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 2024-03-26 14:30:14.786465+00:00,2024-03-26 14:30:14.786465+00:00,Independent journalist arrested at Wall Street protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalist-arrested-at-wall-street-protest/,2024-03-26 14:25:54.505667+00:00,"obstruction: disorderly conduct (charges pending as of 2024-03-20), blocking traffic: pedestrians on roadways (charges dropped as of 2024-03-20)",,,"Assault, Arrest/Criminal Charge",,,,Ashoka Jegroo (Independent),,2024-02-29,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"
Independent journalist Ashoka Jegroo was shoved to the ground and arrested by police officers while documenting a pro-Palestinian protest in New York City on Feb. 29, 2024.
Jegroo told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that demonstrators initially gathered at Union Square in Manhattan before taking the subway downtown en masse to the Financial District to attempt to disrupt Gov. Kathy Hochul’s planned remarks at a Wall Street restaurant. An organizer with the protest group Within Our Lifetime told The New York Times that they targeted Hochul over statements she made that month about the Israel-Gaza war.
Police closed down the block around the restaurant, Jegroo said, and protesters tried to march around the block before ultimately making their way up to the intersection of Broadway and Vesey Street. As he crossed the street and neared the sidewalk, Jegroo said a bicycle officer suddenly grabbed him and pulled him into the street.
Pro-Palestine protesters in NYC gave NYPD the slip, got on a train to Wall Street where NY Governor Kathy Hochul was speaking at an event, & then marched in Lower Manhattan last nite. NYPD repressed the protest & made multiple arrests (including me). Here’s my video of my arrest: pic.twitter.com/Es0Iy0UMTc
— Ash J (@AshAgony) March 1, 2024
“When they grabbed me there were people and other journalists yelling, ‘He’s press! He’s press!’” he told the Tracker. “Even though I wasn’t resisting at all, they pulled both of my arms behind my back aggressively and almost pushed me face-first onto the ground where they'd thrown their bikes.”
Jegroo said that he was able to position himself so he landed on the bicycles on his knees, which caused a gash across his shin. Three or four other people at the demonstration were also arrested, at least two of whom were also injured.
Upon arriving at One Police Plaza, Jegroo said he was the last of the arrestees to be processed because of confusion over who his arresting officer was. He was released later that night and charged with disorderly conduct and walking in a roadway when a sidewalk was available. It was his second arrest in recent months while documenting a pro-Palestinian protest in New York City.
The New York Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Gideon Oliver, an attorney representing Jegroo, told the Tracker that a judge dismissed the walking on the roadway charge during a preliminary hearing on March 20. For the disorderly conduct charge, Jegroo accepted an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal, under which proceedings are put on hold for six months. After that, the charge is dismissed if there have been no further arrests.
“Obviously I have to be a little bit more cautious now: I can’t take as many risks,” Jegroo told the Tracker. “I can’t get as close to the action as I’d like to, but I’m not going to stop. I’m still going to go out there. That’s the only ‘chill’ there will be on my reporting.”
When reached via email, a press officer for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said they could not provide further information because the case was sealed, but noted that accepting an ACD is one of the reasons a case may be sealed.
Independent journalist Ashoka Jegroo was arrested while reporting on a pro-Palestinian demonstration in New York City on Feb. 29, 2024. He was charged with disorderly conduct and walking in a roadway.
",arrested and released,New York Police Department,None,2024-02-29,True,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"Israel-Gaza war, protest",,, 2024-02-14 19:15:58.370624+00:00,2024-03-14 16:11:57.370802+00:00,"Podcaster arrested, assaulted at NYC protest",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/podcaster-arrested-assaulted-at-nyc-protest/,2024-03-14 16:11:57.248975+00:00,obstruction: resisting arrest (charges dropped as of 2024-03-04),,(2024-03-04 16:42:00+00:00) Charge dropped against podcaster following arrest at NYC protest,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Damage",,,recording equipment: count of 2,Reed Dunlea (Scene Report),,2024-02-10,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"Journalist Reed Dunlea was tackled and arrested while reporting on a pro-Palestinian protest in New York City on Feb. 10, 2024. Police officers threw Dunlea to the ground, damaging his equipment, and charged him with resisting arrest.
“It was a 1 p.m. protest. I arrived by 1:30 p.m. and I was in a police van by 2:15 p.m.,” he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
Dunlea said that he was at the protest outside the Brooklyn Museum, which had been planned by the Palestinian-led community organization Within Our Lifetime, to record audio for his podcast, Scene Report. Shortly after arriving, Dunlea saw a small group of protesters in a shouting match with a white-shirted supervisory police officer.
When he approached to record the interaction, Dunlea said the officer screamed at him to get on the sidewalk. “I showed him my press pass in that moment and he was still bugging out, so I stepped away from that pretty quickly,” Dunlea told the Tracker.
As New York Police Department officers conducted multiple rounds of arrests — going into the crowd, extracting individuals and handcuffing them — Dunlea said he tried to stay on the edge of the police line.
“And then I was somehow in the middle of it,” Dunlea said. “I don’t know exactly what happened, but all of a sudden I had a group of officers throwing me to the ground.”
In footage captured by bystanders and posted to social media, at least three officers can be seen dragging Dunlea into the middle of the street before pinning him on his stomach. Dunlea told the Tracker he repeatedly identified himself as a journalist and told the officers he was wearing a city-issued press credential.
Both Dunlea’s Zoom H6 recorder and Apple headphones were damaged in the course of the arrest, and he said he hadn’t checked whether his microphone was broken as well. He also noted that the audio he was recording during the arrest is missing, but he is unsure whether it was deleted or if it failed to save when the recorder was damaged.
Dunlea was transferred to One Police Plaza alongside the other individuals detained at the protest and was held until shortly after midnight, when he was released on a charge of resisting arrest.
“In the last month, NYPD has started to crack down in serious ways on any Palestine protests, because the NYPD was humiliated by the protests on January 8,” Dunlea said, referring to the successful blockading of the Holland Tunnel and multiple bridges into Manhattan by pro-Palestinian protesters. “I’m seeing the mayor of New York City and the NYPD making a decision that they no longer accept protests happening, so they are choosing to violently suppress them.”
The New York Civil Liberties Union criticized the police response to the protest in a statement posted to social media. “Flooding peaceful protests with police,” it noted, “seems designed to create tension and provoke arrests.”
The New York Police Department did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
Dunlea was ordered to appear for a preliminary hearing on March 1.
Journalist Reed Dunlea was arrested while recording for his podcast, Scene Report, at a pro-Palestinian protest in New York City on Feb. 10, 2024. Officers threw him to the ground, breaking his recording equipment, and charged him with resisting arrest.
",arrested and released,New York Police Department,2024-02-11,2024-02-10,True,None,[],None,None,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"Israel-Gaza war, protest",,, 2023-02-09 16:29:30.325939+00:00,2024-02-06 16:16:42.416563+00:00,NewsNation reporter arrested while covering Ohio governor news conference,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/newsnation-reporter-arrested-while-covering-ohio-governor-news-conference/,2024-02-06 16:13:28.168992+00:00,"trespassing: criminal trespass (charges dropped as of 2023-02-15), obstruction: resisting arrest (charges dropped as of 2023-02-15)",,"(2023-11-13 13:58:00+00:00) NewsNation reporter sues over wrongful arrest, battery, (2023-02-09 14:38:00+00:00) Body camera footage, law enforcement statements released in arrest of NewsNation correspondent, (2023-02-15 14:15:00+00:00) Charges against NewsNation correspondent dropped, (2024-01-30 00:00:00+00:00) TV reporter settles Ohio arrest and battery suit","Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault",,,,Evan Lambert (NewsNation),,2023-02-08,False,East Palestine,Ohio (OH),40.83395,-80.54035,"NewsNation Correspondent Evan Lambert was forced to the ground and arrested while covering a news conference held by Ohio’s governor in East Palestine on Feb. 8, 2023. The outlet reported live as he was released approximately five hours later.
Lambert was reporting live at around 5 p.m. as Gov. Mike DeWine spoke in a school gymnasium about cleanup efforts around a recent train derailment. Law enforcement officers approached Lambert at the back of the room, telling him to be quiet. After finishing his live report, officers again approached him and asked that he leave.
In footage of the incident, Lambert can be seen speaking with four law enforcement officers as one of them pulls on Lambert’s arm to forcibly remove him. Officers ultimately forced Lambert to the ground, pinning him on his stomach while handcuffing him. Two officers then place him in what appears to be a Columbiana County Sheriff’s Office vehicle.
NewsNation Washington Bureau Chief Mike Viqueria said during a broadcast that he spoke to Lambert while he was jailed.
“The first thing I’m going to tell you is Evan continues to act with a calm professionalism and equanimity despite what appears to me to be an infuriating outrage and violation of the First Amendment,” Viqueria said.
NewsNation reported live as Lambert was released from the Columbiana County Jail at around 10:15 p.m. He faces charges of criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct. It was not immediately clear which law enforcement agency filed the charges. When reached by phone, the Columbiana County Sheriff’s Office directed the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker to contact the East Palestine Police Department. A EPPD officer said that they would be releasing a press release on Feb. 9.
After his release, Lambert said he was doing fine and that it had been an extremely long day.
“I’m just trying to do my job — as I am continuing to do right now — and that’s what it’s all about,” Lambert said. “No journalist expects to be arrested when you’re doing your job, and I think that’s really important that that doesn’t happen in our country.”
"No journalist expects to be arrested when you're doing your job," @EvanLambertTV says. He goes on to say he will continue to do his job and report what people need to know.
— NewsNation (@NewsNation) February 9, 2023
Watch #Banfield: https://t.co/s8z9kEhRC4 pic.twitter.com/tqHDvxHbk7
The governor told reporters shortly after the arrest that he had not ordered or authorized it.
“It has always been my practice that if I’m doing a press conference, someone wants to report out there and they want to be talking back to the people back on channel, whatever, they have every right to do that,” DeWine said. “If someone was stopped from doing that, or told they could not do that, that was wrong.”
NewsNation correspondent Evan Lambert is pinned to the ground after being stopped from covering a news conference held by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Feb. 8, 2023. He was arrested and later released with pending charges.
",arrested and released,East Palestine Police Department,None,None,True,4:23-cv-02200,['DISMISSED'],Civil,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,,,, 2021-05-07 14:19:18.055768+00:00,2024-03-10 23:16:45.677274+00:00,"Photojournalist assaulted, detained while covering Brooklyn Center protest",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-assaulted-detained-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/,2024-03-10 23:16:45.566758+00:00,,,"(2022-02-08 12:09:00+00:00) Journalists reach settlement agreement with Minnesota State Patrol, rest of suit ongoing, (2024-02-08 00:00:00+00:00) Journalists get nearly $1M settlement over Minneapolis BLM protest attacks, (2021-09-28 00:00:00+00:00) Freelance photojournalist sues following assault while covering Brooklyn Center protest","Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Damage",,,camera: count of 1,Tim Evans (Freelance),,2021-04-16,False,Brooklyn Center,Minnesota (MN),45.07608,-93.33273,"Freelance photojournalist Tim Evans told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was assaulted by multiple law enforcement officers and detained while reporting on a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 16, 2021.
Evans was one of at least 10 journalists detained that night, according to reports given to the Tracker, noted on social media or published in other news outlets.
Several hundred protesters had marched to the Brooklyn Center Police Department in response to the fatal shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright, a Black man, by a white police officer during a traffic stop. Wright’s death, on April 11, 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. According to state officials, a coalition of law enforcement agencies, including the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, the Minnesota State Patrol, and the Brooklyn Center Police Department, was involved in enforcement that night.
Evans, whose work has been published by the European Pressphoto Agency, the Guardian, NPR and other outlets, told the Tracker he arrived to cover the protests earlier in the evening. The demonstration was peaceful, he said, though a few people in the crowd shook the fence around the police station or threw a water bottle at law enforcement. Evans said he heard law enforcement announce an order to disperse at 9:45 p.m. Shortly after 10, he said, law enforcement moved swiftly to form a “kettle,” a crowd-control tactic in which officers block people from leaving.
As law enforcement closed in around the crowd, Evans said, dozens of Hennepin County sheriff’s deputies moved out from behind a fence that surrounded the Brooklyn Center police station, tackling people and spraying them with chemical agents “indiscriminately.”
Evans said that after he’d photographed an officer tackle someone to the ground in front of him, he’d looked to his right, toward a group of other photojournalists. When he turned to look back to his left, he said, he saw a sheriff’s deputy running directly at him. Evans said the officer, about 5 feet away, sprayed him in the face with a chemical agent he believes was mace.
Evans, who was wearing a helmet and goggles, said he dropped to his knees and held up his press credential in one hand and one of his cameras in the other; his credential, he said, is a card he made himself that features his name and photo and states “press” on the top and “photojournalist” on the bottom. In addition to his credential, he said, he had a label fixed to his backpack that identified him as “PRESS.”
Evans said that while he was still kneeling, he took a photograph of another photojournalist being confronted by a law enforcement officer. Right after taking the frame, he said, he heard someone shout, “Get on the ground!”
Evans said he then looked to his left and saw a sheriff charging at him. He said he held out his press credential and shouted to identify himself as press, but the officer proceeded to tackle him onto his back and punch him in the face. Evans said his face was largely protected because the brunt of the blow hit the padded goggles he was wearing.
The officer then ordered him to roll over onto his stomach, Evans said, and told him he was under arrest.
Evans said he complied, continuing to tell the officer he was a journalist. The officer, he said, ignored him and told him to “shut up.” While lying on his stomach, on top of his camera, Evans said he held his press credential over his shoulder. He said the officer grabbed the card, unsnapping the clasp on the lanyard, and threw the pass facedown.
“He rips it off and just, like, throws it into the ground and tells me he doesn’t give a fuck who I am, he doesn’t care if I’m media, and that I should have left when I had a chance,” Evans told the Tracker.
Evans said the officer kneeled on his back and used a shield to push down on him. At that point, Evans said, it seemed clear the officer was not going to release him because he was a journalist, so Evans said he started to try and attract the attention of other law enforcement nearby.
Evans said another officer soon came up to them and asked the deputy if Evans was being arrested. Evans said he tried to tell the new officer that he was press. The new officer told him to “shut the fuck up” and smashed the back of Evans’ helmet, thrusting his face into the dirt. Evans said he could not clearly see this officer, but he believes it was also a sheriff’s deputy.
Evans’ hands were restrained with zip-tie cuffs behind his back, he said. After a few minutes on the ground, he said, he was raised to his feet and brought to sit on a curb.
About 10 minutes later, he said, another officer, who Evans believes was a Minnesota State Patrol trooper, came by and offered to make adjustments so he would be more comfortable. He said he told her he shouldn’t be there because he was a member of the press.
The officer looked at his credential and asked him about who he worked for. Evans said she then went to speak to a lieutenant. When she returned, she said they would let him go, “as long as I agreed to leave the area, and not continue to cover,” Evans said.
“I agreed because at that point, you know, I was not in a position to make demands, I suppose,” he told the Tracker.
He said the officer cut the zip-ties and escorted him to the police perimeter, about a block away, where he was allowed to go.
Evans said he does not believe he was targeted by the first officer, who sprayed the chemical agent at him. “But everything from that point on felt targeted,” he told the Tracker.
Evans said he felt the second officer who attacked him “became more aggressive when he realized that I was a member of the media.”
Evans said the spray left him with rashes on his face, though the impact was mitigated because he was wearing personal protective equipment. His helmet and goggles also protected him from the impact of the punch and having his head shoved into the ground, he said. He said he had scratches on his hands, which he thinks were from the scuffle, but he did not require any medical attention.
The body of one of his cameras was scuffed, the screen protector was broken, and a rubber thumb grip was ripped off, he said. He said his equipment, including his lenses, is all still functional.
Evans’ detainment came hours after a federal judge had issued a temporary restraining order barring Minnesota State Patrol from arresting or using force against journalists, in response to a motion filed earlier in the week by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota.
Evans wrote a declaration about his experience, which the ACLU presented with a letter to the court the following day. He told the Tracker he is planning to file a formal complaint with relevant law enforcement agencies and is considering other action.
A spokesperson for the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office told the Tracker that the department is aware of the incident and is investigating whether any of its staff were involved. He declined to comment further, pending the determination of the investigation. Minnesota State Patrol did not respond to a request for comment.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists 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.
Photojournalist Tim Evans was detained while covering an April 16, 2021, protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. Evans said the officer who detained him kneeled on his back and used a shield to push down on him.
",detained and released without being processed,Hennepin County Sheriff’s Department,None,None,True,0:20-cv-01302,"['ONGOING', 'SETTLED']",Class Action,None,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2021, chemical irritant, protest",,, 2021-05-12 15:44:56.861283+00:00,2024-03-10 23:17:45.682027+00:00,"Journalist detained, shoved while covering Brooklyn Center protest",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-detained-shoved-while-covering-brooklyn-center-protest/,2024-03-10 23:17:45.589144+00:00,,,,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault",,,,J.D. Duggan (Freelance),,2021-04-16,False,Brooklyn Center,Minnesota (MN),45.07608,-93.33273,"Freelance journalist J.D. Duggan said he was detained and shoved to the ground by a law enforcement officer while reporting on a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 16, 2021.
Several hundred protesters had marched to the Brooklyn Center Police Department in response to the fatal shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright, a Black man, by a white police officer during a traffic stop. Wright’s death, on April 11, 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.
According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the protest had been peaceful until around 9 p.m., when, authorities told the outlet, some in the crowd began to throw objects and attempt to break through a barrier around the police station, prompting the declaration of an unlawful assembly and orders for dispersal. At around 10 p.m., Minnesota Public Radio reported that police moved swiftly to corral the protesters and members of the press, deploying flash-bang grenades and pepper spray.
Amid the unrest, a group of journalists was detained by law enforcement officers in Brooklyn Center and ordered to lie on the ground, according to reports given to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, noted on social media or published on other news outlets. Find reports on the detainments from the night of April 16 in Brooklyn Center here.
Duggan, who has written for outlets including The Intercept and the Minneapolis Star Tribune, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that when lines of law enforcement officers started moving in to surround the crowd, he found himself near a group of other journalists.
Officers surrounded the group and shouted at them to get on the ground, so Duggan said he got down on his knees. Duggan said he shouted out to identify himself as a member of the press.
As he was on his knees, he said, an officer came up behind him, shoved him on his back between his shoulders and yelled at him to lie on the ground.
Duggan said he didn’t see which law enforcement agency the officer who shoved him was with.
Video he posted on Twitter, which appears to be filmed from the ground, shows multiple Minnesota State Patrol troopers standing nearby.
At one point, Duggan says, “I’m press, I’m press. Can I get out of here?”
“Hang tight” a voice can be heard responding.
Minutes later, a voice orders members of the press to stand up, and a trooper checks Duggan’s credential.
Duggan told the Tracker after the journalists were allowed to get up, officers led them across a parking lot and kept the members of the press in a group. He said officers took photographs of his face, his ID and his press credential.
He was allowed to go about 45 minutes after he was first detained, he said.
Duggan said he was displaying his press badge at the time he was detained. His badge is issued by The Minnesota Daily, the University of Minnesota student newspaper where he was a journalist until he graduated in December.
Duggan and other journalists were detained hours after a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order barring state law enforcement from arresting or using force against journalists, in response to a motion filed earlier in the week by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota.
The next day, April 17, more than two dozen media and advocacy organizations sent a letter to Gov. Tim Walz expressing concern about the detainments and other police treatment of journalists since the protests began. CBS signed the letter on behalf of WCCO.
A spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety referred the Tracker to a statement from the Minnesota State Patrol, which acknowledged that troopers had photographed journalists, their media credentials and their identification “during recent enforcement actions in Brooklyn Center.” MSP said that though journalists had been detained and released during the protests, no journalists were arrested. The Tracker documents detainments in the arrest category but notes that the journalists were released without being processed. MSP didn’t respond to a request for comment specifically about Duggan.
The agency said troopers will no longer photograph journalists and their credentials, but will continue to check media credentials.
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.
Freelance photojournalist Joshua Rashaad McFadden, on assignment for The New York Times, said he was detained and hit by law enforcement officers while covering a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota on April 16, 2021.
The fatal police shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center on April 11 rekindled a wave of racial-justice protests that began almost a year earlier. Wright’s death occurred as a former police officer in nearby Minneapolis was on trial in the death of George Floyd. Protests began outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department the day Wright was killed, and continued daily through mid-April.
McFadden told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he and other journalists stuck together as a group as police rushed the crowd.
“We're all literally huddled together in one area, and the police rushed in,” McFadden said. “They rushed the crowd and they detained us.”
The group included other photographers, TV news staff and reporters, McFadden said. He said the journalists were repeating “we’re press, we’re press!” Officers told the journalists “we don’t care” and ordered them to lie on the ground, he said.
McFadden said he was on the ground when one officer came over to him and ordered him to get up, then another officer came over and told him to get back down.
At that point, McFadden said, he was on his knees. He identified himself as a member of the press, he said, and asked the officers, “what do you want me to do?”
Then, McFadden said, another group of officers rushed and trampled over him, knocking him to the ground “like a football tackle.”
He said the officers started hitting him and hitting his camera. He said he was holding his phone in one hand, and felt an officer try to yank the device from him. McFadden said he didn’t want to appear to be confrontational, but he was concerned about losing his phone so he held onto it.
McFadden, who is Black, said a white photographer acquaintance came over and told the officers that McFadden was a journalist and that he worked with the Times.
After the other photographer identified him, he said, the officers allowed him to stand up. He showed them his press pass, which is issued by the National Press Photographers Association. McFadden said the officer told him, “anybody could have made that,” and asked to see his driver’s license, which he had left in his car.
McFadden said it was clear that the officers weren’t going to allow him to go, but they were going to let the other photographer go. He said officers only allowed him to leave when the other photographer volunteered to escort him to his car.
He said he previously had similar experiences, including three days earlier in Brooklyn Center.
“I do know it's because Black members of the press are treated differently,” he said. “And I have to acknowledge that.”
McFadden said the other photographer walked with him so she could help him navigate interaction with law enforcement.
“It's because she knew that at every kind of checkpoint they set up, they were going to either try to hold me or arrest or detain me, or I'll get a million questions if my credentials are real,” McFadden said. He said there was also a risk he could be shot at with rubber bullets while approaching officers from a distance. “If I'm with her I'm able to walk up to the group.”
As they were trying to leave the area, McFadden said, they came upon a checkpoint at a gas station where police had stopped a large number of journalists and were taking photographs of their credentials, IDs and faces. He said officers told the journalists the photographs would be entered into a database.
McFadden said law enforcement again asked him to see his license, and he told them it was in his car. He said that they were stopped at the gas station for about an hour.
McFadden said his shoulder was injured when he was tackled and hit. He also had bruises on his legs, adding to bruises he had gotten earlier in the week when he was hit with crowd-control munitions, and hit with sticks by law enforcement officers while in a car. McFadden said he sought medical attention for the injuries he accumulated through the week. He said he was told to take ibuprofen after he declined other medication, he said.
McFadden’s camera was damaged when he was tackled, he said. The body of the camera was scratched up and he said he needed to get some parts replaced. As a result of the two assaults, he also needed to get the lens repaired.
McFadden told the Tracker he believed he was targeted because he was a journalist.
He said Minnesota State Patrol troopers were involved in the incident. MSP didn’t respond requests for comment by email and phone
McFadden was detained the same evening a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order barring MSP from arresting or using force against journalists, in response to a motion filed earlier in the week by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota.
The next day, April 17, more than two dozen media and advocacy organizations, including the New York Times, sent a letter to Gov. Tim Walz expressing concern about the detainments and other police treatment of journalists since the protests began.
In response to the court order, MSP released a statement on April 17 that acknowledged troopers had photographed journalists, their media credentials and their identification “during recent enforcement actions in Brooklyn Center.” MSP said no journalists were arrested, though some had been detained and released during the protests. The Tracker documents detainments in the arrest category, but notes that the journalists were released without being processed.
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.
At least 15 journalists were detained by police while covering protests in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on the night of April 16, 2021, according to reports given to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, noted on social media or published in other news outlets.
Several hundred protesters marched to the Brooklyn Center Police Department in response to the fatal shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright, a Black man, by a white police officer during a traffic stop. Wright’s death, on April 11, 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.
According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the protest had been peaceful until around 9 p.m., when, authorities told the outlet, some in the crowd began to throw objects and attempt to break through a barrier around the police station, prompting the declaration of an unlawful assembly and orders for dispersal. Minnesota Public Radio reported that police moved swiftly to corral the protesters and members of the press, deploying flash-bang grenades and pepper spray. According to state officials, a coalition of law enforcement agencies, including the Minnesota State Patrol, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office and the Brooklyn Center Police Department, was involved in enforcement that night.
Aaron Nesheim, a Minneapolis-based freelance photojournalist on assignment for The New York Times, was one of the journalists detained.
Nesheim told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was documenting the protest in the center of the intersection of Humboldt and 67th Avenues just after 9 p.m. when officers advanced on the crowd and ordered everyone to lie down on their stomachs.
“I did not get down. I kept photographing until finally an officer pepper sprayed me,” Nesheim said. “I was wearing a bulletproof vest, and eventually a State Patrol officer grabbed me by the front of the vest and used that to throw me on the ground.”
Nesheim said in addition to his body armor vest, which was labeled with “PRESS” on the front and back, he was wearing a helmet similarly labeled and press credentials issued by the Times and the National Press Photographers Association.
“The [trooper] definitely understood I was a member of the press and was — I guess I would use the word ‘exasperated,’ with the fact I hadn’t just complied and gotten on the ground immediately before he threw me,” Nesheim said.
The force of his fall damaged the 70-200mm lens on one of his cameras, Nesheim said, causing the autofocus not to work properly and requiring repair. The officer ordered Nesheim to stay on his stomach, he said, which he did while continuing to take photos from that vantage point.
“I did stay on the ground, kind of on my side. I didn’t make any moves after that until another officer came in and got me up and started escorting me back to where they were processing the journalists,” Nesheim said.
