses are converted to restaurants. The protests have resulted in streets being closed, fires, damage to city property and shop windows smashed, according to The Oregonian. Protests have been taking place in Portland regularly starting in spring 2020, partly linked to Black Lives Matter but also around issues such as defunding police, environmental actions and other social justice issues.
Croxton, who also works for neighborhood news site Village Portland, said he was on 4th Ave., close to the Salmon St. intersection, when the small group of reporters came across what looked to be a canister of HC gas, a toxic smoke bomb used by the military, burning in the street. Local news outlet Oregon Live has covered incidents of HC gas reportedly being used by the Portland police to disperse protesters “two dozen times.” The gas contains hexaclorotethane and is toxic, Oregon Live reported.
Croxton said that he had been looking for evidence that police were using chemicals against protesters and the media; he said he has been documenting that in conjunction with the Portland-based research and activist group Chemical Weapons Research Consortium.
“Just a couple of seconds after I had walked up to the canister to document, the Federal Protective Service [part of Homeland Security] turned their pepper balls towards us and shot at our feet and ankles,” Croxton told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. He said some of the munitions also hit higher on his body, leaving “powder from impacts on my jacket.”
Croxton said the pepper balls caused him sharp, but temporary, pain as he walked back from the canister. “Fortunately, pepper ball pains go away relatively quickly,” he said.
In video footage of the incident, a small group of people with video cameras, some of whom are clearly wearing “PRESS” on their clothing, or wearing “PRESS” badges, are seen taking footage and don’t appear to be close to protesters. The sound of what appears to be munitions being fired can be heard.
Croxton said he believed he was deliberately targeted by law enforcement. “It is unmistakable that the FPS shot at the press. I am, at the very least, very identifiable and have clearly visible 'PRESS' markings.”
“I intentionally try my best to stand-out from the rest of the crowd. My press credentials are also light-colored and are made to be seen from a distance,” he said.
Croxton told the Tracker: “It's extremely disheartening to be targeted and, essentially, assaulted by the very people who are supposed to ‘protect us.’ I think I can speak for many more than just myself in saying that instances like this during the last year have radicalized our views towards law enforcement.”
The Oregonian reported that federal officers drove demonstrators away from the courthouse in downtown Portland that night after fires were started and the building was damaged.
Officers were deploying impact munitions, tear gas, flash-bang grenades and smoke bombs, the paper reported.
Since July, court rulings from the U.S. District Court in Oregon have barred law enforcement officers from the Portland Police Bureau and federal agencies from arresting, harming or impeding journalists or legal observers of the protests, as the Tracker has previously reported.
The DHS Office of Public Affairs has not responded to a Tracker request for a comment.