Law enforcement had established a “media checkpoint” at a nearby Pump n’ Munch gas station, where members of the press had their faces, press credentials and IDs photographed before they were permitted to leave the area. Nesheim confirmed to the Tracker that he had to pass through the checkpoint before he could leave the area.
The next day, April 17, more than two dozen media and advocacy organizations sent a letter to Gov. Tim Walz expressing concern about the detainments and other police treatment of journalists since the protests began.
“Journalists must be allowed to safely cover protests and civil unrest. I’ve directed our law enforcement partners to make changes that will help ensure journalists do not face barriers to doing their jobs,” the governor posted on Twitter after meeting with representatives of the media.
When reached for comment, a spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety referred the Tracker to a statement from the Minnesota State Patrol, which acknowledged that troopers had photographed journalists, their media credentials and their identification “during recent enforcement actions in Brooklyn Center.” MSP said that though journalists had been detained and released during the protests, no journalists were arrested. The Tracker documents detainments in the arrest category but notes that the journalists were released without being processed.
The agency’s statement said troopers will no longer photograph journalists and their credentials, but will continue to check media credentials.
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 Naasir Akailvi, of the Minnesota-based social media news outlet the Neighborhood Reporter, said he was detained while covering a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota on April 14, 2021.
Akailvi told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was detained by Minnesota State Patrol troopers at the same time as his Neighborhood Reporter colleague, journalist Tracy Gunapalan. The Neighborhood Reporter covers social justice movements in Minnesota’s Twin Cities region and publishes on social media platforms, Akailvi said.
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.
Akailvi and Gunapalan were returning to their car late on the night of April 14 as the protest was winding down, they told the Tracker. As they were moving away from the police department, close to a nearby church, a group of people were tapping on the windows of law enforcement vehicles and going up to officers, so Gunapalan said the pair stopped to film the interaction.
Suddenly, she said, a line of MSP troopers started running up the street toward them. Gunapalan said the journalists held up their camera and microphone and yelled to identify themselves as press, but the troopers shouted at them to move, so they turned and started running.
Akailvi told the Tracker that as he was running, troopers grabbed him and pushed him to the ground. As he was taken down, he said, a trooper pulled his microphone out of his hand. As his backpack was taken off of him, a battery pack fell out, he said.
Akailvi said he was restrained on the ground with a trooper on top of him, and his hands were restrained in cuffs.
He said he told the troopers that he was press and had a press pass around his neck. Akailvi said a trooper got in front of him and said, “That doesn’t always work, does it?” When he asked another trooper to speak with a supervisor, he said the trooper responded, “You can get the fuck out of here.”
Akailvi said troopers brought him over to where Gunapalan and another independent journalist, Niko Georgiades of Unicorn Riot, were also detained.
Troopers had the journalists pull their face masks down, and they took photographs of the journalists’ faces and press passes, he said. Akailvi said he and Gunapalan wear self-made press cards that have their photographs, identify them as press and say “The Neighborhood Reporter.” Gunapalan said the troopers told the journalists they wanted to keep a record of their faces so they wouldn’t be detained again. The journalists, who were released after their photographs were taken, said they were detained for between 10 and 15 minutes.
After they were released, Akailvi said they went back to find the microphone and battery pack he lost when he was detained. He said the microphone was more than 15 feet away from where he had been pulled to the ground and was broken into multiple pieces. He said that he wasn’t able to find his battery pack.
The Minnesota State Patrol did not respond to a request for comment.
On April 16, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order barring Minnesota State Patrol from arresting or threatening to arrest journalists. In a statement in response to the court order, MSP acknowledged that the agency is prohibited from enforcing dispersal orders against journalists.
“While journalists have been detained and released during enforcement actions after providing credentials, no journalists have been arrested,” the MSP statement said.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists 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 Tracy Gunapalan, who reports with the Minnesota-based social media news outlet the Neighborhood Reporter, said she was detained while covering a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota on April 14, 2021.
Gunapalan told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she was detained by Minnesota State Patrol troopers at the same time as her Neighborhood Reporter colleague, journalist Naasir Akailvi. The Neighborhood Reporter covers social justice movements in Minnesota’s Twin Cities region and publishes on social media platforms, according to Akailvi.
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.
Akailvi and Gunapalan were returning to their car late on the night of April 14 as the protest was winding down, they told the Tracker. As they were moving away from the police department, close to a nearby church, a group of people were tapping on the windows of law enforcement vehicles and going up to officers, so Gunapalan said the pair stopped to film the interaction.
Suddenly, she said, a line of MSP troopers started running up the street toward them. Gunapalan said the journalists held up their camera and microphone and yelled to identify themselves as press, but the troopers shouted at them to move, so they turned and started running.
Gunapalan said that she jogged slowly because she was concerned that running away could result in a charge for attempting to evade arrest. She said a trooper grabbed the back of her hood and pushed her to the ground.
“The whole time I kept yelling, ‘I'm press, I'm press, I'm press!’ and they didn't seem to care,” she said.
Gunapalan said she told the troopers that she had a press credential on a lanyard around her neck. She said she was holding a camera and a phone attached to a tripod as she was pushed down.
Police restrained her hands behind her back with cuffs, which were so tight that they nicked the skin on her hand, she said. After a few minutes, troopers got her up off the ground and brought her over to where they had detained another independent journalist, Niko Georgiades of Unicorn Riot.
Troopers had the journalists pull their face masks down, and they took photographs of the journalists’ faces and press passes, Akailvi said. He said he and Gunapalan wear self-made press cards that have their photographs, identify them as press and say “The Neighborhood Reporter.” Gunapalan said the police told the journalists they wanted to keep a record of their faces so they wouldn’t be detained again. The journalists, who were released after their photographs were taken, said they were detained for between 10 and 15 minutes.
The Minnesota State Patrol did not respond to a request for comment.
On April 16, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order barring Minnesota State Patrol from arresting or threatening to arrest journalists. In a statement in response to the court order, MSP acknowledged that the agency is prohibited from enforcing dispersal orders against journalists.
“While journalists have been detained and released during enforcement actions after providing credentials, no journalists have been arrested,” the MSP statement said.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists 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.
Adam Gray, chief photojournalist for UK-based South West News Service, was pushed to the ground, handcuffed, and cited with failure to follow a lawful order while he was covering protests in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 13, 2021.
Protests began following the fatal shooting of a Black man, Daunte Wright, by a white Brooklyn Center Police Department officer on April 11.
Gray was covering police pushing protesters north on Humboldt Avenue away from the police station around 10:30 p.m. when law enforcement directed protesters and press to leave, Gray said in an email sent to the Committee to Protect Journalists. CPJ is a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
Brooklyn Center, which is near Minneapolis, St. Paul and Minneapolis were under a 10 p.m. curfew; journalists were exempt, according to news reports.
At approximately 10:38 p.m., law enforcement rushed people down the block, and shortly after pushed people into the area of a Kisch Oil Company gas station, screaming at them to “get out” and “leave,” Gray said, noting that he was documenting the unfolding chaos.
The photojournalist said that he was walking backward away from law enforcement so that he could keep them in view and take photographs.
“I wasn’t going to turn my back and run because that’s usually when they chase you,” said Gray, who was arrested last year while covering protests in New York City.
Gray said that as the crowd moved away from the approaching law enforcement, it became apparent that police were encroaching in on the crowd, catching Gray and protesters in a “kettle,” a technique where police surround a group from all sides.
“I was very clearly press,” the photojournalist said, noting that he also had two large cameras around his neck in addition to press credentials issued by the New York Police Department.
A video Gray later posted to his Instagram account of the moments leading up to his arrest shows Minnesota State Patrol in full riot gear charging at him and shoving him onto a patch of grass. In the video, Gray can be heard saying that he is a member of the press and was trying to return to his car.
Gray said he had been working near several other journalists, though his colleagues had managed to escape the kettle and subsequent detention.
State Patrol officials ziptied Gray’s hands while he was facedown in the grass before rolling him over and standing him up, the photojournalist said.
Gray said he was then taken to a patrol car where a state patrol officer cited Gray for “failure to obey a lawful order.” While the order was being written, Gray said he heard a voice on the radio that said members of the press should be charged with failure to disperse, rather than unlawful assembly.
While Gray was still in the car, and after the citation was written, a voice came on the radio and instructed law enforcement not to issue citations to the press, and to release them, Gray said. The photojournalist asked the officer who wrote his citation then a senior officer if the citation should be deleted, and the senior officer said to leave it, Gray said.
Gray’s citation, which was reviewed by CPJ, requires him to schedule a court appearance within 30 days of the citation’s issue. Mickey Osterreicher, General Counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, told CPJ via email that he is hopeful that they are in the process of resolving the charge.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists 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.
CNN producer Carolyn Sung was thrown to the ground and arrested by Minnesota State Patrol troopers while documenting protests in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 13, 2021.
Demonstrators had gathered in front of the Brooklyn Center Police Department to demand justice in the killing of Daunte Wright, a Black man, who was fatally shot by a white police officer on April 11.
According to a letter sent by attorneys to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and other local officials and signed by more than two dozen news and advocacy organizations, Sung had been attempting to comply with a dispersal order when “troopers grabbed Sung by her backpack and threw her to the ground, zip-tying her hands behind her back.”
“Sung did not resist and repeatedly identified herself as a journalist working for CNN and showed her credentials,” the letter continued. Troopers also reportedly ignored her complaints that the zip ties were too tight on her wrists.
At one point, the letter alleges, a trooper yelled at Sung, “Do you speak English?”
“Sung, whose primary language is English, was placed in a prisoner-transport bus and sent to the Hennepin County Jail, where she was patted down and searched by a female officer who put her hands down Sung’s pants and in her bra, fingerprinted, electronically body-scanned, and ordered to strip and put on an orange uniform before attorneys working on her behalf were able to locate her and secure her release, a process that took more than two hours,” the letter said.
The letter also stated that a security guard accompanying Sung was briefly detained, but was released upon showing his credentials.
CNN’s public relations office declined to make Sung available for comment, and the Minnesota State Patrol did not respond to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s emailed request for comment as of press time. The status of her arrest and any charges remain unknown.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists 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.
Law enforcement at a protest on April 13, 2021, in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, after the killing of Daunte Wright by a police officer. CNN producer Carolyn Sung was violently arrested while documenting the protest.
",detained and released without being processed,Minnesota State Patrol,None,None,True,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,unknown,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2021, protest",,, 2021-05-03 15:05:36.198603+00:00,2022-05-11 18:44:28.251169+00:00,Journalist cited while reporting on Brooklyn Center protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-cited-while-reporting-on-brooklyn-center-protest/,2022-05-11 18:44:28.177270+00:00,failure to obey: failure to obey a lawful order (charges pending as of 2021-04-13),,,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault",,,,Naasir Akailvi (The Neighborhood Reporter),,2021-04-13,False,Brooklyn Center,Minnesota (MN),45.07608,-93.33273,"Independent journalist Naasir Akailvi, who reports on social media as the Neighborhood Reporter, said he was detained and cited while reporting on a protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on April 13, 2021.
Demonstrations had been held for several days outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department in response to the fatal 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.
Akailvi told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that late on the night of April 13 he was reporting as police pushed protesters away from the police station up Humboldt Avenue. He told the Tracker that he believed police had issued dispersal orders earlier in the night, but he hadn’t considered leaving because of them. There was a curfew in effect starting at 10 p.m., according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune; it exempt members of the media.
Shortly before 11 p.m., Akailvi said, police had started to form a crowd-control technique called a “kettle,” which blocks people from leaving, in a gas station.
At one point, Akailvi said, he noticed that police were using batons to smash a car’s windows, and he moved closer to film the scene. Within seconds, he said, he felt someone grab him from behind. He said he was taken down to the ground and his wrists were constrained with zip ties.
Akailvi said that he repeated, “I’m press, I’m press,” and told police he had a press pass; he said he wears a self-made card that has his photograph and identifies him as a journalist. According to Akailvi, police responded by saying that a dispersal order had been issued for media.
Akailvi said police took his camera, mic and tripod. He was put in the back of a police car, he said, and told that he would be charged.
The journalist said that while a Minnesota State Patrol trooper who was in the car with him started writing up his paperwork, he heard over the police radio that law enforcement would not be taking members of the press to jail but would issue citations.
He said he was handed a citation for “failure to obey a lawful order” and that his equipment was returned when he was released. As he was leaving, he said, he again heard an announcement over the police radio directing law enforcement not to cite journalists. However, he said, the trooper told him he would need to fight his citation later.
“I still got my citation, and the cops who gave it to me, they said, you’re just going to have to go fight it in court,” Akailvi said.
Akailvi told the Tracker he has not yet taken steps to fight the charge. His citation says that he is required to appear in court, but no date has been set.
The Minnesota State Patrol did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Akailvi was detained again the following night along with a reporting partner while they were documenting continuing Brooklyn Center protests. The Tracker has documented that April 14 incident here.
On April 16, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order barring Minnesota State Patrol from arresting or threatening to arrest journalists and stating that journalists are not required to leave when there is a dispersal order.
In a statement in response to the court order, the MSP acknowledged that the agency was prohibited from enforcing dispersal orders against journalists.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents journalists 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.
Freelance photojournalist Clementson Supriyadi was assaulted and arrested by Oregon State Police while covering a protest in Portland, Oregon, on Nov. 5, 2020.
In Portland, protests had been held on almost a nightly basis since late May in response to police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following 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.
At around 8 p.m., Supriyadi arrived at a demonstration at Arbor Lodge Park in North Portland, where protesters had gathered to call for cuts to the Portland Police Bureau’s budget.
Protesters first marched to the home of Portland City Commissioner Dan Ryan, who had voted against cutting the police budget, and vandalized his property. By the time they began marching towards the Portland Police Association office, the protest had been declared an “unlawful assembly.”
When Supriyadi started following a group of protesters across a street, OSP officers pulled up in a van beside him, got out of the vehicle and told him he was under arrest, he said.
“Their van and truck snuck up on everyone,” Supriyadihe told the Tracker. “I was in the middle of the street trying to catch up.”
In a video of the arrest posted on Twitter by independent journalist Garrison Davis, people can be heard yelling that Supriyadi is press.
Police left and the march moved on.
— Garrison Davis (@hungrybowtie) November 6, 2020
Just now, officers charged the crowd from behind and arrested a member of the press on the sidewalk. #Portland #PortlandProtests pic.twitter.com/fskd6KNjDx
“I told them I was press, but at that point they were taking me down,” said Supriyadi, adding that he had been wearing a press pass.
The officers placed him on the ground and zip-tied his hands behind his back, said Supriyadi. That’s also when he believes his camera, a Fujifilm X100f, was damaged. They searched his backpack and his pockets, then moved him to a law enforcement vehicle.
Supriyadi wasn’t taken to a police precinct for processing, but instead was given a ticket and released, he said. He was charged with disorderly conduct and interfering with a peace officer.
Supriyadi said he has a court date for these charges scheduled for Nov. 24, but he hopes the charges will be dropped before then.
Supriyadi said he wasn’t very surprised about being arrested. “At every level of law enforcement that have been coming out to the protests, they hinder the press from doing what they’re trying to do,” he said.
After being released, he noticed that his camera lens was wobbly, though the camera still works. He believes the damage to his camera, which he had been carrying in his pocket, occurred when the officers laid him down on the ground.
Since July, law enforcement officers from the PPB and federal agencies have been barred by court rulings from arresting, harming or impeding journalists or legal observers of the protests. The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon didn’t include the OSP when it filed the cases. But the rulings should also apply to state police, said Matthew Borden, a partner at BraunHagey & Borden LLP who is cooperating counsel with the ACLU on the case. He told the Tracker that the “plaintiffs will likely seek relief if OSP refuses to agree not to target or disperse journalists and legal observers."
The OSP declined to comment on Supriyadi’s arrest. Portland City Attorney Tracy Reeve didn’t return a request for comment.
Tomas Murawski, a reporter for The Alamance News, was arrested while covering a march to the polls in Graham, North Carolina, on Oct. 31, 2020.
The “I Am Change” march and rally was organized to encourage people to vote in the 2020 general election and included calls for accountability echoing recent protests against racial injustice. The News & Observer reported that approximately 200 demonstrators marched from the Wayman Chapel AME Church to Court Square, where the Alamance County Courthouse and a Confederate monument are located.
The Washington Post reported that once there, participants took part in a moment of silence for George Floyd, a Black man, who died during an arrest in Minneapolis in May.
Moments later, the Graham Police Department ordered the protesters to disperse and began pepper spraying the crowd. Reports compiled by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker details 11 journalists affected by the chemical irritant.
A police officer also grabbed the camera of News & Observer photojournalist Julia Wall to push her back while she filmed a march, which the Tracker documented here.
The Graham Police Department said in a statement that it issued multiple orders to relocate or disperse before using crowd control measures.
At least 12 individuals were arrested during the march, The News & Observer reported, including Murawski.
Alamance News Publisher Tom Boney Jr. told The News & Observer that Murawski was photographing the scene from the street when he was suddenly placed under arrest.
ALAMANCE NEWS REPORTER ARRESTED AMID THE PROTEST – Tomas Murawski, a staff writer for The Alamance News, was arrested at Saturday's protest. Murawski had taken a photo of the day's first arrest when he himself was arrested. See News & Observer video here: https://t.co/8L2P13QaZD pic.twitter.com/wYnLb8Ofug
— The Alamance News (@AlamanceNews) October 31, 2020
“When I spoke to him on the street, while he was in police custody, he said they ordered them to move out of the roadway,” Boney said. “He was doing so, while still taking photos, but apparently not fast enough for [the police].”
In footage of the arrest published by The News & Observer, four officers can be seen taking Murawski’s camera and camera bag and leading him away from the crowd before placing him in handcuffs. Video from a second angle published by Triad City Beat shows that officers bent his left arm far behind his back and toward his head while leading him away, causing Murawski to double over.
Boney told the Tracker that Murawski was held in police custody for approximately three hours before he was released, and that all of his equipment was returned to him.
According to a Facebook post published by the Alamance News, Murawski was charged with resisting, delaying or obstructing a public officer — a Class 2 misdemeanor punishable by up to 60 days of community service, supervised probation or imprisonment.
Murawski has a hearing scheduled for Dec. 14, Boney told the Tracker, but they hope to have the charge dismissed before then.
Boney expressed his concerns over Murawski’s arrest in a statement to the newspaper: “Tomas has been an outstanding reporter and photographer for many years, and has always demonstrated a high standard of professionalism in all his work,” Boney said. “I cannot imagine that he did anything warranting his treatment at the Graham rally.”
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper condemned the police response in a tweet that evening.
“Peaceful demonstrators should be able to have their voices heard and voter intimidation in any form cannot be tolerated,” Cooper wrote.
The Graham Police Department immediately responded to requests for comment.
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include additional comment from Alamance News publisher Tom Boney Jr. and to reflect the reporting of an additional journalist affected by tear gas.
While covering a march to the polls in Graham, North Carolina, Alamance News reporter Tomas Murawski was arrested by a Graham police officer on Oct. 31, 2020.
",arrested and released,Graham Police Department,None,None,True,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,unknown,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",,, 2020-12-09 12:12:26.592270+00:00,2022-11-08 20:41:21.820531+00:00,"Social media journalist arrested, injured while covering Wisconsin protest",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/social-media-journalist-arrested-injured-while-covering-wisconsin-protest/,2022-11-08 20:41:21.718543+00:00,curfew violation: violation of mayor’s emergency order (charges dropped as of 2021-01-01),,(2021-01-01 18:43:00+00:00) Charges dropped against journalist arrested and injured while covering Wisconsin protest,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Search or Seizure",,cellphone: count of 1,,Brendan Gutenschwager (Freelance),,2020-10-08,False,Wauwatosa,Wisconsin (WI),43.04946,-88.00759,"Independent social media journalist Brendan Gutenschwager was one of four journalists arrested or detained while covering a protest in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin on Oct. 8, 2020.
The protest followed a Milwaukee County prosecutor’s Oct. 7 announcement that his office would not bring charges against a Wauwatosa police officer who shot and killed Black teenager Alvin Cole on Feb. 2. Cole, 17, had refused to put down a gun and ran away from police following a disturbance at a Wauwatosa mall. The Wauwatosa protest came amid demonstrations against police brutality and racism that had swept for months across the country, including in Wisconsin.
Gutenschwager, who is based in Michigan, said he works as an independent videographer, filming protests and other events to post on social media platforms, then distributing his footage to mainstream media outlets such as CNN, Newsweek, The New York Times and Fox News, all of which have used his footage.
Gutenschwager told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that on the day after the prosecutor’s decision was announced, he followed protesters as they marched several miles from the Milwaukee County Public Safety Building to the suburb of Wauwatosa.
While there had been some confrontations and destruction of property the previous night, Gutenschwager said, the march on the second day was peaceful. However, when marchers encountered National Guard officers deployed in Wauwatosa, he said, demonstrators became anxious about a confrontation; some decided to get in cars to continue to protest by driving through the area. The demonstrations continued after a 7 p.m. curfew in Wauwatosa took effect.
Gutenschwager said he got in a car with other journalists, including Shelby Talcott and Richie McGinniss of the news website the Daily Caller, to follow the protest caravan. The journalists stopped in the parking lot of the St. Matthew Evangelical Lutheran Church, on North Wauwatosa Avenue, to cover a confrontation between police and protesters, he said. Gutenschwager said he stayed in the vehicle, but McGinniss, one of the Daily Caller journalists, got out.
When McGinniss returned to the car, police tackled him to the ground, Gutenschwager said. Officers then surrounded the vehicle and ordered Gutenschwager and others to get out, he said. Gutenschwager said he was trying to exit, but it was difficult to move quickly because he was in the back seat of a two-door car. A video of the encounter posted on Twitter by WISN 12 reporter Caroline Reinwald shows a police officer yanking Gutenschwager from the car and slamming him to the ground, where he struck his head on the pavement. An officer then flipped him over and pinned him face down on the ground as Gutenschwager shouted that he was a member of the press, the journalist said.
What appears to be National Guard arresting protesters at 77th and Milwaukee. It’s a church parking lot. @WISN12News pic.twitter.com/0gcg70jTGQ
— Caroline Reinwald (@WISN_Caroline) October 9, 2020
McGinniss and Talcott both described in interviews and on social media that police beat them with night sticks during the encounter. They were both detained, but released without being arrested after they were identified as credentialed press. Blair Nelson, a freelance journalist who has worked for Scriberr News and Campus Reform, was also arrested.
The Tracker is documenting all arrests here.
Gutenschwager said that he does have press credentials, but they were in his vehicle, which was parked a short distance away. He said he continued to identify himself as press at multiple other times throughout the night.
Gutenschwager said his arms were restrained in zip ties before he was loaded into a police vehicle. He and others who had been arrested were transported to a parking lot, transferred to another van belonging to police in neighboring Waukesha County and then taken to the Waukesha County Jail, he said.
Gutenschwager said that he was processed and held in the jail. When he was released at around 3 a.m., he said police provided no way to get back to where he and others had been arrested. He was able to borrow a cellphone to get a ride from one of the journalists he was with at the time he was arrested, he said.
Gutenschwager was cited for violating an emergency curfew order, with a fine of $1,321, according to a document he provided. He was initially given a court date in November, which has been postponed to Dec. 10.
Gutenschwager said police confiscated his cellphone, saying it could be used for evidence, but did not explain what type of evidence. He said he retrieved his phone a week after he was arrested. When he got it, he said it had been put into airplane mode.
Gutenschwager said that he had significant pain in his back and neck the day after the arrest and went to a hospital in Michigan, where he was given a CT scan and diagnosed with a concussion that likely resulted from his fall during the arrest. He said he was treated for his injuries and told to avoid computer screen time, which he noted was difficult because of his work
Wauwatosa Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Abby Pavlik told the Tracker in an email that Gutenschwager was not wearing anything that identified him as a member of the press and did not show police any credentials when police asked. She did not respond to a question about the use of force during the arrest.
On Oct. 9, the police department posted on Twitter contradicting the reports that four credentialed journalists had been arrested. “Two individuals were arrested and they showed no press credentials at the time of their arrest,” the department wrote.
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.
This article has been updated to include comment from the Wauwatosa Police Department.
Richie McGinniss, video director for the national news site the Daily Caller, was beaten and detained by police while covering a protest in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin on Oct. 8, 2020.
The protest came one day after a Milwaukee County prosecutor announced that his office would not bring charges against a Wauwatosa police officer who shot and killed Black teenager Alvin Cole on Feb. 2. Cole refused to put down a gun and ran away from police following a disturbance at a mall. The protests came as demonstrations against police brutality and racial injustice had been held for months across the country, including in Wisconsin.
On the day after the prosecutor’s announcement, protests continued past a 7 p.m. curfew that was in effect in Wauwatosa, a suburb of Milwaukee. McGinniss was detained while he was filming police arresting Tracy Cole, Alvin Cole’s mother, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. McGinniss did not respond to a request for an interview, but described the incident on Twitter.
Video McGinniss posted on Twitter shows that an officer approached him as he was filming the arrest. McGinniss can be heard telling police that he has press credentials and identifying himself as working for the Daily Caller.
Video of @ShelbyTalcott and my detainment.
— Richie🎥McG🍿 (@RichieMcGinniss) October 9, 2020
As I was recording arrests, one officer told me to (quickly) clear the area.
Upon arriving to the car, I was forcibly detained (with press cred in hand) and as you can hear in the video, I tried my best to comply with police orders. pic.twitter.com/2I6GNH2CNX
Officers told him to leave, and as he moved away, someone shouted, “Don’t let me catch you,” the video shows.
The video continues as McGinniss crossed a parking lot to his car, where several officers suddenly shouted to “get down on the ground,” as McGinniss repeated that he had press credentials.
Blair Nelson, an independent journalist who had been accompanying McGinniss, was also ordered to the ground and restrained, Nelson told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. Police also detained McGinniss’s Daily Caller colleague Shelby Talcott and independent journalist Brendan Gutenschwager, who were in the car. The Tracker is documenting all arrests here.
Officers hit McGinnis multiple times with a club, Talcott tweeted in a description of the encounter with police.
Talcott wrote that she and McGinniss were both detained but were released after police determined they were journalists. Gutenschwager and Nelson were both arrested and cited for violating an emergency order.
Photos Talcott posted showed that McGinniss was cut on his forehead during the encounter, and the pair sustained other scrapes and bruises during the encounter.
We’ll have some nice cuts and bruises in the coming days... pic.twitter.com/wSsnumUeCA
— Shelby Talcott (@ShelbyTalcott) October 9, 2020
In response to the incident, Daily Caller publisher and co-founder Neil Patel said in a statement reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that “there is a definite problem” in the Wauwatosa Police Department. “They were brutally beaten with clubs for no reason,” he said.
A spokesperson for the Wauwatosa Police Department did not return requests for comment about the incident.
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.
Jefferson Public Radio reporter April Ehrlich was arrested while covering police evictions of a homeless encampment in a public park in Medford, Oregon, on Sept. 22, 2020.
Medford police arrested JPR reporter April Ehrlich as she was covering the MPD's operation this morning removing campers from the city's Hawthorne Park. She was one of 11 people arrested during the police action. We'll have more details as they become available.
— JPR News (@JPRnews) September 22, 2020
JPR Executive Director Paul Westhelle said in a statement that Ehrlich had arrived at Hawthorne Park near downtown Medford in the early morning to interview some of the nearly 100 unhoused people who had taken up residence in the park. Police arrived at approximately 8 a.m. to enforce a 24-hour eviction notice.
Officers directed members of the press to a “media staging area” located at one of the entrances to the park, Westhelle said. He added that “it was not possible to adequately see or hear interactions between police officers and campers, or gather audio” from the staging area.
MPD’s Lt. Mike Budreau told the Committee to Protect Journalists, a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, that Ehrlich was arrested after reportedly refusing to go to the media staging area. Budreau added that members of the press “had full access to the park up until the public closure and the media staging location was well within view of the officers’ interactions with campers.”
JPR reported that Ehrlich was released later that afternoon with charges for criminal trespassing, interfering with a peace officer and resisting arrest.
If convicted, Ehrlich could face more than a year in prison and fines up to $7,500.
“April is a professional journalist and part of her job is being present during charged situations that sometimes involve law enforcement,” Westhelle wrote. “She knows how to be close enough to report without interfering.”
“JPR stands by April’s award-winning journalism and supports the courage it can take to tell compelling stories that don’t echo the narratives the institutions we cover sometimes lead us to.”
The Oregon Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists issued a statement condemning the arrest, as did CPJ and Reporters Without Borders.
JPR News Director Liam Moriarty told the Tracker that Ehrlich has a preliminary court appearance on Oct. 22.
In police body camera footage obtained by her attorneys, Medford Police officers confront and arrest then-Jefferson Public Radio reporter April Ehrlich during an encampment sweep on Sept. 22, 2020.
",arrested and released,Medford Police Department,None,None,True,1:22-cv-01416,['ONGOING'],Civil,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,encampment,,, 2020-09-18 20:50:11.863144+00:00,2023-11-08 19:22:29.095324+00:00,"Journalist Josie Huang arrested, charged with obstructing police in Los Angeles",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-josie-huang-arrested-charged-obstructing-police-los-angeles/,2023-11-08 19:22:28.805526+00:00,"obstruction: resisting (charges dropped as of 2020-09-24), obstruction: delaying or obstructing a public officer (charges dropped as of 2020-09-24)",,"(2023-11-07 00:00:00+00:00) LA radio reporter gets $700K settlement after 2020 arrest, (2020-09-24 16:25:00+00:00) Charges dropped against journalist Josie Huang after arrest in Los Angeles","Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Damage",,,cellphone: count of 1,Josie Huang (KPCC-FM/LAist),,2020-09-12,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"On the evening of Sept. 12, 2020, deputies with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department tackled and arrested journalist Josie Huang while she was covering officers making an arrest, she confirmed to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Huang, who is a reporter for a National Public Radio member station KPCC and local news website LAist, wrote on Twitter that she was attending a press conference led by Sheriff Alex Villanueva at the St. Francis Medical Center in Los Angeles and had just gotten in her car to head home when she heard shouting. She wrote that she got out of her car and went to investigate what was happening, noting that she was wearing a press ID around her neck.
Last night I was arrested and charged with obstructing a peace officer by @LASDHQ after videotaping their interactions with protesters in Lynwood. This is what I remember and what I have on video and audio.
— Josie Huang (@josie_huang) September 13, 2020
“A handful of men were on the sidewalk. A couple were carrying large flags. Others were filming deputies and taunting them,” she wrote. “I started filming on my phone, standing off to the side. No one took issue with me being there.”
Huang wrote that she followed deputies down the street and filmed as they arrested an individual, using the zoom on her camera to maintain a physical distance.
The deputies suddenly told Huang to back up and, “Within seconds, I was getting shoved around. There was nowhere to back up,” she wrote.
A video published by OnScene.TV shows deputies throwing Huang to the ground and arresting her. She also tweeted that the officers stomped on her phone and damaged it, but did not break it.
Deputies detained Huang for approximately five hours before releasing her with a citation for obstructing a police officer, according to Huang’s posts on Twitter and a copy of the citation seen by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
If convicted of obstructing police, a misdemeanor, Huang could face a fine up to $1,000, imprisonment in a county jail for up to one year, or both, according to the California penal code.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department tweeted the morning following Huang’s arrest that she did not identify herself as a member of the press and that she “later admitted she did not have proper press credentials on her person.” However, in a video Huang filmed while she was being arrested, she can be heard clearly identifying herself as a reporter for KPCC.
LAist published her full account on Sept. 13.
Committee to Protect Journalists, a founding partner of the U.S.Press Freedom Tracker, called the sheriff’s department for comment and was told by the person who answered that they are not answering questions at this time because there is an ongoing investigation. Deputy Grade Medrano, a department spokesperson, sent an emailed statement to CPJ that said the sheriff’s department was aware of the incident, and that an active investigation was underway.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, a Tracker partner, and a coalition of 65 press freedom organizations — including more than a dozen other Tracker partner organizations — sent a letter on Sept. 16 calling on the sheriff’s department to drop all charges against Huang. It also urged the department to take immediate action to prevent future arrests of working members of the press.
Journalist Josie Huang was arrested outside of St. Francis Medical Center in Los Angeles. Protesters and law enforcement were gathered there following the shooting ambush of two LA County Sheriff's Department deputies.
",arrested and released,Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department,2020-09-13,2020-09-12,True,None,[],None,None,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,,,, 2020-12-01 21:09:18.138672+00:00,2024-02-29 17:35:07.516417+00:00,"Student photojournalist arrested, equipment seized during LA protest",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-photojournalist-arrested-equipment-seized-during-l-protest/,2024-02-29 17:35:07.366429+00:00,rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2021-03-01),LegalOrder object (238),"(2021-03-01 19:07:00+00:00) Charges dropped against LA student photojournalist; some equipment still not returned, (2022-09-18 13:57:00+00:00) LA photojournalist receives $90,000 settlement in lawsuit against the county, sheriff’s department, (2023-05-18 16:08:00+00:00) Photojournalist’s phone searched after arrest, warrant confirms, (2021-10-22 00:00:00+00:00) LA student photojournalist sues the county, sheriff’s department following arrest and loss of equipment","Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Search or Seizure, Subpoena/Legal Order",,"camera: count of 1, cellphone: count of 1, storage device: count of 1",,Pablo Unzueta (Daily Forty-Niner),,2020-09-08,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"Pablo Unzueta, a freelance photojournalist and video editor for California State University, Long Beach’s newspaper, the Daily Forty-Niner, was arrested while documenting protests in the South Los Angeles area on Sept. 8, 2020.
Unzueta told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was following a group of protesters as they gathered for the fourth consecutive night outside the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department following the fatal shooting of Dijon Kizzee, a Black man, by deputies on Aug. 31.
At approximately 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 8, Unzueta said, deputies declared the protest unlawful and ordered the crowd to disperse. Following the order, Unzueta said he saw deputies firing tear gas and flash-bang grenades into the crowd around the intersection of Normandie Avenue and West Imperial Highway.
Unzueta said officers pushed the crowd north on Normandie as they advanced, and that many of the protesters began splitting off and dispersing.
“I didn’t know the area that well so I made a left into this neighborhood on this very narrow street,” Unzueta said. “The sheriffs would get on the trucks and then the truck would speed up through the street and then they would start firing more [flash-bang grenades] and then more tear gas.”
“I kept ducking behind cars while I’m running so I wouldn’t get hit.”
Unzueta said a few minutes passed as he kept looking for a way to get back to his car, which was parked near the Sheriff’s Department, but realized that he was stuck on a long, narrow block.
Two sheriff’s vehicles pulled up at approximately 9:30 p.m., Unzueta said, and deputies began arresting the demonstrators that remained.
“This was sort of a ‘holy shit’ moment for me, and I immediately identified myself as press just to avoid getting tackled or being shot with a rubber bullet,” Unzueta said.
He said that after a couple of deputies saw his credentials and camera and didn’t stop him, he thought he would be allowed to leave and began to head back the way they had come to return to his vehicle.
“I start walking on the sidewalk and that’s when an officer from up above in the truck said, ‘Hey! Grab that guy!,’” Unzueta said. “Again I yelled, ‘Press, press, press!’ And that’s when the officer...just grabbed me, threw my camera on the ground and ripped my backpack off my back.”
Unzueta told the Tracker he was wearing press credentials from Mt. San Antonio College, where Unzueta used to be a student, and his College Media Association badge, and repeatedly told the deputies to call the newspaper’s adviser.
During the course of his arrest, Unzueta said that officers tightened his metal handcuffs so tightly that he lost all feeling in his hands, and that they called him demeaning names and slurs. Unzueta said deputies then pushed him into the back of a department van, causing him to fall on and rupture multiple pepper balls. The officers left him to struggle to breathe amid clouds of pepper powder, he said.
Unzueta also alleges that some of the officers used their personal cellphones to photograph him and other detainees.
“The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department values the media and highly respects the freedom of the press,” Department spokesperson Deputy Trina Schrader told the Tracker in an emailed statement. “Please be aware an administrative investigation has been launched into the circumstances surrounding this incident. A lieutenant from South Los Angeles Station has been assigned and will be contacting Mr. Unzueta to investigate these allegations.”
Unzueta said deputies seized his iPhone and Nikon D800 camera. He said he was handcuffed for about two hours. He was transported to the South Los Angeles Sheriff’s Station where he was booked at 10:30 p.m., and then transferred to the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown Los Angeles.
Unzueta estimated he was in police custody for 10 or 11 hours. His booking data, reviewed by the Tracker, shows he was released the following day with a citation. A copy of the citation shared with the Tracker shows Unzueta was arrested for unlawful assembly, a misdemeanor, and was ordered to appear in court two days later.
Unzueta said his equipment and cellphone weren’t returned to him upon his release.
The Student Press Law Center, a Tracker partner organization, connected Unzueta with the Criminal Justice Clinic at the University of California, Irvine School of Law. LAist, part of Southern California Public Radio, reported that the clinic was able to secure the release of Unzueta’s camera, but the memory card — which Unzueta told the Tracker contained two years worth of freelance work — had been removed.
Unzueta said deputies first claimed that the camera hadn’t contained an SD card and then that it may have fallen out when the deputy threw it to the ground during the arrest. Unzueta disputed both of these assertions, and said the design of the camera makes it nearly impossible for the memory card to fall out.
In a letter sent on Unzueta’s behalf, the clinic asked that the cellphone and memory card be returned and for assurance that the case wouldn’t be presented to the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office for prosecution, a copy of his arrest report and an apology from the department.
“Sheriff’s deputies had no basis to arrest Mr. Unzueta,” the letter reads. “A truck full of deputies passed by, and a deputy pointed at Mr. Unzueta and said, ‘Get him.’ Mr. Unzueta repeatedly identified himself as a member of the press and as a student journalist, displaying his student press badge, but the deputy who arrested him ignored him.”
Unzueta confirmed to the Tracker that he still hasn’t regained complete feeling in his palms more than two and a half months later, attributing the numbness to the overly tight handcuffs.
The Long Beach Press Telegram reported on Nov. 17 that the department hadn’t responded to the letter, according to one of Unzueta’s lawyers.
“I’ve been photographing protests since the Trayvon Martin protest, which was in 2013 and I was 17 at the time. I’ve been doing this a long time, and I never thought I’d have to experience something like I experienced on September 8th,” Unzueta said.
Unzueta told the Long Beach Post that while he has always had a passion for photography, he was shaken by the incident.
“I don’t feel safe going out anymore,” Unzueta said. “This is the last thing I want to do.”
Freelance journalist and National Press Photographers Association member Julianna Lacoste was struck with crowd-control munitions, assaulted by law enforcement and arrested while documenting protests in Los Angeles, California, on Sept. 8, 2020.
Lacoste told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an email that at around 7:30 p.m. she’d arrived at the intersection of Normandie Avenue and West Imperial Highway, where protesters had gathered outside the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department following the fatal shooting of Dijon Kizzee, a Black man, by deputies on Aug. 31.
According to Lacoste, at approximately 8:30 p.m., the deputies declared the protest unlawful and ordered the crowd to disperse. Shortly thereafter, she said, they began to advance on the crowd and fire crowd-control munitions.
“I began to run down Normandie trying to escape the clouds of tear gas, rubber/foam bullets, pepper balls, stinger grenades and sand bags being fired,” Lacoste said. “I kept running, but it seemed like I couldn’t get away from the action.”
Lacoste said that as things began to calm down, about an hour later, she saw some people walking to their cars and that no deputies were in sight. Lacoste said she continued to move and had just passed a group of individuals when she felt a crowd-control munition strike her hand and knock her phone away.
“Then my head was shot, but I was luckily wearing a helmet,” she said. “Then my shoulder was shot as well. At that point I was only looking to find shelter because I was simply getting pelted with shots.”
Lacoste said she was eventually able to crouch behind a nearby car, but almost immediately after hunching down, two deputies appeared beside her. Lacoste said one aimed a weapon at her as the other forced her onto her stomach.
“I said, ‘I’m not resisting. I’m press. OK, OK, I’m not resisting,’” Lacoste recounted. She said she had a press badge in her bag and her helmet featured a “PRESS” label.
Lacoste said that the camera she was wearing around her neck broke from the weight of the deputies during the course of the arrest. “Their knee was on my back and neck as they wrestled for the cuffs,” she said.
Lacoste said the deputies secured the handcuffs incredibly tight, which worsened the pain in her injured hand.
She said they refused to pick up her cellphone from where it had fallen and escorted her to an LASD vehicle, where she waited as others were loaded in “like sardines.” The detainees were taken to a van and then transported to the Imperial Sheriff’s station, Lacoste said. There, she said, deputies used a knife to cut the straps of both her backpack and camera in order to pull them off without removing her handcuffs.
Lacoste also alleged that at the station some of the officers used personal cellphones to photograph her and other detainees. Student journalist Pablo Unzueta, who was also arrested that evening, made similar allegations. The Tracker has published his case here.
“The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department values the media and highly respects the freedom of the press,” Deputy Trina Schrader, a spokesperson for the department, told the Tracker in an emailed statement when asked for comment on Unzueta’s arrest. Schrader also noted that an investigation had been launched into the events that day. The department did not respond to an emailed request for comment about Lacoste’s arrest as of press time.
Lacoste said she was detained for more than an hour before being transported to a hospital for treatment. At approximately 6 a.m. the following day, she said, she was transported back to the sheriff’s station.
Lacoste said that at around 10 a.m. she was finally able to speak with her lawyer, who informed her that her bail had been posted and she should be released within two hours. According to Lacoste’s bail paperwork, which was reviewed by the Tracker, she posted a $5,000 bond.
Before her release, Lacoste said, she was transferred to the women’s jail and asked about her injuries. Upon detailing them, the officer processing Lacoste rejected her paperwork and instructed deputies to transport her back to the hospital so her injuries could be fully documented. According to Lacoste, deputies did not transport her back to the hospital, however, and placed her in a cell at the sheriff’s station.
“After hours of begging for a phone that worked they finally let me use the phone,” Lacoste said. “At that point I called my boyfriend and he informed me that I was going to get out soon and they had been making hundreds of calls on my behalf. During that phone call is when I got released.”
Lacoste was charged with misdemeanor failure to disperse and ordered to appear in court on Jan. 6, 2021. Lacoste hasn’t responded to the Tracker’s latest requests for comment, and the status of her case remains unknown.
Freelance photojournalist Julianna Lacoste photographed the multiple injuries she sustained when she was assaulted, arrested and her equipment damaged and seized by sheriff’s deputies while documenting a protest in Los Angeles on Sept. 8, 2020.
",arrested and released,Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department,2020-09-09,None,True,2:23-cv-04917,['ONGOING'],Civil,returned in full,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,unknown,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, chemical irritant, protest, shot / shot at",,, 2023-09-25 16:44:59.569652+00:00,2023-10-02 14:15:14.135230+00:00,"Livestreamer arrested, assaulted during LA protest; phone searched",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/livestreamer-arrested-assaulted-during-la-protest-phone-searched/,2023-10-02 14:15:13.923580+00:00,rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2020-09-11),LegalOrder object (241),,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Damage, Equipment Search or Seizure, Subpoena/Legal Order",,"protective equipment: count of 1, bicycle: count of 1, cellphone: count of 1",cellphone: count of 1,Hugo Padilla (Independent),,2020-09-08,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"Livestreamer Hugo Padilla was allegedly struck with crowd-control munitions and assaulted by law enforcement before being arrested while documenting protests in Los Angeles, California, on Sept. 8, 2020. Deputies later obtained a search warrant for one of his cellphones.
Padilla subsequently joined as a plaintiff in a lawsuit with three others in October 2020 against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Los Angeles County and then-Sheriff Alex Villanueva, alleging violations of his Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
Colleen Flynn, an attorney representing Padilla, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that Padilla attended the protest to broadcast it on his YouTube channel, Alien Alphabet, while providing audio narration.
Protesters had gathered outside the South Los Angeles Sheriff's Station following the Aug. 31 fatal shooting of Dijon Kizzee, a Black man, by deputies in a nearby neighborhood.
Flynn said that Padilla began filming the demonstration from the parking lot of a nearby 7-Eleven, and confirmed to the Tracker that throughout the protest Padilla was wearing a black bicycle helmet with “PRESS” written in silver lettering on multiple sides.
Approximately an hour into the protest, deputies declared the protest unlawful and ordered the crowd to disperse. According to the lawsuit, officers began to advance on the demonstrators and shortly after fired crowd-control munitions. The crowd dispersed and many individuals — including Padilla — fled into the neighborhood.
In Padilla’s livestream from the protest, he said that he was attempting to circle around to the far side of the crowd, but as he did, a law enforcement helicopter shined a searchlight on him. Within seconds and without warning, Padilla was shot with a crowd-control munition, he said.
The lawsuit claimed the hard projectile struck Padilla in the knee, knocking him off his bicycle and onto the ground. Deputies then “jumped” on him and one of them punched him in the face, splitting his lip, Flynn said. Padilla was tightly handcuffed — his lawsuit states that restraint marks were still visible weeks later — and forced into the back of a large truck where loose pepper ball munitions caused his eyes to water painfully.
According to Flynn, Padilla had no opportunity to identify himself verbally as press before he was arrested, but he did tell deputies he was a journalist while in the truck and in an interrogation room.
Padilla’s bicycle was seized, as was his personal iPhone, which was booked into evidence and later searched. But a Samsung cellphone Padilla was using to livestream fell from his hand and, his suit claimed, deputies did not retrieve it.
Flynn told the Tracker that she believed deputies deliberately left Padilla’s phone and that of freelance photographer Julianna Lacoste, who is also her client, because they were livestreaming.
“It appears that the deputies that abandoned Mr. Padilla and Ms. Lacoste's cell phones on the street while they were livestreaming did so to get rid of the evidence that may have recorded their actions, including their use of excessive force and violation of my clients' constitutional rights,” Flynn wrote in an email.
Padilla’s lawsuit states that once he arrived at the South Los Angeles Sheriff's Station, some of the officers used personal cellphones to photograph Padilla and the other detainees while laughing. Lacoste and student journalist Pablo Unzueta, who were also arrested that evening, said the same.
Padilla was ultimately released from a county jail in downtown LA midmorning the following day with a citation for failure to disperse. His wallet, headphones and a set of keys — not his — were returned to him; the remainder of his equipment was not. Deputies ultimately returned Padilla’s bicycle in December 2020 and his iPhone in June 2021; his bicycle helmet was never returned.
When Padilla appeared for his hearing date at the Inglewood Courthouse on Sept. 11, 2020, according to his lawsuit, a court clerk told him that no charges had been filed.
Sheriff's Deputy Trina Schrader, a spokesperson for the department, told the Tracker in the days following the protest that an investigation had been launched into the events that day. “The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department values the media and highly respects the freedom of the press,” she added.
The day following the protest, sheriff’s deputies obtained a search warrant for cellphones belonging to more than a dozen individuals, including Padilla. The search warrant and an affidavit in support of the warrant were only released in May 2023, more than 2 1/2 years after the incident, and following an August 2022 motion to unseal filed by the First Amendment Coalition and independent news organization Knock LA.
The media organizations said that the sheriff’s department had fought the release of the materials for more than two years, in violation of California state law and the First Amendment. The release only came after Villanueva was ousted in a November 2022 election and replaced by Robert Luna, who acceded to the unsealing.
Susan E. Seager of the UC Irvine School of Law, who represented Knock LA and FAC in the case, said the timing shows that the department never had a good reason to seal the warrants in the first place.
Photos accompanying the warrant materials included the helmet marked “PRESS,” which Padilla’s attorney confirmed belonged to him. FAC noted in a later statement that police records confirmed that the LASD knew journalists were included as targets, which raises press rights concerns.
“Those photos, along with the fact [the] journalists have said they verbally identified themselves as press, should have put pause on the probe or, at a minimum, prompted the department to make disclosures to the judge to ensure press rights were protected,” the FAC statement said.
David Snyder, executive director of FAC, also commented: “While we are grateful the public can finally see these documents, they should have been able to do so long ago. There can be no real accountability without knowledge – what did the police tell the judge who issued this warrant? Now this crucial question can be answered, and accountability for any unjustified arrest and seizure can at long last begin.”
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include additional details concerning the seizure and return of some of Padilla’s equipment.
Livestreamer Hugo Padilla, extreme left, filmed multiple protests outside a Los Angeles Sheriff’s station in 2020. During a Sept. 8 protest, he claims deputies shot him with a munition, then arrested him and seized his equipment.
",arrested and released,Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department,2020-09-09,2020-09-08,True,2:20-cv-09805,['ONGOING'],Civil,returned in part,True,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,unknown,False,None,None,None,None,Journalist,warrant,State,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, chemical irritant, protest, shot / shot at",,, 2021-02-04 18:30:38.390510+00:00,2023-11-01 14:58:37.327461+00:00,"Photojournalist arrested while covering Portland protests, her phone damaged",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-arrested-while-covering-portland-protests-her-phone-damaged/,2023-11-01 14:58:37.221625+00:00,"obstruction: disorderly conduct (charges dropped as of 2020-09-07), obstruction: interfering with a peace officer (charges dropped as of 2020-09-07)",,,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Damage",,,cellphone: count of 1,Rach Wilde (Freelance),,2020-09-07,False,Portland,Oregon (OR),45.52345,-122.67621,"Rach Wilde, an independent photojournalist working with Black Zebra Productions, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was shoved and arrested while covering protests against police violence in Portland, Oregon, on Sept. 7, 2020.
Wilde was documenting protests that had been ongoing for months in downtown Portland and across the U.S. in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. The Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
Law enforcement officers in Portland have targeted journalists since the outbreak of the demonstrations, according to a class-action lawsuit filed in June by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon. The ACLU suit led to a temporary restraining order, and later a preliminary injunction, barring the Portland Police Bureau from harming or impeding journalists.
In the early hours of Sept. 7, Wilde said demonstrators had moved from PPB’s North Precinct toward a nearby parking garage. According to a news report, officers blocked off certain streets from the march and created a closure area. Wilde said the crowd started to dwindle and there was not a lot going on.
“Then a rush came and a bunch of folks started getting arrested and just picked off,” Wilde told the Tracker. Along with several other journalists and legal observers, she said she followed the officers to document the arrests. Soon after, officers asked them to leave and ordered them onto the sidewalk.
“Out of nowhere, the [Portland Police] Rapid Response van arrived and they beelined [toward us],” she said. “One officer on the team had over and over again targeted me at different demonstrations. She knew exactly who I was. She would stand next to me at every demonstration and follow me specifically.”
Wilde said the officer pushed her off the sidewalk right as she was stepping onto it. Another Black Zebra journalist there repeatedly told the officer that Wilde was a member of the press; Wilde said she also had a press pass around her neck.
“I have the entire thing on camera. It was very clear that she was targeting me,” Wilde told the Tracker. Her reporting partner, whom Wilde had been “standing next to the entire time this demonstration,” was not arrested. The officer placed Wilde in temporary handcuffs, took her phone and brought her to where the demonstrators were being detained. She said she was then transported to and processed at Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office for interfering with a peace officer and disorderly conduct.
Wilde said she was released several hours later, around 6 a.m., and that when she received her phone back, the screen was destroyed. “That was the day my charges were dropped, but I didn’t find out until a month later,” she said. Wilde was contacted by a pro bono attorney, who confirmed this information. “They [Portland police] had spelt my name wrong,” she told the Tracker.
When reached for comment during ongoing protests in the fall of 2020, the PPB told the Tracker it wouldn’t be commenting on specific incidents, citing continuing litigation in the ACLU case. Then in early 2021, PPB spokesperson Derek Carmon said the department is committed to upholding civil rights for all citizens, including by requiring officers to report any use of force for review. When reached by email about this incident, Carmon said he had no additional comment.
An independent photojournalist says police fired pepper balls at him and detained him on Sept. 5, 2020, while he was covering protests in Rochester, New York.
Mustafa Hussain said he was detained after photographing protesters getting tackled during a demonstration protesting the death of Daniel Prude, whose killing in Rochester was ruled a homicide after police physically restrained him. Prude died by asphyxiation in police custody in March 2020, but details surrounding his death only came to light after police body camera footage was released by his family on Sept. 2.
Sept. 5 was the fourth straight night of protests in Rochester, and the scene was chaotic, Hussain said, as police officers clashed with protesters downtown near the Blue Cross Arena.
“On video...from what I saw, RPD [Rochester Police Department] fired the first round and engaged first...at that point they opened fire on the protesters,” Hussain told the Tracker. According to the Rochester First news site, police said some in the crowd had fireworks and threw bottles at officers. In response, the site said, police fired pepper balls and tear gas at protesters.
“Then they deliberately were aiming at press as well, we were getting shot at, there was tear gas everywhere,” Hussain told the Tracker.
Hussain said he was within a group that should have been easily identified as press, because they wore press helmets and badges and some carried large, professional cameras.
Despite all the markings, he said he was hit numerous times by pepper balls, resulting in welts and bruises on his arms and legs. Hussain said his torso was protected by a ballistic vest. He said he received first aid from street medics for the effects of tear gas and pepper balls.
“I do believe RPD intentionally fired upon press to prevent us from doing our job,” Hussain told the Tracker.
Later on that evening, Hussain said he watched as police “were chasing young protesters and tackling them to the ground.” He said he moved to the middle of the street to get a better photo angle, “and it was at that point that two officers came and grabbed me and took me to the ground and arrested me,” Hussain told the Tracker.
Hussain said he was near the Kodak Tower downtown, with two other journalists, one of whom captured Hussain’s detainment and posted it on Twitter. Georgie Silvarole, from USA Today, took pictures that showed Hussain lying on the ground with officers hovering over him, Hussain in handcuffs and another picture that showed an officer confiscating Hussain’s backpack and camera.
He went across the street to get a better angle of the protesters standing in the intersection and was tackled by police. They put him in the back of a squad car, and placed his cameras and backpack in a plastic tote. pic.twitter.com/00F2I6lCSD
— Georgie Silvarole (@gsilvarole) September 6, 2020
“They dragged me to the ground,” Hussain said, describing the event as “very abrupt” and “very shocking.”
Hussain said he was not wearing press credentials, but he had his cameras with him and told police he was press.
Officers put Hussain in the back of a police car, he said, and while he was detained, they drove around and tried to arrest someone else. When the car headed to the police station, “They got a call from a supervisor, or a Rochester Police public relations officer,” Hussain said. “They were pretty much given an earful for arresting a member of the press.” Hussain said he believes that someone from the Democrat and Chronicle, a Rochester newspaper, had called the police department on his behalf. “So they let me go,” he said, releasing him from custody near his car and returning his photo equipment.
Hussain said he opted not to file a complaint about his detainment. “As a journalist this is not about me,” he said. “I wasn’t beaten, they could have tackled me and they could have put their knee on my neck.” But they did not, he said, “so I didn’t feel that I needed to bring more attention to it.”
The Rochester Police Department did not respond to a request for comment on Hussain’s case.
Daniel Prude’s death on March 30 took place almost two months before the death of George Floyd on May 25. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country in the aftermath of these and other killings.
Police officers in riot gear fire pepper balls during a protest over the death of Daniel Prude in Rochester, New York on Sept. 5, 2020.
",detained and released without being processed,Rochester Police Department,None,None,True,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, chemical irritant, protest, shot / shot at",,, 2021-08-24 19:49:59.038607+00:00,2022-09-09 17:08:37.559769+00:00,"ACLU files for ‘false imprisonment’ against Washington, D.C., police after photojournalist arrested, equipment seized",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/aclu-files-for-false-imprisonment-against-washington-dc-police-after-photojournalist-arrested-equipment-seized/,2022-09-09 17:08:37.461961+00:00,rioting (charges dropped as of 2020-08-31),,"(2022-08-29 13:08:00+00:00) Judge dismisses photojournalists’ lawsuit against DC government, police","Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Search or Seizure",,"camera: count of 1, cellphone: count of 1",,Oyoma Asinor (Independent),,2020-08-31,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"Oyoma Asinor, an independent photographer, was covering a Black Lives Matter protest in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 31, 2020, when he was arrested by D.C. police and his camera and other equipment seized.
According to an ACLU of DC lawsuit filed on Asinor’s behalf in August 2021, Asinor arrived around midnight at Black Lives Matter Plaza to cover a BLM protest and found Metropolitan Police officers with shields and helmets standing in front of St. John’s Church, where barricades had been set up.
Protesters stood directly in front of the barricades, chanting, as Asinor moved around the intersection of 16th and H Streets taking photographs.
A group of MPD officers formed a line in the intersection of 16th and H Street, across H Street, blocking people from moving east. These officers wore helmets, and several were equipped with gun-shaped weapons attached to small tanks, according to the lawsuit.
Asinor continued photographing the officers, standing with another photojournalist at the northwest corner of the intersection of 16th and H Streets.
As Asinor continued photographing, he saw a small item — believed to be a water bottle — thrown from behind him toward the officers at the barricades, the document stated.
Moments after the water bottle was thrown, an officer behind the 16th Street barricade walked up to the barricade and rolled a smoke munition onto 16th Street. The munition produced a large cloud of smoke on 16th Street, the ACLU said.
Around the same time, a police officer deployed at least one stun grenade near where Asinor was standing. The stun grenade produced smoke and a loud noise that Asinor found “terrifying and disorienting.”
Asinor walked north on 16th Street, where he found several small concrete blocks across the street and police officers lined up “and pointing, but not firing, cannon-shaped weapons at Mr. Asinor and the others near him,” according to the document.
Asinor and a few other journalists and demonstrators stopped around ten feet away from the blocks.
Demonstrators standing about five to seven feet behind Asinor threw two water bottles at the officers, which either missed them or landed near them harmlessly.
Officers responded by shooting rubber bullets at the demonstrators. After that, Asinor did not see the demonstrators throw anything else or attack or threaten the officers in any way, according to the ACLU document.
Then officers ran between the blocks, charging at Asinor and others who had stopped. Asinor had been facing the officers and taking photos, but he turned around to run north on 16th Street as soon as he saw them charge.
“A police officer sprayed liquid chemical irritants at Mr. Asinor and others running away. The spray hit Mr. Asinor, causing him to feel a burning sensation on his skin as he was running. He additionally felt a burning sensation in his nose, his eyes watered, and he had trouble breathing. Mr. Asinor had goggles with him, but he was not wearing them so that he could better use his camera,” according to the legal document.
As Asinor was running up 16th Street, Asinor and others became boxed in between officers moving north and south.
Asinor attempted to leave the area, but “one of the bike officers struck him in the chest with her arm and stopped him, before forcing him to the ground and handcuffing him.”
According to the document, Asinor told the officer that he was a member of the press multiple times, repeatedly telling her that he was carrying a camera for journalistic purposes; however, she did not allow him to leave.
Another officer later told Asinor that he was being arrested for “felony rioting.”
The ACLU document said “nothing Mr. Asinor did on August 30 or 31, 2020 provided probable cause to believe that he violated D.C. Code § 22-1322 or any other law.”
After the arrest, an officer removed Asinor’s camera, cellphone and goggles. He was then taken to the second police district, where he remained in police custody overnight. He continued to feel the effects of the chemical irritants with which he had been sprayed.
According to an MSN report, the ACLU said: “MPD did not return these items for almost a full year, even though he requested them multiple times, and MPD had no lawful basis to keep them.”
Asinor was released after about 17 hours in custody, at which point he was informed that he would not face any charges, according to the document.
The ACLU has filed a lawsuit against the D.C. government and the MPD officers claiming false imprisonment, assault and battery and unlawful use of chemical irritants, based on this incident and another with independent photojournalist Brian Dozier.
MPD told the Tracker they did not comment on ongoing cases.
MLive reporter Samuel Robinson was arrested while covering a rally in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on Aug. 15, 2020.
Robinson, who did not respond to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s requests for comment, was livestreaming from a downtown rally organized by members of the far-right group the Proud Boys and which drew counterprotesters, MLive reported. Violence between the two groups began to escalate around 1:30 p.m., according to a tweet posted by Robinson.
Hell has broken loose pic.twitter.com/SBj5GqdhFq
— Samuel J. Robinson (@samueljrob) August 15, 2020
In a subsequent tweet, Robinson noted that as violence broke out, he was caught in pepper spray deployed by members of the Proud Boys amid the melee.
After about half an hour, dozens of police officers arrived at the rally, MLive reported. In a Facebook Live broadcast captured by Robinson, who is Black, he can be heard identifying himself as a reporter as officers took him to the ground. As he repeatedly states that he is being arrested, the video feed abruptly cuts out.
Robinson was charged with impeding traffic and released from police custody on a $100 bond shortly after 5 p.m., according to a tweet he posted.
Apologize for the delay. Police arrived as Proud Boys retreated to a parking garage nearby the Raddison HotelI. I was arrested and charged with impeding traffic while reporting live on Facebook for @MLive. pic.twitter.com/KcGL7v2crg
— Samuel J. Robinson (@samueljrob) August 15, 2020
John Hiner, vice president of content for MLive Media Group, condemned Robinson’s arrest in a statement to the outlet.
“The working press must be assured the right to cover public events that clearly are in the public interest, without reprisals,” Hiner said.
At a press conference on Aug. 16, Kalamazoo Mayor David Anderson announced that the charge against Robinson had been dropped and the city’s police chief issued a public apology.
“I want to make an apology here and I want to address the arrest of the MLive reporter who they believed to be interfering and obstructing with their operations to restore the order,” Public Safety Chief Karianne Thomas said.
“I personally want to apologize for that event. The reporter was wearing a visible credential and should not have been arrested. I apologize for the trauma that it caused this young man.”
MLive reporter Samuel Robinson was arrested while covering a rally in downtown Kalamazoo organized by members of the far-right group Proud Boys and which drew counterprotesters on Aug. 15, 2020.
",arrested and released,Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety,None,None,True,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"chemical irritant, protest, white nationalism",,, 2020-12-06 14:52:57.470838+00:00,2022-05-12 21:09:40.652093+00:00,Journalist arrested while covering North Carolina protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-arrested-while-covering-north-carolina-protest/,2022-05-12 21:09:40.571409+00:00,"blocking traffic: impeding the flow of traffic with a vehicle (charges dropped as of 2021-09-09), rioting: failure to disperse on command (charges dropped as of 2021-09-09)",,(2021-09-09 16:54:00+00:00) Charges dropped against journalist arrested while covering North Carolina protest,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault",,,,Veronica Coit (The Asheville Blade),,2020-08-09,False,Asheville,North Carolina (NC),35.60095,-82.55402,"Police arrested freelancer Veronica Coit, who was covering protests in Asheville, North Carolina, on Aug. 9, 2020, and charged the journalist with “failure to disperse on command” and impeding the flow of traffic with a vehicle.
The Aug. 9 demonstration was held to protest police brutality and the death of John Elliott Neville, who died in 2019 after a medical episode led to him being restrained in handcuffs by corrections officers in a North Carolina jail. Video of Neville in custody with the corrections officers was not released until August 2020.
Coit arrived at the protest around 6 p.m., the journalist wrote in an account on the local website The Asheville Blade. According to a published note from editor David Forbes, Coit had been working for the news outlet since June as a freelance journalist and videographer, helping to document local events and protests in the city.
Around an hour after arriving, Coit wrote, the demonstrators began to march and the journalist followed them by car because of a medical condition that makes walking difficult. Coit was following the protesters along Haywood Street near the intersection with College Street, with car hazard lights flashing, when a police siren sounded. “There was a large crowd in front of me, parked cars on the street, and other cars beside me too, I couldn’t exactly go anywhere at that moment,” Coit wrote. “I was moving, but slowly. The next thing I see is a cop at my passenger door, ripping it open with no warning.”
In a video of the incident posted to YouTube by a bystander, a police officer is seen pulling Coit out of the car by the arm as Coit says, “I haven’t done anything illegal…I’m press, you want my press credentials?” Coit repeatedly yells “you are arresting a member of the press” as police zip tie the journalist’s hands and lead Coit away. After being arrested and spending five hours in jail, Coit was released and charged with failing to disperse on command and impeding the steady flow of traffic, the journalist wrote.
In a statement by the Asheville Police Department that was reported by local media outlets, the department said that it had “asked organizers to follow traffic laws, not block or obstruct streets, and remain on the sidewalks. Organizers were notified that individuals violating these laws would be arrested.” The APD said it had arrested five people, including Coit, on charges of failing to disperse on command and for traffic infractions. Police officials said Coit was “asked by law enforcement several times to not block the intersection,” according to the local daily the Citizen-Times.
In the account for the Blade, Coit wrote of being left with bruises after the incident and of being mistreated by officers and subjected to an unnecessary body search during detention. According to the Citizen-Times, representatives of the APD later called to ask if Coit wanted to make a complaint. The paper said Coit declined to do so, believing it would not have any effect. The department also said Coit was welcome to review body cam footage of the incident, the Citizen-Times reported. Coit told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an email that a hearing on the charges is scheduled for early 2021.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find these incidents here.
Joseph Rushmore, a freelance documentary photographer, was arrested by police officers and charged with two misdemeanors while covering a demonstration in the early hours of Aug. 8, 2020, in northeast Portland, Oregon.
The protest was one of many that have broken out across the U.S. in response to police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following 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.
Law enforcement officers in Portland have targeted journalists since the outbreak of the demonstrations, according to a class-action lawsuit filed in June by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon. The ACLU suit led to the city agreeing to a preliminary injunction in July to not arrest, harm or impede the work of journalists or legal observers of the protests.
Rushmore was covering a protest that began at around 9 p.m. in Laurelhurst Park. Protesters then marched about a half mile to the Penumbra Kelly building, a repeated focus of demonstrators because it houses the Multnomah County Sheriff's office and some Portland Police Bureau units.
Protesters blocked the road in front of the building while chanting, making speeches and yelling at officers, Rushmore told the Tracker. At one point, police officers rushed into the crowd, driving protesters into the surrounding residential neighborhood.
At some point after midnight, about 50 protesters regrouped to head back to the Kelly building, said Rushmore, who was following them. When the group was about a block from the building, officers blocked the way and started pushing protesters and journalists west along East Burnside Street.
Footage of Rushmore’s arrest, taken by an observer sometime after 1 a.m. and shared with the Tracker, shows officers rushing into the street and knocking down Rushmore and several protesters. Rushmore can be seen getting grabbed from behind and thrown to the ground. A group of officers then restrains Rushmore and arrests him.
“I have two very large cameras around my neck at all times so it is quite obvious I am press,” said Rushmore, though he wasn’t wearing any press credentials or clothing marked as press.
“During this rush, an officer with Portland Police Bureau grabbed me from behind, spun me around and threw me to the ground, slamming my head hard into the pavement,” said Rushmore, adding that his helmet protected him from injury. “At least one more officer got on top of me, and they held me down while zip-tying my hands behind my back. I yelled to the officer that I was press multiple times. He told me, `Now you're part of the riot.’ And when I told him again I was just press, he said, ‘Then you shouldn’t have been rioting.’”
The officers searched Rushmore and seized his helmet, cameras, backpack and phone before being taken to the Kelly building, he said. He was then sent to the jail at the Multnomah County Justice Center downtown, where he was detained in a general holding area. By noon, Rushmore was released, he said. He got all his equipment back two days after his arrest.
Rushmore was charged with two misdemeanors, interfering with an officer and disorderly conduct, but the charges were dropped sometime in the weeks after the arrest, he said.
Portland City Attorney Tracy Reeve didn’t respond to a request for comment. The PPB has said it wouldn't comment on incidents involving journalists covering the protests, citing continuing litigation in the ACLU case.
Independent reporter Madeleine “Molly” Conger was arrested when she arrived at Monroe Park to cover a protest against police brutality in Richmond, Virginia, on July 26, 2020.
Conger — whose work has appeared in local Charlottesville outlet C-Ville Weekly and The Guardian — told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that when she arrived shortly after 10 p.m. no more than 15 people were present.
“There was no active protest at that point,” Conger said. Instead, those assembled were discussing where to go or what to do that evening, she said. “Then, all of a sudden, 30 cops appeared out of the night, didn’t say anything, didn’t make any announcements, and just descended upon us.”
Conger said she was tackled to the ground by two police officers and placed under arrest. She added that though she was not wearing any “PRESS” identifiers or a press pass, officers referred to her by name and were aware that she was a journalist.
In a press conference the following morning, Richmond Police Chief Gerald Smith said that the department had acted to break up the small gathering because police did not want violence akin to that seen during a protest the night before, when several hundred protesters had gathered in the same area.
"We have to take action when we know that violence is coming," said Smith. "What we did last night, we took a proactive stance, and when the group gathered in Monroe Park and congregated there after 10 p.m., RPD moved in and began to affect arrest."
"In intense situations like this, we also have to look at the bigger picture. We have to look at individuals who claim to be members of the press and we have to look at them very carefully," Smith added.
Conger told the Tracker that the police chief’s press conference the next morning specifically focused on how they were targeting people they felt were not “real” members of the press. “It felt very personal,” Conger said.
Conger said she and more than a dozen others were arrested for allegedly trespassing in the park after nightfall. Conger denied that the group was violating a dusk curfew for the park, noting that they were standing on the steps of the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart across the street from the park when they were arrested. She also noted that officers tightened her zip-tie cuffs to the point that she lost all feeling in her left hand.
The group was held for an hour in a police transport van at the protest site, according to Conger, and then held another hour in the parking garage of the city jail before being booked at approximately 12:30 a.m.
Conger said that after she was processed officers took her before a magistrate for an initial hearing on whether police had probable cause to bring charges.
The magistrate determined that there was sufficient evidence, Conger said, and informed her that she would be released on her own recognisance.
As officers led her away, Conger said she thought the door she was walking through was to the outside.
“Imagine my surprise when it closed behind me and it was a cell. Nobody explained to me why this was happening or how long it would be happening for,” she said.
Conger said she was held for eight hours without explanation, either during her detention or after her release. When she was released at approximately 9 a.m., Conger said she was able to retrieve her belongings from the police department’s property department.
When asked about the detentions of several journalists over the weekend, Chief Smith said during the press conference that he will work on the department’s partnership with the media, but that members of the press must abide by the same laws as everyone else.
The Tracker is documenting all arrests here.
Conger said when she appeared for her initial trial date in September, the prosecutor and her attorney reached an agreement that if she performed 24 hours of community service within the following eight weeks, the charges would be dropped.
“Initially they wanted me to sign an admission of guilt in exchange for this agreement, and I said I’d rather take it to trial than admit I did anything wrong. Because I didn’t,” Conger said. “I moderately pushed back on signing it and they didn’t press the issue.”
Conger said she appeared in court on Dec. 3, having completed the community service, and the charges were dropped.
The Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find these incidents here.
Eduardo Acevedo, news editor for The Commonwealth Times, an independent newspaper run by Virginia Commonwealth University students, said he was detained by police while covering a protest in Richmond, Virginia, the night of July 25, 2020.
Protests against racial inequality and police brutality were held in Richmond throughout the summer in response to the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other Black people at the hands of police.
Acevedo told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he and two colleagues from the Commonwealth Times were covering a protest outside of the Richmond Police Headquarters, where police had formed a riot shield wall and declared the demonstration an “unlawful assembly.” According to Acevedo, someone in the crowd threw a flaming object into a Humvee that had been parked to block protesters. Acevedo said police responded by firing tear gas and flash-bang grenade canisters.
At that point, Acevedo said, he became separated from his Commonwealth Times colleagues. He said he was disoriented and “running blind” because of the tear gas. A journalist from another Virginia paper, Sabrina Moreno of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, helped him around the corner of a building and began pouring milk in his eyes to help him recover from the gas, he said.
Acevedo said a group of at least five police officers came around the corner of the building and suddenly moved in to restrain the two journalists. Video posted on Twitter by activist Jimmie Lee Jarvis shows officers swarm Acevedo and Moreno while they can be heard screaming, “We’re press.” Officers pushed Acevedo face down on the ground, despite his shouts identifying himself as a journalist. Moreno's detainment is documented here.
After he had shouted his identity at least a dozen times, the officers released Acevedo, the journalist said. When Acevedo stood up, he said he was feeling claustrophobic from the lingering effects of the tear gas and the officers in riot gear crowded around him, so he asked an officer to give him some more space. The officer responded “no” close to his face, he said.
Police let Acevedo go after he showed them his press badge identifying him with his photo as working with The Commonwealth Times, he said. Acevedo said he was released less than 10 minutes after police first restrained him.
Acevedo said he has not communicated with the Richmond Police Department about the incident. However, his experience was one of several incidents referenced in a Sept. 1, 2020 letter to Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney and the chief of the Richmond Police Department from the Student Press Law Center and other press freedom groups raising concerns about police treatment of journalists during protests.
In an email responding to the Tracker’s request for comment, a police spokesperson wrote: “The Richmond Police Department has a long history working with our media partners and will continue to do so, with the common goal of public safety in mind.” The spokesperson asked if Acevedo had filed a complaint; told that he had not, the spokesperson said a formal complaint would have given police more details about the incident, but that in general, members of the media are not exempt from a declaration of unlawful assembly.
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.
This article has been updated to include the identity of the second journalist detained.
Richmond Times-Dispatch reporter Sabrina Moreno was detained by police officers while covering protests in Richmond, Virginia, on July 25, 2020.
On the day and into the night of the 25th, Moreno had been covering protests against racial injustice and police brutality that had moved through the city of Richmond and ended up outside the headquarters of the Richmond Police Department. The protest was among the many demonstrations that broke out in response to police violence and in support of Black Lives Matter following the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
Shortly after 11 p.m. on the 25th, law enforcement declared the gathering an unlawful assembly, creating a “tense scene” in which protesters taunted police officers and shattered the windows of Humvees, Moreno wrote in a message on Twitter.
About 10 minutes later, a flash-bang grenade was thrown into the middle of a parking lot across from the police station where she and other members of the media were gathered to the side of the protesters, Moreno told the Tracker. She said she became disoriented trying to leave the area and dropped her press pass. Eduardo Acevedo, the news editor of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Commonwealth Times, ran to retrieve her press pass and was hit by tear gas. The two journalists ran to another parking lot, where Moreno poured milk into Acevedo’s eyes in an attempt to counteract the effect of the tear gas.
As Moreno leaned down to return the bottle of milk to her backpack, several police officers appeared around the corner of the wall where they were standing, she said. One officer threw Moreno up against the wall while the others grabbed Acevedo, pulled his hands behind his back, and pushed him to the ground, according to Moreno and a video of the incident shared to Twitter.
I captured footage of @RTDNEWS reporter @sabrinaamorenoo and @theCT news editor @edace2936 being violently manhandled police. You can hear them ID themselves as press multiple times. RPD has repeatedly targeted reporters covering protests over the past couple months. https://t.co/Q1QrBA4dXp pic.twitter.com/WfFiPaPwii
— Jimmie Lee Jarvis (@JLJLovesRVA) July 26, 2020
Moreno’s retrieved press pass fell from her hands as the officer pulled her hands behind her back, she said. She and Acevedo both repeatedly verbally identified themselves as journalists, she said, and they can be heard yelling in the video “I’m press.” The officers eventually released the journalists a few minutes later after inspecting their ID cards, but told them to leave the scene immediately, adding they would be arrested if seen again, Moreno said.
Everything moved quickly. Tear gas and flash bangs landed in the middle of the crowd. I ran with @edace2936 and when I was pouring milk into his eyes in a private parking lot, more than five cops surrounded us and threw us against the wall as we shouted “I’m press”
— Sabrina Moreno (@sabrinaamorenoo) July 26, 2020
Moreno and Acevedo went to a nearby convenience store parking lot to decompress. A few minutes later, some of the same officers appeared and “were making jokes about how they almost arrested members of the press and told us to go home,” Moreno wrote in a message shared on Twitter.
Moreno told the Tracker the officers didn’t believe her when she said members of the media were exempt from rules dictating an unlawful assembly.
According to an article by Moreno published in the Times-Dispatch the next day, Richmond Police Chief Gerald Smith said he would “make a thorough inquiry into the incident and that it will be under review.” Moreno filed a complaint with the police department several weeks later, she said. In March 2021, Moreno was told in a letter that the Internal Affairs investigation had concluded that her claims were unsubstantiated, but that in the course of the investigation other issues were discovered that weren’t in accordance with RPD policy. The letter provided no further details, citing the department’s confidentiality policy, she said.
The Richmond Police Department initially didn’t respond to requests for comment. On April 7 a spokesman said the department had “pulled the file for review,” but wouldn’t be able to comment immediately on the incident.
Acevedo told the Tracker he hadn’t communicated with the Richmond Police Department about the incident. His detainment is documented here.
This article has been updated to include comment from the Richmond Police Department.
Freelance journalist Andrew Jankowski was arrested by police officers while covering protests in Portland, Oregon, on July 17, 2020, a day after a judge issued a preliminary injunction to block the Portland Police Bureau from arresting or targeting journalists.
Jankowski was covering the protests that broke out in Portland in response to police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the May 25 death of George Floyd. For more than six weeks, nightly protests had taken hold in downtown Portland, escalating tensions and violence between protesters, Portland police and federal officers. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
In the early morning hours of July 17, Jankowski was covering a protest at Southeast 47th Avenue and East Burnside Street, outside of the Penumbra Kelly Building, which houses the PPB’s crime-prevention and neighborhood-involvement units as well as space for the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office. Jankowski told the Tracker he recalled two dispersal orders from Portland police officers ordering protesters to move west.
“I guess they [officers] decided that we weren’t moving fast enough and did what’s come to be known as a bull rush,” Jankowski. “Out of nowhere, they run at people and start shoving.”
As protesters and officers scattered in different directions, Jankowski felt someone push him. He believed it was an officer.
“I yelled ‘Media!’ while I ran, and even screamed the word as they twisted my wrist behind my back to take away my phone,” Jankowski wrote in an article for the Portland Mercury. “People from across the street saw I was wearing a press pass. I tried making it easier for the officer to zip tie me, and was told to stop resisting.”
He said he had thought ahead to wear a protective vest, which absorbed most of the impact, but he still sustained cuts and scrapes on his hands. Officers also grabbed his backpack, which was later destroyed.
A video documented and tweeted by Nicholas Lee, an independent photographer and videographer, shows Jankowski being held by officers at around 12:50 a.m. A few seconds into the video, officers can be seen shining a bright light into Lee’s lens, hampering him from capturing the footage.
As Lee continues to film, he shouts, “Are you press?” Jankowski responds with a “Yes” and his name. A bystander can be heard asking, “Have they told you why they are arresting you?” to which Jankowski replies “No.”
Jankowski said he believed the officers answered the question about his charges only because protesters were demanding it. But at that moment, he was still in shock and couldn’t fully understand what the officers were saying. The PPB announced later that morning that Jankowski was booked for disorderly conduct and interfering with a peace officer.
“I don’t know if I was targeted, but once they knew who I was, they still weren’t letting me go,” Jankowski said, noting that he had a large press pass taped to his chest. In a photograph Jankowski shared with the Portland Mercury, he can be seen with a sign taped on his chest that had “freelance journalist” written across the top along with logos of the Portland Mercury and other news outlets.
The officers brought Jankowski to the Penumbra Kelly building, where they removed the press pass from his chest, cutting through the line that read “Freelance journalist,” he said. He was finally processed at 3:44 a.m. at the Multnomah County Justice Center and released about six hours later, with the two charges pending.
“Through their questions, I came to realize that the officers questioning me didn’t understand, or didn’t want to understand, how freelance journalism works,” he wrote. “I felt they were trying to provoke, intimidate, and belittle me when they asked why an arts writer was reporting on protests.”
PPB spokesman Derek Carmon declined to comment on Jankowski’s arrest, citing continuing litigation.
When Jankowski went to court in September, he learned that the district attorney had declined to prosecute him, but that the case could still be reopened in the future. He also received a notice from the PPB regarding a complaint that he had allegedly filed. He said that while he hasn’t filed a dispute, he is currently working with a lawyer to potentially file a civil case.
Since the incident, Jankowski has gone to physical therapy for his wrist and wore a brace for several months, he said. In the Portland Mercury, he wrote about experiencing “bizarre trauma responses,” claustrophobia and paranoia.
Independent videojournalist Hiram Gilberto Garcia was arrested and his equipment seized while covering protests in Austin, Texas, on July 17, 2020.
Garcia, who posts his livestreams and interviews on Facebook and his website, was documenting protests against police brutality in front of the Austin Police Department Headquarters downtown when officers tackled him to the ground and punched him, KXAN News reported. Garcia’s livestream from that evening can be seen here.
According to an affidavit obtained by KXAN, Austin Police Department officers were arresting another man and had warned Garcia to get back when the videojournalist began reaching between the officers. An officer then pushed Garcia back, the affidavit alleges, and Garcia attempted to turn and run into the crowd. Officers then took Garcia to the ground in the APD parking garage and placed him under arrest, according to the affidavit.
In Garcia’s footage from that night, he appears to be filming the arrest of a protester when an officer repeatedly pushes him back from the individual under arrest. The officer then points at Garcia and can be heard saying, “Grab him!”
A video of Garcia’s arrest was posted on Facebook that night. In the video, multiple officers can be seen wrestling Garcia to the ground while individuals can be heard shouting “Get off of him” and “Give us Hiram back!” Approximately 1 minute and 30 seconds into the video, Garcia appears to free his right arm before officers immediately restrain him again. An officer can be seen punching Garcia twice in the stomach before other officers block the view.
The affidavit said officers “kept telling Hiram he was under arrest and to place his hands behind his back, but Hiram would not comply and kept tensing his arms in an attempt to not be placed in handcuffs.”
A post to Garcia’s Facebook page at approximately 11:30 p.m. alerted his followers to the arrest.
“Hiram was taken into police custody tonight during his stream. We are dealing with it, and appreciate all your help and concern,” the post reads.
Garcia was booked at the Travis County Jail at 12:16 a.m. and released at 11:45 p.m. on July 18, according to booking information shared with the Tracker. A post to Garcia’s Facebook page announced his release on bond at 1:20 a.m. on July 19.
KXAN reported Garica was arrested on charges of interfering with public duties and resisting arrest.
Garcia posted on July 21 that his equipment — which included a “GoPro, light, monopod, microphone, battery pack, adapters and other important accessories” — was not returned to him upon his release, and that he would not be able to retrieve it until the following day.
When the equipment was returned, Garcia posted that his microphone was broken and a cord was missing.
“Overall, my equipment was obviously not handled with care,” Garcia wrote.
In a statement to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker emailed from Garcia’s account, a representative for Garcia said, “We have no comment on the arrest as that is not our position or job. We are there to show what is happening as it happens. In this case we were targeted and arrested as you can see on the video by the very police we had been interviewing for months.”
The representative also stated that the charges against Garcia have since been dropped.
APD and the Travis County Jail did not respond to requests for comment.
Editor's Note: This article has been updated to reflect booking information shared with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in compliance with a Texas Public Information Act request.
Independent journalist Ari Taylor told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was assaulted and detained by federal officers while covering a protest in Portland, Oregon, on July 2, 2020.
Taylor, who was livestreaming for Halospace Community Media and filming for the Grassroots Activist International Association, was documenting one of the many protests that have been ongoing for months in Portland and across the U.S. in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. The Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.
The Portland protests 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. Taylor said she is participating in a separate class-action suit against federal officers and Chad Wolf, former acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, for using excessive force against protesters.
On the night of July 2, several hundred protesters gathered outside of the Multnomah County Justice Center, according to local news station KGW. After several demonstrators broke into the building, federal agents emerged to clear the area around 11:42, according to a Portland Police Bureau report. The Portland police declared a riot about 10 minutes later.
Taylor told the Tracker that right before the riot was declared, she was filming a glass door that had been shattered during an altercation between federal officers and a shirtless individual. According to Taylor, the officers were pushing down on the door and broke it, but the individual was arrested for the incident.
"They [officers] had shoved another member of the press with their shield, and I had gone to help him up," Taylor said. "Then they went after the shirtless individual, and I turned around to get his arrest. I had my back to the officers and was filming the crowd, and that's when they attacked me."
In a video taken by independent journalist Eric Greatwood and posted on YouTube, at about the one-minute mark, several officers can be seen pulling Taylor across the courthouse entrance and into the building amidst clouds of purple smoke and yelling from the crowd. At the 1:45 mark in another video, it is clear that Taylor is being dragged by her arm and leg. Another video shows Taylor's camera footage intercut with another individual's footage, and she can be seen being dragged up the stairs around the 0:50 mark.
Taylor said the officers pulled her across a pile of broken glass, damaging her DSLR camera and lens in the process.
Once inside the building, Taylor identified a mix of officers from the Portland police, DHS, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, based on their uniforms and badges, she told the Tracker. They brought her to a holding facility on the third floor, she said, but wouldn’t tell her what she was being charged with.
"A male officer patted me down and searched me," said Taylor. "Every hour, they'd come in and I'd ask to talk to a lawyer and they wouldn't let me."
Around 5:30 a.m., the officers released her without any paperwork or rationale as to why she was detained, said Taylor, adding that they only stated, "We may be talking later."
"They still have my gimbal," she said, referring to a mechanical stabilizer for her camera. She said the officers had confiscated all her belongings, including her backpack, gas mask and camera equipment when they searched her. "There's nothing to be held accountable. I have no paperwork to prove that I was ever in their facilities."
At the time, Taylor had press credentials stating the organizations she was affiliated with, she said. She tweeted photos of numerous bruises, cuts and scrapes sustained from the incident, and said she ended up going to the hospital for treatment of injuries to her hip, back and foot.
This just my view and one other persons view there are many other views of my federal kidnapping that you can watch. I was given no paper work and still don’t have all my stuff. I had many injuries but I will post pictures of a few. https://t.co/9hWBP4LCEe pic.twitter.com/oiAfVAkyec
— Pdx Peoples News (@PdxPeoples) July 17, 2020
The DHS, which has coordinated the federal presence in Portland, didn’t respond to a request for comment about the incident.
Freelance journalist Lesley McLam was arrested on June 30, 2020, while covering a protest in Portland, Oregon. McLam — together with Cory Elia, a colleague at Village Portland and KBOO radio station who was arrested with her — has since filed a lawsuit against the city of Portland, the state, and law enforcement for their arrest and treatment afterwards.
McLam was covering one of the many protests that have broken out across the U.S. in response to police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following 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.
In Portland, nightly protests over Floyd’s death began on May 29, prompting Mayor Ted Wheeler to declare a curfew that lasted three days. Even after the nightly curfew was lifted, journalists continued to be targeted by police, according to a class-action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon. McLam is part of that suit, as well, which resulted in a temporary restraining order and an agreement by the city in July not to arrest, harm, or impede any journalists or legal observers.
The June 30 demonstration took place the day before a planned vote to extend the city’s contract with the police union. Protesters marched over a mile from Peninsula Park to the Portland Police Association headquarters in the neighborhood of North Portland. Soon after protesters arrived at PPA offices around 9 p.m., the police declared an “unlawful assembly” and ordered them to disperse.
McLam was livestreaming when the police declared a riot around 11 p.m. and followed as they moved protesters east on North Lombard Street, further away from the PPA offices. About 22 minutes into the footage, she captures Elia’s arrest. She can be heard demanding that they release Elia and turn over his phone and other personal items to her. The tracker has documented Elia's arrest here.
About 11 minutes later, the video shuts off at the moment McLam gets arrested. After an officer tells her to “Get off the street,” she can be heard responding, “I’m a member of the press. I’m on the crosswalk.” Then an officer can be seen approaching her, and the camera goes askew and filming ends.
On July 8, Elia and McLam filed a civil lawsuit against the city, the state, and multiple law enforcement officers for allegedly violating their constitutional rights and for battery, assault, negligence and false arrest. They are also seeking compensation for their injuries and punitive damages.
According to the complaint, as McLam attempted to film the officers present at Elia’s arrest, she was rushed by approximately six officers. “McLam’s glasses flew off as she was tackled,” it said, adding that officers “hit and/or punched McLam in the legs and knees, causing contusions and muscle pain and spraining her ankle.” She also had swelling, bruising and tenderness from her handcuffs, according to the complaint.
In addition, due to the stress of her arrest, McLam experienced vomiting and urinary incontinence, according to the complaint. In a video posted on Twitter by a bystander, a handcuffed McLam can be seen vomiting as officers empty her pockets.
McLam was taken to Multnomah County Detention Center, where she was placed in an isolation cell “covered in what appeared to be dried, sticky vomit and smeared feces,” according to the complaint. When she started to feel cramping, McLam worried that the stress had started her menstrual cycle early. She called out for a menstrual pad which wasn’t brought to her until more than 30 minutes later, the complaint said.
While the police referred criminal charges to the Multnomah County district attorney’s office, attorneys in that office declined to file charges, resulting in a “no-complaint,” according to McLam’s defense attorney. But the police continued to hold her for several more hours before releasing her around 6:30 p.m. on July 1, the complaint said.
KBOO, where McLam and Elia voluntarily co-host a podcast, released a statement strongly condemning their arrest. “The nationwide trend of suppressing the freedom of speech or freedom of press by attack or arrest by police is disturbing and must be addressed,” the station said.
Asked by the Tracker about the civil suit in March 2021, McLam said there were no publicly available updates.
“I think it’s really important that people have a better understanding of the dynamics that are actually happening on the ground,” she said.
When reached by email about the incident, the Portland Police Bureau declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
Freelance journalist Cory Elia was arrested on June 30, 2020, while covering a protest in Portland, Oregon. Elia — together with Lesley McLam, a colleague at Village Portland and KBOO radio station who was arrested with him — has since filed a lawsuit against the city of Portland, the state, and law enforcement for their arrest and treatment afterwards.
Elia was covering one of the many protests that have broken out across the U.S. in response to police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following 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.
In Portland, nightly protests over Floyd’s death began on May 29, prompting Mayor Ted Wheeler to declare a curfew that lasted three days. Even after the nightly curfew was lifted, journalists continued to be targeted by police, according to a class-action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon. Elia is part of that suit, as well, which resulted in a temporary restraining order and an agreement by the city in July not to arrest, harm or impede any journalists or legal observers.
The June 30 demonstration took place the day before a planned vote to extend the city’s contract with the police union. Protesters marched over a mile from Peninsula Park to the Portland Police Association headquarters in the neighborhood of North Portland. Soon after demonstrators arrived at PPA offices around 9 p.m., the police declared an “unlawful assembly” and ordered them to disperse.
Elia was livestreaming when the police declared a riot around 11 p.m. and followed as they moved protesters east on North Lombard Street, further away from the PPA offices. A little more than 17 minutes into the footage, Elia can be heard telling an officer that he recognizes him. Then the camera goes askew as the officer knocks it out of his hand.
Another livestream tweeted by Elia shortly after shows the police line pushing him back. “One of your officers just tried to break my phone,” he can be heard saying.
After the police stop at an intersection, Elia walks to the other side of a car to create more distance from the police. He can be heard getting into a verbal back and forth with an officer about whether the press is exempt from police orders, and the officer responds that the protest was a riot. Elia then returns to the police line and asks an officer for his name and badge number. “Are you Bartlett? I think I recognize you from the other night,” he says. A little after six minutes into the video, Elia is placed under arrest.
He was charged with two counts of assaulting a police officer, two counts of interfering with a peace officer, one count of resisting arrest, and one count of disorderly conduct. Elia’s phone was seized as part of the arrest, he tweeted after his release the next day. Elia tweeted on July 9 that most of his gear had been returned to him.
On July 8, Elia and McLam filed a civil lawsuit against the city, the state, and multiple law enforcement officers for allegedly violating their constitutional rights and for battery, assault, negligence and false arrest. They are also seeking compensation for their injuries and punitive damages.
The suit alleges that after Elia recognized PPB Officer John Bartlett, who is named as a defendant, the officer “turned to his fellow officer and said something.” Then Bartlett, along with other PPB officers and an Oregon State Police trooper, grabbed Elia and forced him to the ground, “dog-piling” him, according to the complaint. The suit also alleges that in the course of the arrest, an officer kicked him in the groin.
After Elia was taken to the Multnomah County Detention Center, his protective mask was taken from him, which the complaint alleges was a concern since “no officers were wearing masks,” despite the state’s COVID-19 mask mandate, according to the complaint.
Elia was placed in isolation twice, the suit alleges. The second time he “began suffering a panic attack, experiencing severe claustrophobia, heart racing, vomiting and mental anguish,” the complaint said. He was released after 10 hours in jail.
KBOO, where Elia and McLam voluntarily co-host a podcast, released a statement on July 1 strongly condemning their arrest. “The nationwide trend of suppressing the freedom of speech or freedom of press by attack or arrest by police is disturbing and must be addressed,” the station said.
While the police referred criminal charges to the Multnomah County district attorney’s office, attorneys in that office declined to file charges, resulting in a “no-complaint,” according to Elia’s defense attorney.
Because of Elia’s ongoing civil suit stemming from this incident, he declined to comment further to the Tracker. As of press time, McLam said there were no publicly available updates about the lawsuit.
When reached by email about the incident, the Portland Police Bureau declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
Andre Lamar, a photographer and reporter for the Dover Post, was detained as he covered protests against police violence in Delaware on June 9, 2020, according to his outlet.
The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.
The demonstrations continued in Dover on June 9, as protesters marched to nearby Camden along Route 13, according to news reports. Several dozen protesters blocked traffic near a Wawa convenience store.
In a Facebook Live video posted shortly after his release, Lamar explained the protesters had used the tactic of blocking traffic for several days as a way to engage the public with their message as the police stood by. There was tension between the protesters and police on June 9, Lamar said in his reporting on Facebook Live, but the protest remained non-violent.
The Dover Police claimed the protesters had become “more hostile” to motorists and pedestrians in recent days, leading to 911 calls and nearly missed traffic accidents. According to the Delaware State Police, the situation on June 9 escalated when a police vehicle was not allowed to pass and the officer exited the vehicle. Law enforcement warned the protesters to stop blocking traffic and get off the road, the state police statement said.
Lamar captured his detention on a Facebook Live video posted around 6:30 p.m. In the video, Lamar films as officers arrest protesters on the grass next to the road. The officers “slammed them down to the ground,” Lamar says in the video. “There are people laying down on the ground right now and we don’t know why.”
In the video, Lamar asks officers why they are arresting protesters. But he does not get an answer. He appears to place the camera down on the grass. Seconds later, Lamar begins to ask “Sir, why are people…” when a Dover Police officer grabs him suddenly.
“I’m with the press! I’m with the press!” Lamar yells as the camera shakes chaotically, capturing glimpses of several Dover Police officers placing him into custody.
Drone footage released by the Dover Police show officers completing the arrests of protesters on the side of the road. Lamar stands to the side and bends down to access his backpack. A Dover Police officer leaves one individual already in custody and begins to approach Lamar.
The Dover Police said the officer was concerned for public and officer safety, not knowing what Lamar was retrieving from his bag. Throughout the week some protesters had been armed, Dover Police said.
Suddenly the officer charges at Lamar and grabs him. Two other Dover Police officers nearby assist in restraining Lamar.
“I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!” Lamar says to the officers in his Facebook Live video. Officers tell him to stop resisting. “I have a press badge on,” Lamar says.
“You may, but you gotta listen to us, OK? Just relax,” an officer responds.
An officer picks up Lamar’s phone, which is still filming his Facebook Live video. Lamar addresses his audience. “You’ve got no help here,” an officer says. “The best thing you can do is be quiet, alright?”
For at least nine times in two minutes, Lamar identifies as a journalist. The livestream ends as an officer places Lamar’s camera into his bag.
Lamar and 21 others were taken into custody and transported to Delaware State Police Troop 3, the state and Dover Police said. Lamar was released without charge after police confirmed he was working as a journalist.
One other individual was released without charge. Twenty were charged with a combination of misdemeanor charges including disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and obstruction, state police said.
Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings said in a statement that "neither a prosecution of these protesters, nor an investigation into the police—both of which have been demanded, with equal volume—would serve a good purpose." Jennings added that her office asked Delaware State Police to release Lamar immediately upon learning he was in custody.
Delaware Governor John Carney condemned Lamar’s arrest on Twitter. “Reporters have a fundamental right to cover the demonstrations we’re seeing in Delaware and across our country,” he wrote. “They should not be arrested for doing their jobs. That’s not acceptable.”
After his release, Lamar continued to report on a livestream from outside the police station, where family members and supporters of the arrested protesters had gathered.
“Honestly, I’m pissed,” Lamar, who is Black, says in the live video. “I’m pissed because this should never have happened. And I’m more pissed because I’m privileged. I have a badge. That’s why I believe I’m still not inside Troop 3 right now.”
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering Black Lives Matter protests across the country. Find these incidents here.
Drone footage published on the Dover Police YouTube account shows officers detaining journalist Andre Lamar, on the left side of the image, while he was covering protests against police violence on June 9, 2020.
",arrested and released,Dover Police Department,None,None,True,None,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",,, 2020-08-31 11:49:05.313644+00:00,2023-09-01 18:30:32.963903+00:00,Journalist arrested following Birmingham protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-arrested-following-birmingham-protest/,2023-09-01 18:30:32.752480+00:00,unknown (charges dropped as of 2023-07-27),,(2023-07-27 11:02:00+00:00) Charges dropped against journalist arrested in Birmingham,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Michael Harriot (The Root),,2020-06-04,False,Birmingham,Alabama (AL),33.52066,-86.80249,"Michael Harriot, a senior writer for the Root, was arrested while covering protests in Birmingham, Alabama, on June 4, 2020, according to published reports of the event.
The protests were held in response to a video showing a Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, for more than eight minutes during an arrest on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. The incident sparked anti-police brutality and Black Lives Matter demonstrations across the country.
According to AL.com, approximately 100 people had assembled in Linn Park on the afternoon of June 4. At around 7 p.m., curfew in Birmingham at the time, police reportedly directed the crowd to disperse and told members of the media to have their press credentials clearly displayed. Many protesters had left the park by that point, according to AL.com, but the few who were willing to get arrested stayed, and they were.
According to the news site, officers then made their way to an area where members of the media had gathered, including Harriot, who was filming with his cellphone. Harriot did not respond to emailed requests for comment.
In a video shot by AL.com of Harriot's arrest, reporter Carol Robinson can be heard narrating the scene, saying, “They’re asking if he’s media. He says he is. But he says he does not have a credential.”
In an article for the Root, Harriot noted that multiple journalists had not been wearing credentials, citing a security advisory that warned that press badges had made some journalists targets.
“The cops asked if there was anyone they could call to verify that I was press,” Harriot wrote. “I pointed to the police officers and called them by their names but my arresting officers did not bother to verify the information.”
Harriot also said that he advised the officers to call the mayor’s office, as he had conducted an interview with Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin less than 24 hours earlier. The officers also would not allow Harriot access to his phone so he could show them his digital credential.
According to AL.com, the officers then zip-tied his hands and directed him into a police van.
Later that day, Harriot tweeted succinctly about his arrest and that he was still being held in the Birmingham City Jail. In a tweet posted a little over an hour later, he said that he had been released.
Arrested. Was covering protests. Still in Birmingham City Jail.@TheRoot @JoyAnnReid @rolandsmartin
— michaelharriot (@michaelharriot) June 5, 2020
In his account of the arrest and his time in custody, Harriot wrote that in the three years he has covered protests, activism and police brutality in Birmingham — in addition to other Black Lives Matters protests across the country — he had never before been arrested.
“Even after local reporters were attacked while covering the recent protests, I was not worried,” he wrote. He also noted that by the time he was arrested, the protest had entirely dispersed.
But despite standing entirely apart from the park and surrounded by other members of the press, Harriot was arrested.
“I informed them that I was with the media and I knew they were about to be in some deep shit when they rounded up those of us who didn’t have visible credentials,” he wrote. “Locking me up was one thing, but arresting journalists for doing their job was another thing.”
“They did not arrest ‘journalists.’ They arrested the only black journalist.”
While at a staging area a few blocks away, Harriot said, an officer leveraged his knee against Harriot’s thigh in order to secure the zip cuffs as tight as possible. Harriot wrote that despite his efforts to keep blood flowing, he eventually lost all feeling in his hands.
After arriving at the city jail, Harriot said, multiple officers attempted and failed to remove the cuffs, as his hands had swollen. Ultimately, he recounted, officers had to dig into Harriot’s skin in order to cut the zip ties.
Harriot said officers then directed him to put on a jail uniform, took his mug shot and fingerprinted him. He said he was then informed that someone was waiting to speak with him.
“‘Finally,’ I thought. ‘It’s probably the mayor or one of his highest level administration officials who is here to make sure I’m ok,’” Harriot wrote. “Nah. It was the FBI.”
The agents, Harriot said, read him his Miranda rights and said they “just wanted to talk.” Harriot says he declined.
Shortly thereafter, he was able to retrieve his cellphone and was released to a lobby where activists waited to bail out and welcome those who had been arrested.
On June 5, Mayor Woodfin commented on the Birmingham Police Department’s treatment of journalists. Two other reporters — Howard Koplowitz and Jonece Starr Dunigan — had been detained on June 3.
“Our curfew was not intended to stifle the voices of our people or our press,” Woodfin wrote on Twitter. “We need them more now than ever.”
BPD Public Information Officer Sergeant Rod Mauldin advised the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker to direct all questions about Harriot’s arrest to the mayor’s office, which did not respond to emails requesting comment.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd-control ammunition or tear gas, or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find these incidents here.
Tampa Bay Times reporter Divya Kumar was detained in the early hours of June 3, 2020, while covering a protest in Tampa, Florida.
Protesters had gathered in Tampa and in cities across the U.S. to denounce police brutality following the death of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25.
The Times reported that Kumar was arrested downtown when Tampa Bay Police Department officers declared an unlawful assembly near Joe Chillura Courthouse Square.
The outlet reported that Kumar held up her media credentials to identify herself as a member of the press as a line of bicycle officers advanced. However, one of the bicycle officers knocked Kumar to the ground, handcuffed her and then placed her in plastic zip ties for 10 to 15 minutes.
Luis Santana, a Times photojournalist, posted photos of her detention on Twitter.
@TB_Times @divyadivyadivya places in cuffs and detained by @TampaPD while covering the protests in downtown Tampa even after identifying herself as a Times reporter. She was eventually released. pic.twitter.com/4E9095kmcM
— Luis Santana (@TBTphotog) June 3, 2020
“I don’t know what I could have done differently,” Kumar told the Times. “I identified myself as a journalist and tried to get out of there safely.”
In a news conference held later that day, Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan defended the officers’ actions and emphasized that Kumar had been detained, not arrested.
“I think what happened was in their effort to cover the actions they ended up too close to it and ended up getting detained,” Dugan said, adding that Kumar was released after she was identified as a member of the media.
At the same press conference, Mayor Jane Castor suggested that many people attended the protest with fake media credentials, and declined to apologize for Kumar’s detention.
“We got bigger things out there than apologizing to a reporter that gets detained that didn’t leave when they were asked to leave three times,” Castor said.
The Times reported that later that day, Castor did call Kumar to apologize, as did Chief Assistant City Attorney Kirby Rainsberger.
Rainsberger said officers’ treatment of Kumar was “an overreaction,” and the city was reiterating the right of the press to the department during officer roll calls and via email.
In a statement published that day, Times Executive Editor Mark Katches objected to the detentions of Kumar and a second Times journalist, Jay Cridlin, in St. Petersburg the night before. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documented Cridlin’s arrest here.
“Journalists need to be able to do our jobs and report the news without being harassed, detained, intimidated or harmed by law enforcement,” Katches said.
The Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find these incidents here.
Anna Slatz, a reporter for the Canadian news website Rebel News, was arrested while reporting protests in New York, New York, on June 2, 2020.
Slatz told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she’d traveled to the U.S. to cover the protests that had spread throughout the nation after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody on May 25. Rebel News featured her coverage on a special page, stopantifa.com.
Slatz first reported from protests outside the White House in Washington, D.C. She said in a June 2 report that she was nearly arrested by a charging police officer, but he passed her by after she yelled out that she was a journalist.
On June 2, she was following a couple thousand protesters march through Manhattan when she stopped to film a chaotic scene at a Zara clothing store around 9 p.m., she told the Tracker. The glass entrance was shattered. Some were stealing. Others were throwing clothes in the air. One protester body-slammed someone emerging from the store with stolen goods. And then the police swept in making mass arrests.
In video of her arrest published by Rebel News after her release, Slatz was soon confronted by several officers screaming for people to go home. The video shows Slatz amid a group of people, including green-hatted National Lawyers Guild legal observers, being forcefully ushered off the block.
An officer pushed Slatz hard against her chest with his baton, she told the Tracker. An officer then grabbed her by the throat and shoved her into the street, she said. The video is unclear, but a hand of an officer can be seen reaching out toward Slatz. She shrieks as the footage shakes violently, then stumbles into the crosswalk.
An officer approaches and waves at her to keep moving, the video shows. She crosses to the other side of the street, where another officer orders two officers to arrest her. They don’t immediately react to the order, so the officer repeats it more aggressively.
“No! No! Media is exempted! Media is exempted!” Slatz yells in the video. An officer pulls out handcuffs as Slatz pleads, “Stop, stop, stop!” Then the video cuts out.
The officers brought her to the ground, breaking her glasses, she reported after her release.
In the face of the unrest, New York had imposed an 8 p.m. curfew, which excluded essential workers, including news media. Slatz told the Tracker she repeatedly identified herself as a journalist. But as a new reporter for Rebel News, she had yet to receive a hard press credential from the outlet, though she had a printed copy of it, she said.
She also said that the NYPD had stopped issuing press credentials. On June 6, Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted that “being in a crisis is no excuse” for the NYPD to stop processing applications for press credentials. He said he directed the NYPD to expedite applications.
Slatz was taken to Brooklyn Central Booking for processing, she told the Tracker. She was placed in a small cell with some 20 other women, packed “back to chest like sardines” without masks. She was told she would be given a summons and released.
Instead, she was transferred to Manhattan Central Booking around 3 a.m. She would remain there without soap, running water, or a bed until her release on June 4, she said. Other women in her cell had been held even longer.
Slatz managed to call her employer on the first night of her arrest, who hired several lawyers, including Michael Weinstock, a New Yorker currently running for Congress.
Weinstock filed papers declaring himself Slatz’s lawyer, but due to a likely clerical error, the court appointed a public defender to represent Slatz during her arraignment on June 4, Weinstock and Slatz told the Tracker. The precautions necessary for the coronavirus and the sheer number of recent arrests severely strained the system, Weinstock said.
Slatz said she was released on a charge of obstructing traffic. Her next court date was scheduled for Sept. 3, she said.
The NYPD and Mayor de Blasio’s office did not respond to requests for comment. The Manhattan district attorney announced in a press release on June 5 that his office would not prosecute unlawful assembly or disorderly conduct arrests. But Slatz told the Tracker on June 10 that her charges had not been officially dropped.
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 was amended to remove a misstatement about the duration of the penalty carried by an obstruction of traffic charge and to use clearer language about Slatz's scheduled court appearance.
Rebel News reporter Anna Slatz flashes a peace sign shortly after her June 4 release from Manhattan Central Booking.
",arrested and released,New York Police Department,2020-06-04,None,True,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",,, 2020-10-15 19:38:35.861177+00:00,2021-11-19 16:36:12.299065+00:00,"Detroit Free Press reporter detained, pushed to ground while covering a protest for story on police tactics",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/detroit-free-press-reporter-detained-pushed-ground-while-covering-protest-story-police-tactics/,2021-11-19 16:36:12.236157+00:00,,,,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault",,,,Darcie Moran (Detroit Free Press),,2020-06-02,False,Detroit,Michigan (MI),42.33143,-83.04575,"Detroit Free Press reporter Darcie Moran had her hands zip-tied and was flung to the ground by Detroit police while reporting on protests in the city on June 2, 2020, the reporter told the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Moran said that she was working on a story about police tactics and observed police blocking a line of protesters on Gratiot Avenue and an armored vehicle coming up from behind the protesters.
Moran said she was standing on a grassy area with other reporters near the Family Dollar store at 10950 Gratiot Avenue while the protesters were in the streets. She stepped slightly away from the group to get a better glimpse of the protesters.
“All of a sudden there was a rush to my right and I can’t say exactly what happened because it was a little bit of a blur,” she said, stating that protesters might have run up to the curb between the grassy area and the street.
“What I do know is that police started coming up from the side and not from the spots that we had been facing,” she said. “I turned and as I go to lift up my press badge that’s hanging on my chest, I am pushed to the ground and they start putting me in zip ties,” she said.
Moran said she had a respirator on at the time and so wasn’t sure if police could hear her yell, “I’m media, I’m media!” Moran said her colleagues behind her were yelling that she was a member of the media and for police to release her once she was on the ground.
Moran’s colleagues posted a video of the incident online. “You can see in the video that he allows me to put my phone in my back pocket,” Moran said.
Another officer walked up and instructed his colleague to release Moran, the journalist said. Moran said that until she saw the video, she didn’t realize that her second hand was in the process of being zip-tied when the police officer intervened.
“What’s interesting about this is they had released media passes for these events two nights prior,” Moran said. “[I] had a giant one printed out and used duck tape to strap it on my back, so it was a very large sign that a number of people pointed out would have been visible as I was on the ground being zip-tied,” she told CPJ, a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
Moran said that the officer who ended the confrontation helped her up from the ground, apologized and then found her later to apologize again. Moran said she had a scratch and some back and ankle pain the next day.
Detroit police did not respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment.
Derrick Broze, co-host of Free Thinker Radio on 90.1 KPFT and a freelance reporter, was arrested in downtown Houston, Texas, while documenting protests on June 2, 2020, according to his and other news accounts of events.
Protests in Houston were held in response to the death of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd grew up in Houston’s Third Ward and lived in Texas until around 2014, Texas Monthly magazine reported.
In a video posted to Facebook, Broze narrates that protesters were near the intersection of McKinney Street and Avenida De Las Americas when some individuals began throwing bottles at a dense line of advancing officers.
A few minutes later, Broze can be heard saying, “They’re coming on both sides, they’re closing us in.”
In an account written for The Last American Vagabond, Broze said that he had been documenting the protests for approximately five hours before police declared the demonstration an unlawful assembly.
“The police – dressed in riot gear and armed with live ammunition – surrounded the protesters, medics, and yours truly using a tactic known as ‘kettling,’” Broze wrote. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented the arrests and assaults of other journalists within kettles here.
Houston police officers surrounded the group of around 50 protesters and began “violently rushing into the crowd and grabbing people,” according to Broze’s account.
“During the chaos I told several officers I was press documenting the situation,” he wrote. “I was told over and over that I should take it up with the courts.”
In Broze’s footage, he can be heard identifying himself as a member of the press multiple times and asking whether he can be released from the kettle or speak to a public information officer.
Broze tweeted the following day that he was among the individuals “snatched” and thrown to the ground when placed under arrest. His footage of the incident ends before he is placed under arrest.
Broze added that he was charged with “obstructing a highway/passageway.”
breaking the law. However, me and the other 2 dozen people I was kidnapped with were kettled in by the police as they violently snatched protesters, throwing some to the ground, including me. I was charged with "obstructing a highway/passageway" for being on the sidewalk.
— Derrick Broze (@DBrozeLiveFree) June 3, 2020
In his account of the incident, Broze wrote that he was taken to Harris County Jail and held there for 16 hours.
The Houston Police Department did not respond to a voicemail requesting comment.
Broze wrote, “As a journalist (and an opponent of police violence) I will continue to document the George Floyd protests and other important movements in the United States.”
The Harris County District Attorney’s Office dismissed nearly 800 charges on June 9 against individuals at demonstrations “in the interest of justice,” the Houston Chronicle reported. The DA’s office did not respond to a request to verify that the arrest charges against Broze were among those dropped, but the Tracker is marking as such barring further information.
The Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country. Find these incidents here.
Protesters march at a rally for George Floyd on June 2, 2020, in Houston, Texas.
",arrested and released,Houston Police Department,2020-06-03,None,True,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,unknown,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, kettle, protest",,, 2020-06-09 13:52:37.487049+00:00,2023-08-18 19:30:04.313530+00:00,"Asbury Park Press journalist arrested covering protests, released the next day",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/asbury-park-press-journalist-arrested-covering-protests-released-next-day/,2023-08-18 19:30:04.165304+00:00,rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2020-06-02),,"(2020-07-13 07:14:00+00:00) Reporter sues New Jersey police following investigation that cleared officers of wrongdoing, (2023-06-08 10:27:00+00:00) Reporter settles civil suit against New Jersey police","Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault",,,,Gustavo Martínez Contreras (Asbury Park Press),,2020-06-01,False,Asbury Park,New Jersey (NJ),40.22039,-74.01208,"Gustavo Martínez Contreras, a multimedia journalist with the New Jersey daily Asbury Park Press, was arrested while covering an anti-police violence protest in Asbury Park on the night of June 1, 2020. He was released after spending the night in custody.
The city of Asbury Park had imposed an 8 p.m. curfew ahead of planned protests, part of the national wave of unrest since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody on May 25. The curfew, which explicitly excluded credentialed media, did not stop protesters from marching, according to the Asbury Park Press.
Throughout the night, Martínez posted videos of the protest in Asbury Park on Twitter. In his last video, Martínez captured his own arrest while livestreaming.
The video, posted around 10 p.m., shows a suddenly tense scene compared to his previous footage. Asbury Park police began to enforce the curfew by advancing in riot gear and making arrests. A police officer shoved Martínez, apologized with no explanation, and returned attention to protesters.
Minutes later on the feed, Martínez filmed police arresting two young protesters when two police officers approached him shouting “Go home” and “This shit is fucking over.” A third police officer off-screen said “Fuck him, he’s the problem” and tackled Martínez to the ground. “You're under arrest. Put your fucking hands behind your back," the officer said. The video then cut out.
In a personal account on the Press website, Martínez wrote that one police officer yelled “take down his fucking phone” and slapped it out of his hand. Police escorted him to a van transporting arrested protesters.
On the way to the van, an officer asked Martínez what was hanging around his neck, Martínez wrote. His press badge, he replied. It was one of several times Martínez identified himself as a journalist to the police before, during, and after his arrest.
The van took the prisoners to Belmar Police Department. Martínez told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that a plainclothes officer asked him if he knew about or had any interaction at the protest with the radical left-wing activist movement antifa, a group President Donald Trump vowed to declare a terrorist organization, even though he reportedly may lack the legal authority to do so. Martínez said he was familiar with the group because of his work as a journalist. He said the officer warned him to avoid antifa because it is a terrorist organization.
Martínez was released the following morning after five hours in custody, he wrote. Police returned his belongings, including his phone, backpack, safety goggles, and helmet.
Martínez had been booked on charges of failing to obey an order to disperse, according to a summons posted on the Monmouth County Prosecutor Office’s Facebook page. The charges were quickly dropped by morning. The police request to dismiss the charge, also posted on the prosecutor’s Facebook page, claimed that Martínez had failed to identify as a reporter, which Martínez disputes.
The Asbury Park Police and the Belmar Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
On Twitter, New Jersey State Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal pledged to “figure out why this happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again [because] in America, we don’t lock up reporters for doing their job.”
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.
Cincinnati police temporarily detained Enquirer journalist Pat Brennan as he covered protests against police violence in the Over-The-Rhine neighborhood on June 1, 2020.
Brennan told the Tracker that he normally covers professional soccer but has reported on many police scenes in his career. With a short staff due to furloughs, he was recruited to help cover the protests that swept through Cincinnati and the rest of the nation after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody on May 25.
Cincinnati police began to enforce a curfew shortly after 8 p.m., the paper reported. A video provided by Brennan shows a SWAT vehicle advancing as a loudspeaker blares warnings to leave the streets or face arrest. Protesters run away from the police line. Brennan decided to stay put, identify as a journalist, and let the police pass, he told the Tracker.
His colleague Maddie Mitchell told the Enquirer that Brennan was separated from the group and she called out to him to rejoin. But he suddenly disappeared from view as he crossed behind a police vehicle.
Brennan had crossed behind the vehicle on the orders of the police, his video shows. Brennan records police arresting two people. One officer tells Brennan to “do what you want but back up.” Brennan says he is trying to reconnect with his crew. An officer says to go on the other side of the vehicle. So Brennan crossed to the other side of the street and sought a way to reconnect with his colleagues, he told the Tracker.
The detention was captured in two videos filmed by other media present.
Courtney Francisco, a senior journalist with the local ABC affiliate WCPO, posted on her social media a video that begins moments before police took Brennan into custody.
In the video, two police officers warn Francisco and the WCPO crew to leave the area. “Sir, we are with the news,” she says. “I know but we need space,” one officer responds before warning her again to get back.
Within a minute, the camera swings towards a commotion and records at least seven officers taking Brennan to the ground. As an officer pulls out plastic restraints to cuff Brennan, Francisco gets quickly caught up herself. The two police officers who previously warned her begin shoving her backwards. The officers force the crew around the corner of a building and out of sight of Brennan.
“They were pushing very hard and very fast. I couldn’t keep up,” she says to the camera.
Nick Swartsell, a journalist on furlough from the Cincinnati CityBeat, posted a video on Twitter showing Brennan walk by a police SWAT vehicle toward the police line. Police officers stop Brennan, who is wearing a mask, goggles, and a badge around his neck. A police loudspeaker blares “He’s been told” before the officers take him to the ground.
Brennan told the Tracker he did his best to avoid face-planting as one officer stuck his leg out to trip him. He collapsed to the ground with the officers, who shoved his cheek into the pavement and cuffed him. Police then brought him to a wall where others were being held.
The police released Brennan from custody without charge after 30 minutes, according to the Enquirer.
That night Brennan said on Twitter that he had a “respectful conversation” with Cincinnati’s chief of police, Eliot Isaac. Brennan told the Tracker that Isaac arrived on scene and immediately went to apologize to Brennan.
The police department apologized on Twitter for “any inconvenience” regarding Brennan’s detention and Francisco’s removal from the area. According to Swartsell, Isaac said Brennan “got mixed up in the crowd,” claiming he was wearing goggles and a mask without an obvious ID.
Lt. Steve Saunders, a spokesman for the Cincinnati police department, told the Tracker on June 10 that the department had entered ongoing conversations with media outlets to help better identify journalists and ensure they can report while not interfering in police operations. “If we can do things better, we want to do things better,” he said, while insisting that this applies to journalists, too.
Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley also apologized on Twitter, calling the arrest a “big mistake” and stating that reporters are crucial to democracy.
Francisco and Swartsell did not respond to emailed requests for comment.
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.
While documenting protests in Cincinnati, journalists with ABC affiliate WCPO captured multiple officers forcing Cincinnati Enquirer journalist Pat Brennan to the ground to detain him.
",detained and released without being processed,Cincinnati Police Department,None,None,True,None,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",,, 2020-06-20 13:40:14.226105+00:00,2024-02-29 19:37:39.007724+00:00,Journalist detained by Omaha police for covering protests after curfew,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-one-three-detained-omaha-police-covering-protests-after-curfew/,2024-02-29 19:37:38.919998+00:00,,,,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Equipment Search or Seizure",,equipment bag: count of 1,,Michelle Renne Leach (Freelance),,2020-06-01,False,Omaha,Nebraska (NE),41.25626,-95.94043,"Michelle Renne Leach, a freelance journalist on assignment for the Daily Beast, was briefly detained by police in Omaha, Nebraska, while covering a protest against police violence on June 1, 2020, she told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
Leach was one of at least six journalists who were either detained, searched or aggressively confronted by law enforcement while covering the protest that evening, according to several journalists on the ground that night.
For days, Omaha officials had struggled to respond to escalating protests that began in Minnesota on May 26 and 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.
Protesters once again gathered on June 1 after Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine announced that a white bar owner would not be charged in the fatal shooting of a 22-year-old black man two days earlier, according to The Associated Press. Kleine said the bar owner had fired in self-defense.
The Daily Beast had contacted Leach to report on the developing story, she told the Tracker. When she arrived at the protest, Leach found a calm scene. But things escalated quickly as an 8 p.m. curfew drew close, she said.
Several hundred protesters peacefully engaged with police and National Guardsmen only a block away from the location of the bar shooting in the Old Market area, according to news reports.
After protesters and law enforcement took a knee together, Deputy Police Chief Ken Kanger attempted to escort a large group of the remaining protesters out of the area so they could return home for curfew, according to the Omaha World-Herald. But a water bottle was thrown, pepper balls were fired and the chaos of mass arrests quickly enveloped the block.
Leach told the Tracker she captured an image of police cuffing a kneeling protester right before she, too, was detained. She said one of the arresting officers knew she was a journalist because she had talked to him earlier to get estimates of the number of protesters and officers.
“I was just confused that I was even being arrested because he knew I was just trying to do my job,” Leach said.
The police cuffed Leach in plastic restraints and placed her phone and notebook into her bag. She said at least two officers then led her to a fenced area across the street where they were holding others in custody. They then searched her belongings.
Leach repeatedly insisted she was a journalist throughout her detention and search of her belongings.
At least five other journalists were caught up in the police action as well. The Tracker documents journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests here.
The incidents occurred despite the curfew explicitly excluding "members of the media.” As police waited to transport the arrested protesters, they asked members of the media to leave the area, World-Herald reporter Mike Sautter told the Tracker. The block was “like a crime scene,” the police said.
The detained journalists, including Leach, were eventually released.
Police took Leach away from the other protesters to investigate whether she was a journalist, she told the Tracker. She did not have press credentials.
“I don’t know how much it really would have mattered,” she said, citing the treatment of the other journalists. “The onus really fell on me to show them all of my work and prove who I was.”
After examining Leach’s online portfolio, officers found a National Guardsman to cut off her restraints, she said. The officers told her to hold onto them and gave her a slip of paper to show to any other law enforcement official who might try to arrest her for a curfew violation as she returned home.
Leach said that only upon returning home, her hands tingling and numb, did she realize how tight the restraints had been tied.
Lieutenant Sherie Thomas, a spokesperson for the Omaha Police Department, told the Tracker that Police Chief Todd Schmaderer had ordered “an overall review of the protests.” Thomas later said that the department sent "clear communication" to news outlets "to make sure employees had visible badges showing that they work for the media" and to "wear highly visible vests."
Major Scott Ingalsbe, a spokesperson for the Nebraska National Guard, told the Tracker, “Once National Guardsmen and law enforcement were able to quickly and correctly identify members of the news media, they were released without arrest.”
"We appreciate the work journalists do and the service they provide to our community," Ingalsbe said. He added that he had personally reached out to outlets covering the protests and has yet to hear any indications the National Guard harmed them or interfered with their work.
Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert did not respond to request for comment.
Two days after the protest, the prosecutor reversed course on the shooting case, according to news reports. A grand jury would review the case after all.
Freelance journalist Michelle Renne Leach reports on anti-police violence protests in Omaha, Nebraska, on June 1, 2020, before being detained later in the day.
",detained and released without being processed,Omaha Police Department,None,None,True,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, protest",,, 2020-09-29 15:22:33.141668+00:00,2024-03-10 23:09:28.027548+00:00,"Freelance photojournalist hit with projectiles, arrested while documenting protests in Worcester, Mass.",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-photojournalist-hit-projectiles-arrested-while-documenting-protests-worcester-mass/,2024-03-10 23:09:27.874983+00:00,"obstruction: disorderly conduct (charges dropped as of 2020-11-22), obstruction: disturbing the peace (charges dropped as of 2020-11-22), rioting: failure to disperse during a riot (charges dropped as of 2021-03-19)",,"(2021-03-08 12:31:00+00:00) Freelance photojournalist still facing charges of failure to disperse after arrest during June protest, (2021-03-19 13:31:00+00:00) Final charge against photojournalist dropped based on insufficient evidence, (2020-11-20 13:54:00+00:00) Two of three charges against photojournalist arrested at Worcester protest dropped","Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Search or Seizure, Equipment Damage",,"camera: count of 1, cellphone: count of 1",work product: count of 1,Richard Cummings (Freelance),,2020-06-01,False,Worcester,Massachusetts (MA),42.26259,-71.80229,"Freelance photojournalist Richard Cummings was arrested and charged with failure to disperse and other charges while documenting a protest against police violence in Worcester, Massachusetts, on June 1, 2020.
Cummings told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he went to the protest that day to photograph from a distance, but added he didn’t stay long before heading for the Main South neighborhood to continue work on a long-term documentary project on the area.
Cummings said that at around 9:30 p.m. he noticed an escalated police presence, with officers from the Worcester Police Department, the Massachusetts State Police and the Clark University Police blocking roads and offloading vans filled with officers in riot gear.
Cummings said he heard the officers screaming, as if “to get pumped up for something.” He added he didn’t understand what was happening, because the protest was elsewhere and he hadn’t seen any escalation there.
The Telegram & Gazette, Worcester’s daily newspaper, reported that a group of people had gathered in the neighborhood after the peaceful protest in downtown had dispersed. A confrontation reportedly ensued with law enforcement after the group staged a “die-in” in a roadway.
According to Cummings, the officers moved in formation down Main Street, chanting, “Move back,” and firing tear gas and projectiles as some individuals threw rocks and shot fireworks toward them. He said several people were arrested, many of whom appeared to not have been the ones throwing objects.
Cummings said he was struck twice by projectiles fired by police during the melee, once on his left shoulder and once on his right elbow. He told the Tracker he was unsure what type of projectiles they were.
Cummings said he then moved to stand next to a police formation near the intersection of Hammond and Main, figuring it was a safer place to photograph. He said he told an officer that he was a freelance photojournalist and that the officer directed him to stand on the sidewalk, which he did, continuing to document the scene.
Another officer, who Cummings said seemed to be in charge at the scene, asked Cummings what he was doing. Cummings said he was told it was all right to be where he was. A recording filmed by Cummings and published by the Telegram & Gazette appears to have captured this interaction.
In the video, an officer can also be heard saying of a protester, “I’m keeping eyes on him. I’d love to hit him with a pepper gun.”
About 15 to 20 minutes later, Cummings said, he was suddenly grabbed by an unknown number of officers, who bent him over a brick wall with his arms behind his back. Cummings said an officer screamed he was going to break Cummings’ arms and called him a homophobic slur.
Cummings told the Tracker that he didn’t resist and pleaded with the officer to not break his camera. While a second officer took his camera, Cummings said, the officer who pinned and screamed at Cummings seized his cellphone.
Both the Worcester Police Department and the Worcester County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
Cummings said he was then escorted to a police van, where he said he began to have a panic attack, in part due to the impact of exposure to pepper spray or tear gas and in part due to fear of contracting coronavirus in a confined space. He also said the metal handcuffs cut into his wrists.
“It was hell, pretty much for taking pictures on the sidewalk,” Cummings said. “I wasn’t being rude to any cops. I wasn’t yelling at any cops. I went there ... I didn’t show any side. I was just documenting it.”
Cummings was one of nearly 20 people arrested that night on charges of disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace and failure to disperse during a riot, the Telegram & Gazette reported.
Cummings told the Tracker that, on his release early the next morning, he noticed that videos on his phone appeared to have been deleted. He said that his phone didn’t have password protection, so its data would have been accessible. Cummings said that he was unable to recover any of the deleted footage.
Cummings’ legal team, who are representing multiple people arrested that night, said the phones of two other individuals had disappeared or been destroyed, the Telegram & Gazette reported.
Cummings pleaded not guilty on Aug. 21, according to the Telegram & Gazette. A Worcester County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson told the Tracker that his next hearing is scheduled for Nov. 28. If convicted on all charges, Cummings faces up to a year in prison and fines totaling up to $800.
The protest was held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred total incidents of journalists being assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas, or having their equipment damaged while covering demonstrations across the country. Find all of these cases here.
A photojournalist was tackled to the ground and arrested while documenting protests in Des Moines, Iowa, on June 1, 2020. Mark Nieters, who publishes under Ted Nieters, subsequently filed a lawsuit against the city, the chief of police and the officer involved in the incident.
The protest was one in a series of national demonstrations against police brutality sparked by the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer on May 25 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As the protests continued nightly, Iowa’s Polk County Board of Supervisors implemented a 9 p.m. curfew on May 31 due to “the violent outbreak of civil unrest” in Des Moines.
According to Nieters’ lawsuit, protesters had gathered at the Iowa Capitol on June 1 for an event called “Together We Can Make a Change: A Call to Action.” The formal event ended at 8:15 p.m., but several hundred people marched to the Des Moines Police Department and some ultimately looped back to the Capitol. Police engaged the crowd at around 11:45 p.m., according to the lawsuit, issuing an order to disperse and throwing tear gas canisters and flashbangs toward the protesters. Nieters confirmed the details of the filing to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, and his attorney was not immediately available for comment.
Nieters had left the complex before officers began attempting to disperse the crowd, and was walking alone on Locust Street toward an Embassy Suites located across the street from City Hall. He stopped in one of the hotel’s driveways and began taking photos as officers ran past City Hall in his direction. One of the officers, identified as Brandon Holtan and named as a plaintiff in the suit, ran directly toward Nieters.
“As Defendant Holton approached, Mr. Nieters placed his hands in the air and stated that he was a journalist. Mr. Nieters perceived that Defendant Holton was going to run directly into him and so Mr. Nieters turned his back and tried to brace himself,” the lawsuit states.
Holtan then tackled Nieters to the ground and pepper-sprayed him in the eyes. Nieters confirmed to the Tracker that while this was happening he identified himself as a journalist and said that he had his National Press Photographers Association press card in his back pocket.
In addition to the press card — which Holtan located and examined — the lawsuit states that Nieters was carrying two cameras and wearing a bright blue helmet at the time of the incident.
“Despite observing confirmation that Mr. Nieters was working as a photographer, Defendant Holton proceeded to tightly zip-tie Mr. Nieters’ hands together behind his back and arrest him,” the lawsuit said.
In an email to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, Nieters said that the Des Moines Police officers repeatedly acted recklessly and without regard for the law or common sense.
“I believe I was targeted for being recognizable and in front while covering protests,” Nieters said.
Nieters confirmed to the Tracker that he was held in police custody for 12 hours, during which time he wasn’t allowed to make any calls to arrange for bail or alert anyone to his whereabouts until after his initial court appearance at around 12:30 p.m. Afterward, he was charged with failure to disperse and released.
According to Nieters’ lawsuit, officers lied about the course of events in both the affidavit supporting the charges and in a report about the incident.
On the morning of June 2, Gov. Kim Reynolds held a news conference, where Iowa Department of Public Safety Commissioner Stephan Bayens answered a few questions about the protests. Bayens said law enforcement’s response to the protests had been defined by “restraint, restraint, restraint,” adding that law enforcement did not have “any desire to see anyone that is there in a peaceful capacity or as a member of the media to get caught up with that.”
According to the Register, Nieters had to appear multiple times in court before the charge against him was ultimately dropped on Aug. 13, with all of his court costs to be paid by the prosecutors.
Nieters told the Tracker he was relieved by the outcome, but was alarmed by the prosecutor’s continued pursuit of charges against a Des Moines Register reporter who was arrested while covering protests the day before his arrest.
“It was a relief but also bothersome because Andrea Sahouri was still being charged for her journalism and neither of us were doing anything wrong,” Nieters said.
Sahouri was ultimately acquitted of all charges.
Nieters filed his lawsuit against Officer Holtan, Chief of Police Dana Wingert and the City of Des Moines on Dec. 23, seeking compensation for his injuries and violations of his constitutional rights as well as injunctive relief.
City attorneys moved Nieters’ case from state to federal court in February 2021 and filed a motion for summary judgment in April 2022.
On July 19, U.S. District Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger ruled in favor of the Des Moines Police Department on the federal claims, finding that Holtan had “arguable probable cause” to arrest Nieters because of his proximity to the protesters not complying with orders to disperse.
“Even if Holtan was mistaken in believing Nieters heard the dispersal orders and was following an unlawful assembly, such a mistake was objectively reasonable given the information Holtan received about a 'large' group traveling on Locust Street,” Ebinger wrote.
She added that Nieters turning away from Holtan as he approached could reasonably have been interpreted as an attempt to flee. Ebinger declined to rule on Nieters’ state claims, however, saying they should be decided by Iowa courts.
Gina Messamer, the photojournalist’s attorney, appealed the decision to the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals on July 27. Messamer told the Register that she expects the state proceedings to remain on hold until the appeal process is completed.
Lincoln Journal Star reporter Chris Dunker was thrown to the ground and arrested by law enforcement officers while reporting on protests in Lincoln, Nebraska, on May 31, 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.
Dunker told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was livestreaming a protest in front of the City/County Building in downtown Lincoln for the outlet’s Facebook page. At approximately 8:35 p.m., officers with the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office began to enforce the 8 p.m. curfew order announced that day, he said.
“As law enforcement pursued the protesters away from the area, a deputy sheriff turned toward me and ordered me to leave,” Dunker said. “I was wearing a neon vest with ‘PRESS’ on it and had on my media credential. I told the deputy I had a constitutional right to be there.”
In a video of the incident published by the Journal Star, the deputy can be seen charging at Dunker without a word and tackling him to the ground. Dunker told the Tracker that his knee and elbow were scraped as two deputies pinned him to the ground and handcuffed him.
“I asked them to return my phone, which had fallen onto the concrete parking lot where I was standing, and my hat, which they did,” Dunker said.
Dunker said that another law enforcement officer told the deputy sheriff who had charged at him that officers were not supposed to arrest members of the media. He said the deputy disregarded this and instead continued to lead Dunker to an area where other arrestees were awaiting transport to jail.
“A higher ranking member of the department told the police to check my identity and if I had any warrants before cutting me loose,” Dunker said. “Police promptly did and I was allowed to keep filming the protests for several more hours that evening.”
Sheriff Terry Wagner with the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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.
A screenshot from the livestream of Lincoln Journal Star reporter Chris Dunker of protests in Lincoln, Nebraska, on May 31, 2020. Dunker was detained by police while reporting.
",detained and released without being processed,Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office,None,None,True,None,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",,, 2020-06-05 04:23:42.382996+00:00,2023-04-26 14:17:50.716403+00:00,"Reporter pepper sprayed, arrested amid protests in Des Moines",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-pepper-sprayed-arrested-amid-protests-des-moines/,2023-04-26 14:17:50.431894+00:00,"rioting: failure to disperse (acquitted as of 2021-03-10), obstruction: interference with official acts (acquitted as of 2021-03-10)",,(2021-03-10 13:46:00+00:00) Reporter acquitted of all charges following arrest during Des Moines protest,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault",,,,Andrea Sahouri (Des Moines Register),,2020-05-31,False,Des Moines,Iowa (IA),41.60054,-93.60911,"Police pepper-sprayed and arrested Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri while she was covering protests in Des Moines, Iowa, on May 31, 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.
In a video recorded while in the back of a police transport vehicle, Sahouri said she was reporting on a demonstration at Merle Hay Mall when she was arrested.
— Andrea May Sahouri (@andreamsahouri) June 1, 2020
Shortly before 8 p.m., Sahouri tweeted that police deployed tear gas, forcing all the protesters to run into the street. Sahouri said in her recording that she and her boyfriend were running with protesters when he was struck by a tear gas canister.
“As I was seeing if his leg was O.K., police came closer and we went around the corner and I was saying, ‘I’m press. I’m press. I’m press,’” Sahouri said.
An officer responded, “I didn’t ask,” before spraying her twice in the face with pepper spray, the Register reported. Officers then handcuffed her using zip ties, Sahouri said in the video.
In footage captured by KCCI 8 News, Sahouri can be seen sitting on a curb, hands cuffed behind her back.
“I’m just doing my job as a journalist,” Sahouri said in her recording. “I’m just out here reporting as I see.”
Sahouri was taken to the Polk County Jail, where she was charged with failure to disperse and interference with official acts. She was released from police custody shortly after 11 p.m., the Register reported.
The Des Moines Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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.
KCCI 8 News captured footage of reporter Andrea Sahouri's arrest on May 31, 2020 in Des. Moines, Iowa.
",arrested and released,Des Moines Police Department,None,None,True,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, chemical irritant, protest",,, 2020-06-22 03:37:54.196463+00:00,2022-03-10 22:04:07.206515+00:00,"NBC journalist pepper-sprayed, detained at Minneapolis protest",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/nbc-journalist-pepper-sprayed-detained-minneapolis-protest/,2022-03-10 22:04:07.132733+00:00,,,,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault",,,,Simon Moya-Smith (NBC News),,2020-05-31,False,Minneapolis,Minnesota (MN),44.97997,-93.26384,"NBC News journalist Simon Moya-Smith was pepper-sprayed and detained while covering protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the early hours of May 31, 2020.
Multiple days of protests in Minneapolis and across the nation were sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest on May 25. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital. Thousands gathered around the convenience store where Floyd had been detained and at the police department’s Third Precinct building in the days that followed.
Moya-Smith told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was following along with a group of about a dozen Native American and black protesters as they walked through the south side of Minneapolis shortly after 1 a.m. An 8 p.m. curfew order was in place that night, though members of the media were explicitly exempt.
Four or five Minneapolis police cruisers suddenly came upon the group and encircled them, Moya-Smith said. An officer in one of the vehicles shouted, “Go home! Go home!” to which one of the protesters responded, “We are! We are going home!”
An officer then jumped out of one of the cruisers and began pepper-spraying the protesters indiscriminately and ordering them to get on the ground.
“As we’re all lying down, she comes around and just begins to spray as if she were in her backyard garden — individually, as if she were just spraying her plants,” Moya-Smith said.
He added that he, too, was sprayed while facedown, much of it hitting his back.
“It was a completely unnecessary use of force on the group. Everyone was complying,” Moya-Smith said.
Officers then came around to each of the protesters and asked for their IDs. When they came around to Moya-Smith, he told them that he had an ID in his wallet and that he was a reporter with NBC News. When they told him to wait as he was, Moya-Smith said he thought, “OK, so this is how this is going to go.”
“I’m sure one, two or maybe all of them knew that if they allowed me to exercise my First Amendment right as a reporter that I would immediately begin documenting the situation, and I think that is what they were trying to prevent,” Moya-Smith said.
Moya-Smith told the Tracker that multiple officers checked his press badge: One referred to him as “Mr. Journalist” when ordering him to roll over; another simply shrugged.
I was pepper-sprayed then arrested last night by Minneapolis PD even after identifying myself as a reporter MULTIPLE times:
— Simon Moya-Smith (@SimonMoyaSmith) May 31, 2020
Cop 1: *checks press badge as I’m on the ground*
Cop 2: “Roll on your side, Mr. journalist.”
Cop 3: *loads me in the car, sees my press badge and shrugs*
Moya-Smith was loaded into one of the cruisers and transported to the Minneapolis Police Department’s Fifth Precinct along with the demonstrators. When they arrived at the station, he said, it was chaotic and overwhelmed by the number of arrests that night.
While their arresting officer had decided to issue them citations outside the station and release them, another officer convinced him that there was still space to book them in the jail, Moya-Smith said.
When the officer came around to him to ask for his ID again, Moya-Smith said, “Yupp, and here’s my press badge.”
Moya-Smith said the officer seemed surprised and called over a commanding officer, who immediately said that he needed to be released. Officers dropped him off about half a block from where the National Guard was operating.
“And as they were letting me go [the officer] said, ‘You’re going to tell everybody that we treated you nicely, right?’ And I said, ‘Yeah,’” Moya-Smith told the Tracker.
Moya-Smith said that he was in police custody for a little over an hour and that he suffered no serious effects from the pepper spray other than a few coughing attacks.
He noted that while covering the protests in Minneapolis he found that being a member of the press did not protect him from police tactics.
“They still come directly toward you. They still charge you. It’s not a situation where you can even be a fly on the wall and cover it,” Moya-Smith said. “It feels like more of a target than a badge.”
When asked for comment, a representative from the Minneapolis Police Department’s Records Information Unit told the Tracker that the MPD was not the arresting authority for Moya-Smith. The Minneapolis State Patrol did not respond to requests for comment.
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. Find all of these cases here.
State patrol officers stand guard in Minneapolis on May 31, 2020.
",detained and released without being processed,Minneapolis Police Department,None,None,True,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, chemical irritant, protest",,, 2020-06-03 03:39:03.772761+00:00,2022-11-15 17:22:18.879459+00:00,HuffPost reporter arrested while covering protest in Brooklyn,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/huffpost-reporter-arrested-while-covering-protest-brooklyn/,2022-11-15 17:22:18.785021+00:00,unknown (charges dropped as of 2020-09-30),,(2020-09-30 00:00:00+00:00) Charges dropped against HuffPost journalist,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault",,,,Christopher Mathias (HuffPost),,2020-05-30,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"Christopher Mathias, a senior reporter with HuffPost, was arrested by police while covering anti-racism protests in Brooklyn, New York, on May 30, 2020.
The protests in New York began as demonstrations spread across the country since May 26, sparked by a video of a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, during an arrest. Floyd was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Mathias was covering protests in the Flatbush area on the night of May 30, where he told HuffPost that a dumpster and at least two police cars were set on fire when police began arresting people. Freelance journalist Phoebe Leila Barghouty posted photos on Twitter that appeared to show a New York City police officer restraining Mathias shortly before 11 p.m. and confirmed a short time later that it was Mathias who had been detained.
In an interview with The New York Times about the incident, Mathias said that a police officer ran into him, telling him to move out of the way. Mathias told the Times that he insulted the officer, who then turned around and hit him in the stomach with a baton. Mathias was then taken into custody.
Mathias was wearing a press badge at the time of his arrest, according to HuffPost and photographs of the incident. Other journalists who witnessed police taking him into custody told HuffPost that Mathias was clearly identifying himself as a journalist.
HuffPost reports that, according to Mathias’ wife, his phone was knocked from his hand during the encounter.
HuffPost condemned Mathias’ arrest on Twitter shortly after he was taken into custody and demanded he be released.
Mathias was released from police custody at around 1 a.m. on May 31. The Times reports that he was issued a summons.
Mathias did not return requests for comment about his arrest and HuffPost did not immediately reply to an inquiry seeking more details. The New York City Police Department did not reply to a request for more information about the incident.
Mathias posted on Twitter on May 31 that he was home after he had been taken into custody. He did not offer details about his arrest, but described it as “bogus.”
I'm home & overwhelmed by all your messages of love & support. Thank you.
— Christopher Mathias (@letsgomathias) May 31, 2020
I'll explain more about my arrest later but for now just know it was bogus, as were the arrests of all the brave New Yorkers protesting against a police force that routinely terrorizes this city.
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.
The arrest of HuffPost senior reporter Christopher Mathias during protests in New York on May 30, 2020, was captured by freelance journalist Phoebe Leila Barghouty.
",arrested and released,New York Police Department,2020-05-31,None,True,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",,, 2020-06-09 04:15:54.027872+00:00,2024-02-21 21:15:05.401211+00:00,"In 'pandemonium,' photojournalist arrested, held overnight in NYC",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/pandemonium-photojournalist-arrested-held-over-night-amid-new-york-city-protests/,2024-02-21 21:15:05.168492+00:00,rioting: unlawful assembly (charges dropped as of 2020-06-05),,"(2024-02-07 00:00:00+00:00) Judge accepts journalists’ settlement with NYPD, (2021-08-05 16:40:00+00:00) British photographer sues NYPD for unlawful arrest, police brutality, (2023-09-05 16:54:00+00:00) Journalists reach ‘historic’ settlement with NYPD in First Amendment suit, (2023-09-08 00:00:00+00:00) Judge voids First Amendment settlement with NYPD","Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Damage",,,camera lens: count of 1,Adam Gray (South West News Service),,2020-05-30,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"Adam Gray, chief photojournalist for UK-based South West News Service, was pushed to the ground and arrested while covering protests in New York, New York, on May 30, 2020.
Protests that began in Minnesota on May 26 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.
Gray told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he had been documenting protests all day, and was photographing demonstrations in and around Union Square in Manhattan at around 10:40 p.m.
When Gray reached the front of a crowd of protesters on 13th Street, he said officers started charging the crowd and arresting protesters in what he described as “pandemonium.”
“I’m photographing this happening and I turn and I see this big guy, this cop coming at me,” Gray said. As the officer pushed him to the ground, two of the three cameras he was carrying “smashed” to the ground off his shoulders. Gray noted that luckily the only damage to the equipment was a broken UV lens filter.
Two additional officers then came up and assisted the first in restraining Gray and arresting him, he said.
I now have more images of my arrest whilst photographing protests on Saturday from a NYC colleague. Three cameras hanging off me and a press card in a lanyard around my neck (clear and visible on the other side) @SWNS @TheSun @GreensladeR @KateEMcCann pic.twitter.com/uvoil0DdNT
— Adam Gray (@agrayphoto) June 5, 2020
“I have a lanyard that has my foreign press card in it around my neck,” Gray said. “They stood me up and another guy in white came up — I think he was a more senior officer — and I’m shouting at him as well that I’m foreign press, that I’m a photographer.”
Gray said they asked him whether his press pass was issued by the NYPD, and that he responded no, that it was a foreign press card issued by the US State Department. Gray told the Tracker that the officer said something to the effect of, “Alright, no no no, I’ll take him away.”
Officers then took Gray down the street and passed him off to another officer who was designated his arresting officer and was eventually listed on all of Gray’s arrest reports.
After being stripped of his equipment and re-cuffed, Gray waited on a prison transport bus with 50 to 60 others for half an hour until the rest of the seats were filled. He said he then waited an additional hour outside One Police Plaza due to the volume of arrestees that night.
“At this point, I feel like I’m just in the system and we’re going through with it, I’m being booked and that’s what’s happening. There’s nobody else there that I can speak to or remonstrate with,” Gray said.
After being processed, he was placed in a holding cell with 50-70 people crammed in shoulder-to-shoulder. Gray said that he still had a face mask in order to combat the spread of coronavirus, but most others did not.
Gray was released at around 9:30 a.m. — nearly 11 hours after his arrest — with a desk appearance ticket for unlawful assembly, a misdemeanor punishable by up to three months in jail and a $500 fine.
When asked for comment, an NYPD spokesperson directed the Tracker to the “30 minute mark” of a press briefing held by New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Dermot Shea on June 3.
Around that point in the recording, Shea says: “The only thing that I might add on the point of the press: We’re doing the best we can, the difficult situation. We 100 percent respect the rights of the press. Unfortunately we’ve had some people purporting to be press that are actually lying, if you can believe that. So sometimes these things take a second — maybe too long — to sort out.”
The Manhattan district attorney announced in a press release on June 5 that his office would not prosecute unlawful assembly or disorderly conduct arrests.
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 who 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.
British photojournalist Adam Gray is arrested near Union Square in New York City on May 30, 2020.
",arrested and released,New York Police Department,2020-05-31,None,True,1:21-cv-06610,['SETTLED'],Civil,None,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,unknown,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, protest",,, 2020-06-18 15:30:32.811697+00:00,2023-12-18 22:15:00.857341+00:00,CNN political commentator arrested by NYPD after identifying himself as press,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cnn-political-commentator-arrested-nypd-after-identifying-himself-press/,2023-12-18 22:15:00.545015+00:00,"blocking traffic: walking on the highway (charges dropped as of 2020-09-14), obstruction: disorderly conduct (charges dropped as of 2020-09-09)",,"(2020-09-22 15:45:00+00:00) Charges dropped against CNN political commentator arrested in New York City, (2023-11-29 16:59:00+00:00) New York judge dismisses journalist’s lawsuit alleging First Amendment violations, false arrest, (2021-02-16 00:00:00+00:00) Freelance journalist Keith Boykin files lawsuit against the City of New York","Arrest/Criminal Charge, Equipment Damage",,,cellphone: count of 1,Keith Boykin (Freelance),,2020-05-30,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"Keith Boykin, a freelance journalist and CNN political commentator, was arrested while covering a protest in Manhattan on May 30, 2020, despite identifying himself as a member of the press.
The protest was one of many demonstrations sparked by the May 26 release of a video showing a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, during an arrest the prior day. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
Boykin, who was an aide to Bill Clinton during his presidency, was documenting the protest for his own Twitter feed, as he has done for past protests. On this afternoon, Black Lives Matter demonstrators had gathered at the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building in Harlem and marched west, eventually making their way up an exit ramp and onto the West Side Highway. Boykin, who was on his bike, had moved ahead of the protesters in order to photograph them when he encountered a phalanx of New York Police Department officers heading toward the group. They said something to the effect of “Get out of the way,” Boykin told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. He identified himself as a member of the media, and the officers walked by him, then turned around and arrested him.
“I said, ‘Why? I’m with the press.’ They said it doesn’t matter,” Boykin said, adding that he had a press ID with him but never got the chance to show it to the officers.
So here’s what happened today. The NYPD arrested me at 96th Street and West Side Highway while I was taking photos and video to post to Twitter. I told the police I was with the Press, they walked by me and then turned around and arrested me.
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) May 31, 2020
According to Boykin, officers placed zip ties tightly around his wrists and dropped his phone on the ground, cracking its screen. He was carried back to a police van, where they removed his face mask to photograph him, then placed him in the back of the vehicle, which was so hot that Boykin said he worried he would pass out, something he has a history of doing in high temperatures.
“Even being in the back of the van was traumatizing, because I thought of Freddie Gray and how he died,” said Boykin, who is black, referencing a black man who died in Baltimore police custody in 2015. “The whole experience was totally outrageous.”
After an hour in the van, Boykin said he was placed on a prisoner transport bus with other arrestees and brought to NYPD headquarters in lower Manhattan, where he was processed and placed in a cell with 34 other prisoners for several hours. Very few of them had face masks, Boykin said, and he worried that these conditions risked exposing them to the coronavirus.
“I was in that cell for four hours, never told what was going on, never given an opportunity to make a phone call,” Boykin told the Tracker, adding that he also wasn’t read his Miranda rights during the arrest. He was released at 9:30 p.m., six hours after his arrest, and given a summons to appear in court in September on misdemeanour charges of disorderly conduct and obstructing traffic.
“Mind you, I wasn’t blocking the highway—the police and the protesters were blocking the highway,” Boykin later told CNN’s Don Lemon. “I was in between the two of them, documenting what was happening.”
After that CNN appearance, Boykin told the Tracker that he was contacted by the New York City mayor’s office, which apologized to him for his treatment. He has also filed a complaint with the attorney general’s office. But to date, the charges have not been dropped, and he is prepared to fight them in court. He said the NYPD also failed to give him his ID back with the rest of his possessions following his release, and he needs to figure out a way to retrieve that.
The NYPD did not immediately return a request for comment.
“I thought it was completely unbelievable and unacceptable,” said Boykin of the experience. “This was a clear violation of my First Amendment rights.”
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.
New York Police Department officers are photographed by Keith Boykin shortly before he was taken into custody.
",arrested and released,New York Police Department,None,None,True,1:21-cv-01362,['DISMISSED'],Civil,None,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, protest",,, 2020-08-07 17:38:02.302763+00:00,2023-11-03 14:00:35.972777+00:00,Independent journalist says LA police damaged his equipment while arresting him,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalist-says-la-police-damaged-his-equipment-while-arresting-him/,2023-11-03 14:00:35.832385+00:00,failure to obey: failure to obey a lawful order (charges dropped as of 2021-05-31),,(2021-05-31 00:00:00+00:00) Charge dropped against journalist arrested at LA protest,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Damage",,,recording equipment: count of 1,Jonathan Mayorca (The Convo Couch),,2020-05-30,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"Jonathan Mayorca, a journalist and co-owner of video news outlet The Convo Couch, was arrested by Los Angeles police while filming a demonstration on May 30, 2020.
The protest was part of Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality demonstrations across the country. The protests were sparked by the release of a video showing a white Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest. Floyd was later pronounced dead in a hospital.
Mayorca told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he arrived at the protest in the Fairfax area of Beverly Boulevard at around 3:30 p.m. along with two crew members, including his sister, Fiorella. Mayorca immediately began to livestream the demonstration. Video shows protesters gathering, holding signs, facing off with a line of police officers and then walking with their hands up and chanting.
The protesters moved west down Beverly Boulevard, and Mayorca and his crew followed. At around 4 p.m the protesters went down an alley near Beverly Boulevard and North Fairfax Avenue because the police had blocked off all other streets, Mayorca said. Officers with the Los Angeles Police Department then blocked all exits, or kettled the protesters in the alley. Mayorca and his crew were prevented from leaving.
Mayorca said he told the police he was a member of the press, but they ignored him. Mayorca was wearing a press badge on a lanyard hanging from his neck.
“We told them multiple times, ‘we’re press, we’re press’,” he said.
Protesters and Mayorca and his crew knelt on the ground in the alley as police officers watched them from a “line in front and behind us,” he said.
“One protester was crying hysterically,” Mayorca told the Tracker. “She threw up.”
Soon after being kettled, LAPD officers moved into the alley. Mayorca did not hear a dispersal order and was not given an opportunity to leave before he was arrested, according to a class-action lawsuit Mayorca joined against the LAPD for alleged federal and state constitutional rights violations. Mayorca’s video of the incident does not appear to pick up an audible warning from police.
Officers grabbed Mayorca, pushed him to the ground, and arrested him, he said. The officers’ actions broke the microphone attachment for his camera.
“It was the height of aggressiveness,” Mayorca said.
According to Mayorca, an officer said his camera equipment was broken before his interaction with police.
The police used zip-tie handcuffs to detain him.
Here’s the quick clip of us getting arrested as the cops lied and kettled the people into an alley. People were asking where to go & the cops led them to more cops. They refused to let us go even though we had badges and told them. pic.twitter.com/nfYvTl561J
— Fiorella Isabel🌹🔥 (@Fiorella_im) June 1, 2020
“The police put me against a wall and searched me,” Mayorca said.
The police brought Mayorca to the Van Nuys police station, where he was held for about two hours and then released, he said. Mayorca said he repeatedly complained about the tightness of his zip-tie handcuffs, but the police ignored him.
“It cut off my circulation a bit,” Mayorca said. “It was uncomfortably tight.”
He was issued a citation for failure to obey a lawful order, a misdemeanor.
Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer said in June that he would use a “non-punitive approach” to resolve the cases of peaceful protesters outside the court system.
Jorge Gonzalez, a civil rights lawyer who's part of the team representing protesters, said the city has tentatively agreed to dismiss the charges if protesters complete an online course on the First Amendment. Gonzalez told the Tracker Aug. 3 that he is rejecting the city’s condition and awaiting the city’s response.
However, Rob Wilcox, a spokesman for City Attorney Feuer, said protesters will be invited to a voluntary, virtual conversation about policing, bias, and inequity organized with the help of local cultural, academic and criminal justice institutions.
Mayorca is a plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit against the LAPD for allegedly violating protesters’ constitutional rights to peacefully assemble and protest, using excessive force, and holding protesters in unlawful conditions of confinement. When reached for comment, LAPD spokesperson Officer Norma Eisenman said the “department does not comment on pending complaints.”
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred 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.
Journalist Fiorella Isabel Mayorca, co-owner of video news outlet The Convo Couch, was kettled and arrested by police on May 30, 2020, while covering a Black Lives Matter protest in Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles protest was part of Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality demonstrations around the country. The protests kicked off after the release of a video showing a white Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest. Floyd was later pronounced dead in a hospital.
Mayorca arrived at the protest at Beverly Boulevard in the Fairfax neighborhood of Los Angeles around 3:30 p.m. with two crew members, including her brother Jonathan. She and Jonathan began to film the demonstrations. Mayorca’s footage shows demonstrators on the boulevard chanting, holding signs, facing off with a line of police officers and then walking with their hands up.
When the demonstrators started to move west on Beverly Boulevard, Mayorca followed and continued filming. At about 4 p.m., protesters headed down an alleyway near Beverly Boulevard and North Fairfax Avenue. The Los Angeles Police Department had blocked off all other streets and directed protesters in the direction of the alleyway verbally and with their hands, Mayorca said. The police then kettled the demonstrators in the alley, blocking off exits and trapping protesters.
“They started to kettle people and we thought we should be OK because we’re press,” Mayorca said.
Mayorca wore a press badge that hung from a lanyard around her neck. She and her brother told police officers they were press, but they were ignored, she said.
Soon, Los Angeles police rushed in. Video of the police entering the alleyway reviewed by the Tracker does not appear to pick up an audible warning from police. Officers began arresting protesters and journalists, including Mayorca and her brother.
Mayorca was put in handcuffs and then pushed up against a wall by a police officer, she said.
“[A woman officer was] seriously groping me. She went in my underwear. They were acting like we were hiding drugs,” she told the Tracker.
Officers placed zip-tie handcuffs on Mayorca. She said they felt extremely tight.
“The worst part of it was the wrists,” Mayorca said. “The way they placed it, it was like our wrists were going in different directions, not a normal position. It hurt.”
After spending about an hour in a police wagon, she and her brother were taken to the Van Nuys police station in Los Angeles, where she said she was held for about two hours and then released.
Mayorca was given a citation for failure to obey a lawful order, a misdemeanor charge.
The Tracker asked the LAPD to comment on Mayorca’s arrest, including allegations that she was groped while detained by police.
In response, the department referred the Tracker to a statement published in June.
“The Los Angeles Police Department continues to investigate allegations of misconduct, violations of Department policy, and excessive force during the recent civil unrest,” the statement reads. “The Department has assigned 40 investigators to this effort and we will look into every complaint thoroughly and hold every officer accountable for their actions.”
In June, Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer said his office would be resolving the cases of peaceful protesters arrested during recent Black Lives Matter protests in a “non-punitive” way.
Jorge Gonzalez, a civil rights attorney who’s part of a team representing protesters arrested during the recent demonstrations, said the Los Angeles City Attorney has tentatively agreed to dismiss the charges, on the condition that protesters complete an online course on the First Amendment. Gonzalez said Aug. 3 that the team is rejecting the city’s condition and awaiting the city’s response.
Rob Wilcox, a spokesman for City Attorney Feuer, told the Tracker protesters will be invited to a voluntary, virtual conversation about policing, bias, and inequity organized with the help of local cultural, academic and criminal justice institutions.
Mayorca’s brother Jonathan is a named plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit against the LAPD for allegedly violating protesters’ constitutional rights to peacefully assemble and protest, using excessive force, and holding protesters in unlawful conditions of confinement. When reached for comment, LAPD spokesperson Officer Norma Eisenman said the “department does not comment on pending complaints.”
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred 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.
Ellen Schmidt, a photojournalist on staff at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and Bridget Bennett, a freelance photographer working for Agence France-Presse, were arrested on May 29, 2020, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The journalists were covering protests that broke out in response to the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
A video posted on Twitter shows a group of Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officers shoving and grabbing Schmidt, and throwing Bennett to the ground, before arresting the women.
Thank you for the update! Is this you being arrested last night? pic.twitter.com/7IJhg8AZ6M
— Las Vegas Locally 🌴 (@LasVegasLocally) May 30, 2020
While Schmidt was being arrested, an LVMPD officer took possession of her camera. She later clarified on Twitter that the LVMPD officer only turned her camera off and did not look through or delete any of the pictures that she had taken or the protest.
Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo later told the Nevada Independent that Schmidt and Bennett had ignored LVMPD officers’ orders to disperse and did not identify themselves as members of the media. But in an interview with the Review-Journal, Schmidt said that she and Bennett had in fact repeatedly identified themselves as a member of the press and were wearing their press badges at the time that they were arrested.
“It is appalling that Las Vegas police officers, who have nothing to do with what happened in Minnesota, would so forcefully take into custody two people who were obviously working photojournalists and posed no threat to law enforcement or public safety,” Review-Journal executive editor Glenn Cook said in a statement. “They never should have been touched, let alone arrested and then booked into jail.”
Schmidt and Bennett were each charged with “failure to disperse,” a misdemeanor. Although people charged with “failure to disperse” are supposed to be released immediately, rather than being held in jail on bail, both Schmidt and Bennett were held in jail overnight and only released on the morning of May 30.
Las Vegas Chief Justice of the Peace Suzan Bacum told the Review-Journal that the two journalists should not have been held overnight in jail and blamed the situation on a miscommunication between the police and the court system.
“These people should have never been held on these misdemeanors,” she said. “It’s a travesty.”
Richard Karpel, executive director of the Nevada Press Association, condemned the arrests in a statement:
“The press serve a vital, constitutionally protected role during moments of national strife and civil disobedience,” he said. “Journalists put themselves at risk to inform citizens about protestors’ grievances and their actions, and to observe whether law enforcement personnel are operating within the bounds of the law. The arrest of journalists working in a public forum at a highly newsworthy event is absolutely unacceptable."
Ellen Schmidt, a photojournalist on staff at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and Bridget Bennett, a freelance photographer working for Agence France-Presse, were arrested on May 29, 2020, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The journalists were covering protests that broke out in response to the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
A video posted on Twitter shows a group of Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officers shoving and grabbing Schmidt, and throwing Bennett to the ground, before arresting the women.
Thank you for the update! Is this you being arrested last night? pic.twitter.com/7IJhg8AZ6M
— Las Vegas Locally 🌴 (@LasVegasLocally) May 30, 2020
Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo later told the Nevada Independent that Schmidt and Bennett had ignored LVMPD officers’ orders to disperse and did not identify themselves as members of the media. But in an interview with the Review-Journal, Schmidt said that she and Bennett had in fact repeatedly identified themselves as a member of the press and were wearing their press badges at the time that they were arrested.
“It is appalling that Las Vegas police officers, who have nothing to do with what happened in Minnesota, would so forcefully take into custody two people who were obviously working photojournalists and posed no threat to law enforcement or public safety,” Review-Journal executive editor Glenn Cook said in a statement. “They never should have been touched, let alone arrested and then booked into jail.”
Schmidt and Bennett were each charged with “failure to disperse,” a misdemeanor. Although people charged with “failure to disperse” are supposed to be released immediately, rather than being held in jail on bail, both Schmidt and Bennett were held in jail overnight and only released on the morning of May 30.
Las Vegas Chief Justice of the Peace Suzan Bacum told the Review-Journal that the two journalists should not have been held overnight in jail and blamed the situation on a miscommunication between the police and the court system.
“These people should have never been held on these misdemeanors,” she said. “It’s a travesty.”
Richard Karpel, executive director of the Nevada Press Association, condemned the arrests in a statement:
“The press serve a vital, constitutionally protected role during moments of national strife and civil disobedience,” he said. “Journalists put themselves at risk to inform citizens about protestors’ grievances and their actions, and to observe whether law enforcement personnel are operating within the bounds of the law. The arrest of journalists working in a public forum at a highly newsworthy event is absolutely unacceptable."
On Sept. 18, 2018, freelance investigative reporter Karen Savage was arrested and charged with trespassing, while reporting on protests against the construction of the Bayou Bridge oil pipeline in Louisiana.
Savage was embedded with a camp of protesters, known as water protectors, who were aiming to defend a piece of land in Louisiana’s Atchafalaya River Basin, a wetlands area co-owned by hundreds of people.
Energy Transfer Partners, the company responsible for the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota, is trying to build its new Bayou Bridge oil pipeline through the area. Although some of the co-owners of the Atchafalaya River Basin property have given the company permission to build the pipeline, hundreds of others have refused to do so. Despite this, the company had already begun making alterations to the land, including removing trees and digging a ditch. It has also asked the state of Louisiana to use eminent domain to seize the land from the co-owners who object to the pipeline.
Savage told Freedom of the Press Foundation that one of the co-owners of the Atchafalaya Basin land who is resisting the pipeline had given her permission to be on the property.
“Some were actively resisting, and I had a letter from a landowner saying we were welcome to be on the property," she said. "For people to visit the property, you only need permission from one landowner.”
Savage had previously been arrested for trespassing while reporting on the pipeline protests on Aug. 18. Once she was released on bail, she returned to the resistance camp at the Atchafalaya River Basin to continue covering the protest movement.
Savage said that on September 3 and 4, she witnessed law enforcement officers treated protesters badly.
“They chased them, tackled them, and allowed pipeline security employees to put their hands on protesters," she said. "It was heavily violence and I got some pictures of law enforcement chasing them.”
She said that a few weeks later, on Sept. 17, she was riding in a vehicle that was pulled over in a different parish in Louisiana. The officers ran the ID's of everyone in the car, but everything came back fine and they were allowed to proceed after receiving a citation.
The next day, sheriff's deputies claimed that Savage had an outstanding warrant dating from Sept. 3.
Savage said that on September 18, she was tipped off by protesters to come to a particular part of the swamp, and when she pulled up in her boat to the ramp, she saw sheriff’s department officers present. As Savage began photographing the scene, the officers came to her and arrested her, allegedly on an outstanding warrant.
“They said they were arresting me for an outstanding warrant,” she said. “But I knew there was nothing out for me.”
Savage said that an individual who witnessed the arrest called the sheriff’s department to inquire why she was arrested and learned that there was no warrant out for her.
Savage was arrested under Louisiana's newly-enacted state law against "unauthorized entry of a critical infrastructure project." The Louisiana state law — which only went into effect on Aug. 1 — makes trespassing on a "critical infrastructure project" like an oil pipeline a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
She had previously been arrested under the same law on Aug. 18.
Savage contrasted her treatment by the sheriff’s department to her previous arrest while covering the protest in August. Then, she said, the arrest wasn’t violent. But this time, she said the officers grabbed her roughly and pulled her hands back.
"They really hurt me arms, shoulders, and wrists," she said. "It was really unnecessary."
She said that the officers put her in the back of a police car and then drove her around for about an hour, which she found suspicious.
"It’s a 20 minute drive to the station," she said. "But they kept driving around through sugar cane fields, and I had no idea where he was taking me. I thought maybe it was intimidation because they didn’t actually have a warrant."
The St. Martin’s Sheriff Department did not respond to request for comment.
Savage said that, despite her two arrests, the local district attorney has not brought any criminal charges against her.
“I’m doubtful that they ever will," she said. "It was a very clear intimidation tactic to stop me from covering the story.”
“I will go back,” she added. “I’m not going to let them intimidate me. It’s our job to hold these officials accountable.”
Susan Greene, the editor of the Colorado Independent, was handcuffed and detained after photographing a police interaction on July 5, 2018.
Greene told Freedom of the Press Foundation in an email that she was driving in downtown Denver when she saw a group of Denver police officers standing around a naked man seated on the sidewalk.
“I stopped to check out the scene because of a history of Denver uniformed safety officers hurting African American men in their custody and not offering medical help,” she said. “I was taking a few photos of the scene when an officer told me to stop. I told him I had a right to take photographs. He said I didn't because HIPAA.”
Greene said that one of the officers, whom she identified as James Brooks, tried to intimidate her physically and stood close in front of her in an attempt to block her camera. When she then began taking photographs of Brooks, the officer responded with physical force.
Greene later wrote a first-person account of what happened for the Independent:
As it turns out, Officer Brooks didn’t like having his picture taken. After accusing me of blocking the door of an ambulance that had been called to the scene – toward which he had prodded me during our encounter – and saying something about me obstructing officers, he grabbed me and twisted my arm in ways that arms aren’t supposed to move. At some point in the blur, either he or Officer Adam Paulsen, badge No. 08049, locked one or maybe two pair of handcuffs on my wrists, tightly, and pushed me toward a nearby police car by grabbing my arms hard enough – and with a painful upward thrust – that I told them to stop hurting me. Their response: That I was hurting myself by resisting.
But I wasn’t resisting. Not even close.
I had heard from my work reporting on several excessive force cases troublesome accounts of police injuring arrestees, yet claiming they injured themselves. But to hear it first-hand, uttered obviously for the benefit of whoever might some day review the body-camera footage, was infuriating.
Greene: That time a Denver cop made up excuses to handcuff a reporter (Colorado Independent)
Greene wrote that the officers detained her in a police car for about 10 minutes before releasing her, “apparently at the urging of someone on the other end of [Brooks’] cellphone.”
The Denver Police Department opened an internal investigation into the incident. On Aug. 23, Greene reported that she received a call from Denver district attorney Beth McGann, who told Greene that her office could not bring charges against officer Brooks for either assault or false imprisonment.
On Aug. 28, the Denver Police Department finally released video footage of the incident taken from the body cameras worn by officers Paulsen and Brooks.
“This is protected by HIPAA,” Paulsen tells Greene in the video. “You can’t record.”
“There’s also a First Amendment,” Greene responds. “Have you heard of it?”
“That doesn’t supersede HIPAA,” Paulsen says. “Step away, or you’ll be arrested for interference."
Brooks then grabs Greene and twists her arm behind her back, and Paulsen hands him handcuffs.
“Stand up straight, let’s act like a lady,” Paulsen tells Greene as he handcuffs her.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Greene asks. “Act like a lady?”
“Nope,” Brooks says, as Paulsen finishes locking the cuffs. “There you go. Now you can go to jail.”
“Stop, you’re hurting me!” Greene yells as the officers forcibly escort her to a police car.
“No, we’re not,” one of the officers says. “Then walk, walk normal, stop resisting.”
Footage from a Denver police officer's body camera shows officers handcuffing Colorado Independent editor Susan Greene.
",detained and released without being processed,Denver Police Department,None,None,True,None,['SETTLED'],Civil,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,,,, 2017-11-23 07:09:57.379942+00:00,2022-11-09 17:17:49.498284+00:00,Shareblue Media reporter Mike Stark arrested while covering Republican candidate for Virginia governor,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/shareblue-media-reporter-mike-stark-arrested-while-covering-republican-candidate-virginia-governor/,2022-11-09 17:17:49.369684+00:00,"obstruction: resisting arrest (charges dropped as of 2018-02-13), obstruction: disorderly conduct (convicted as of 2018-02-13)",,(2018-02-13 12:00:00+00:00) Judge fines Stark,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault","Shareblue Media reporter violently arrested while covering GOP nominee for Virginia governor (https://shareblue.com/shareblue-media-reporter-violently-arrested-while-covering-gop-nominee-for-virginia-governor/) via Shareblue, Reporter says he was violently arrested for trying to ask questions (http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/virginia/reporter-says-he-was-arrested-for-trying-to-ask-questions/488080490) via WUSA9, Video of police chief's press conference (https://www.pscp.tv/w/1ypJdNWRLPrKW) via DCW50, Police department press release about arrest (https://fcpdnews.wordpress.com/2017/10/31/chief-roessler-defends-officers-after-parade-arrest/), Reporter found guilty of disorderly conduct in clash with police captured on video (https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/reporter-found-guilty-of-disorderly-conduct-in-clash-with-police-captured-on-video/2018/02/13/aca9c80a-1104-11e8-8ea1-c1d91fcec3fe_story.html) via Washington Post",,cellphone: count of 1,Mike Stark (Shareblue),,2017-10-28,False,Annandale,Virginia (VA),38.83039,-77.19637,"Mike Stark, a reporter for the liberal news site Shareblue Media, was arrested in Fairfax County, Virginia on Oct. 28, 2017 while covering the campaign of Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie.
According to a report on Shareblue, Stark was filming Gillespie's campaign vehicle at the Annandale Parade when a police officer approached him and ordered him to move out of the street.
Stark told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that he told the officer that he was a reporter and complied with the order to move onto the sidewalk. Stark said that the officer then told him to stay away from the Gillespie campaign bus, which he refused to do since he was covering Gillespie.
“I was standing in the street on the far side of the driveway filming the Gillespie RV in anticipation of him disembarking,” Stark said in a statement. “That's when I heard the policeman tell me to get out of the road. I complied, and then he told me to leave the Gillespie vehicle and everyone inside it alone. At that point I told the policeman he'd probably have to arrest me to keep me away from Gillespie. He responded that he would arrest me and approached me aggressively. The ‘conversation’ escalated from there.”
A video of the arrest shows Stark complying with Rogers’ order to step backward, while continuing to argue with him, as a woman in a red jacket and an additional police officer involve themselves in the exchange. (Stark said that he believes that the woman in the red jacket was associated with the campaign.)
After Stark says “Fuck this,” the arresting officer — whom Stark later identified as Mason District Police Captain T.J. Rogers — places his hand on Stark’s right shoulder and turns him against a nearby fence. While Stark has both of his hands behind his back, the officer lifts Stark’s right ankle off the ground, sending the reporter face-first into the sidewalk.
As additional officers rush to the scene, Stark says, “Stop, I will give you my arm. I can’t. You have your weight on top of me. I cannot give you my hand. My hand is beneath me.” Five officers eventually pin Stark to the ground with their knees on the back of his head and his body. They continue demanding his arm as he screams that he cannot comply and begs them to stop.
Stark told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that officers punched him repeatedly in the legs during the physical takedown and said that his attorney told him that this is a common “softening” technique used against non-cooperative subjects.
The takedown left Stark with an abrasion to his head and a few bruises. He refused treatment at the time of the arrest.
“I’ve got a nice bruise on my hip and an ugly scrape on my elbow,” he said. “But as I've said elsewhere, I don't consider this arrest to have been brutal. Violent? Yes. Brutal? No.”
Stark also said that his phone was broken during the incident, and he suspects that the officers may have deliberately thrown it against the ground.
“My brand new phone, a OnePlus 5 that came with Gorilla Glass, was broken during the arrest,” he said. “I don't think it was an accident. When I was on the ground, I heard what sounded like a cellphone striking the pavement immediately after it had been retrieved from my hand attached to the arm stuck beneath my body.”
Stark was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest and held in custody for nearly five hours, before being released on a $3,000 bond.
After Shareblue published video of the arrest on October 31, Fairfax County Police Chief Edwin C. Roessler held a press conference, during which he defended the arrest and said that it was appropriate for the officers to use a physical takedown technique on Stark because the reporter was passively resisting arrest. (Stark said that he did not resist the officers, but was only trying to put his phone away when the officers took him down.)
Roessler told the press that the officer who arrested Stark might have feared for his safety.
“You must understand that, from the officer’s perspective, he does not know who this gentleman is,” Roessler said. “The gentleman is wearing a hooded sweatshirt. He does not know if this gentleman has a concealed weapon. He does not know what intent this gentleman has, whether it’s to create harm or something else.”
Stark said that he explicitly identified himself as a journalist to the officers who arrested him.
Roessler told the press that the officer who arrested Stark may not have believed Stark when he said that he was a journalist.
“He doesn’t know him personally or who he is, and anybody can say anything,” Roessler said.
Stark, who has written critically about Gillespie’s campaign, said that the campaign has previously had him removed from events held on private property and has “disinvited” him from the press pool. He believes that the campaign may have asked the police to remove him from the area near the Gillespie campaign bus.
During the press conference, police chief Roessler said that he did not know whether the Gillespie campaign had any conversations with the police concerning Stark.
“I have no knowledge of that right now,” Roeller said. “We are investigating this. And if there are any witnesses I would ask that they contact the Fairfax County Police Department. Our Internal Affairs Bureau is actively going out seeking witnesses and networking the community to understand the full picture here, and as I mentioned earlier, our police auditor will also review our completed investigation and report our findings to the community.”
A police spokesperson referred the Freedom of the Press Foundation to Roessler's press conference and declined to comment further.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Stark was not wearing a hooded sweatshirt. Stark told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that he was wearing a hooded sweatshirt.
Mike Stark
",arrested and released,Fairfax County Police Department,None,None,True,None,[],None,None,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,election,,, 2017-09-21 23:01:19.364836+00:00,2023-11-03 18:24:51.196975+00:00,St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter knocked to ground by police and arrested,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/st-louis-post-dispatch-reporter-knocked-ground-police-and-arrested/,2023-11-03 18:24:51.019086+00:00,rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2018-09-17),,"(2018-09-17 00:00:00+00:00) Charges dropped against St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter arrested in September 2017, (2023-08-21 13:26:00+00:00) Former journalist gets part of $4.9 million class-action settlement, (2018-02-23 12:00:00+00:00) Mike Faulk sues St. Louis police","Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Search or Seizure","As arrests are made, protesters question the tactics used by St. Louis police (http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/as-arrests-are-made-protesters-question-the-tactics-used-by/article_e58481b7-f7c2-541e-91d2-31a6379f272c.html) via St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Post-Dispatch demands charges be dropped against reporter covering protest (http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/post-dispatch-demands-charges-be-dropped-against-reporter-covering-protest/article_bb15e07a-7147-56b3-8629-3ff9ae8eec0d.html) via St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The News Guild-CWA statement (http://www.newsguild.org/mediaguild3/?p=6852), St. Louis SPJ statement (http://www.stlspj.org/2017/09/spj-condemns-arrest-of-mike-faulk/), Journalist Sues St. Louis Police For Assaulting Him During Unconstitutional Crackdown (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mike-faulk-st-louis-police-protest-crackdown_us_5a90784de4b03b55731c11f0) via HuffPost, Faulk's lawsuit against St. Louis police officers (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4386590-Mike-Faulk-lawsuit.html)","bicycle: count of 1, cellphone: count of 1",,Mike Faulk (St. Louis Post-Dispatch),,2017-09-17,False,St. Louis,Missouri (MO),38.62727,-90.19789,"St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Mike Faulk was arrested by police on Sept. 17, 2017, while covering a protest in St. Louis, Missouri.
According to the Post-Dispatch, more than a thousand people gathered in downtown St. Louis on Sept. 17 to protest the acquittal of Jason Stockley, a white former St. Louis police officer who in 2011 fatally shot Anthony Lamar Smith, a black man.
Around 11 p.m., large groups of police officers boxed in about a hundred people at the intersection of Washington Street and Tucker Boulevard. Faulk was among those caught in the kettle.
The Post-Dispatch reported what happened next:
St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Mike Faulk was caught in the kettle Sunday night. A line of bike cops formed across Washington Avenue, east of Tucker Boulevard and police in helmets carrying shields and batons blocked the other three sides of the intersection at Tucker and Washington. Faulk heard the repeated police command, “Move back. Move back.” He had nowhere to go.
The police lines moved forward, trapping dozens of people — protesters, journalists, area residents and observers alike. Multiple officers knocked Faulk down, he said, and pinned his limbs to the ground. A firm foot pushed his head into the pavement. Once he was subdued, he recalled, an officer squirted pepper spray in his face.
Police loaded Faulk into a van holding about eight others and took him to the city jail on Tucker, a few blocks to the south. He arrived about midnight and was released about 1:30 p.m. Monday after posting a $50 bond. Faulk was charged with failure to disperse, a municipal charge.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Joseph Martineau, an attorney for the Post-Dispatch, wrote a letter to St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewton, Acting Police Chief Lawrence O'Toole, City Counselor Julian Bush and Deputy City Counselor Michael Garvin demanding the city drop all charges against Faulk. The letter details the police's treatment of him:
When he was arrested, Mr. Faulk was standing on a sidewalk reporting on the protests. He was not impeding vehicular or pedestrian traffic. He was clearly identified and credentialed as a reporter for the Post-Dispatch and repeatedly advised several of the arresting officers of his status. Nonetheless, he was rounded up and restrained by police officers who surrounded a large group of people and prevented them from leaving the perimeter in a mechanism we understand is referred to as "kettling." Independent of whether the "kettle" containment activity was proper under the circumstances (and as the Post-Dispatch has reported, there are serious questions about that), there was no reason why a credentialed reporter should have been arrested or restrained from doing his job of reporting the events. Once the reporter was clearly identified as such, he should have been released immediately and allowed to continue his newsgathering activity.
Moreover, as we understand the situation, Mr. Faulk was not merely restrained and arrested. While standing on the sidewalk and making no resistance , he was forcefully pushed to the ground by police officers and a police officer's boot was placed on his head. As a result of this unneeded and inappropriate force, Mr. Faulk suffered injury to both legs, his back and wrist. Even after being restrained with zip ties and totally subdued, a police officer deliberately sprayed him in the face with pepper spray, mace or some other stinging substance. At some point during the evening, an officer also took it upon himself to review the contents of the cellphone Mr. Faulk was using to communicate and photograph the events of the evening. A bike he was using during his news coverage has not been returned to him. He was held for over thirteen hours in jail, even though one of our editors was at the jail only two hours after the arrest to secure his release. That editor was lied to by jail personnel who told her that he was still in transport, even though he was already at the jail. Jail personnel denied his repeated requests for medical attention.
Post-Dispatch letter to mayor, police chief
Faulk was held in jail for 13 hours and then released on a $50 bond on the afternoon of Sept. 18. Once released, he returned to the Post-Dispatch newsroom.
.@Mike_Faulk returns to newsroom applause after more than 12 hours in jail for doing his job. #STLVerdict pic.twitter.com/cPeKugmiEC
— Christopher Ave (@ChristopherAve) September 18, 2017
"He returned to the newsroom limping, knees bloodied and pepper spray still on his skin," the Post-Dispatch reported.
Post-Dispatch editor Gilbert Bailon condemned the police's treatment of Faulk.
"St. Louis Post-Dispatch journalists and other credentialed news media provide critical information to the public," he said in a statement. "When St. Louis police arrested Mike, after he fully identified himself while covering the protests, they violated basic tenets of our democracy. Additionally, the physical abuse he suffered during the arrest is abhorrent and must be investigated. The Post-Dispatch is calling for our city leaders to immediately implement policies that will prevent journalists from being arrested without cause."
The News Guild-CWA and the St. Louis chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists also condemned the arrest.
"The NewsGuild denounces the arrest of Guild member Michael Faulk and demands that any pending charges against him be dismissed,” Bernie Lunzer, president of The News Guild-CWA, said in a statement. "Faulk was doing his job, informing the people. There is simply no justification for his arrest and mistreatment. There has been a noticeable uptick in assaults and arrests of reporters in recent months. This is a dangerous trend that impedes journalists’ right to report and the people’s right to know."
"Journalism is the only profession protected by name in the Constitution," St. Louis SPJ chapter president Elizabeth Donald said in a statement. "The First Amendment is not a whimsical academic concept to be dismissed when it becomes inconvenient – or embarrassing to the police. The chilling effect of assaulting, arresting, jailing and charging a journalist in the course of his duties cannot be overstated."
Both The News Guild-CWA and Society of Professional Journalists are partner organizations of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
A spokeswoman for the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that no journalists have filed formal complaints of police misconduct.
"We hold our officers to the highest standards of professionalism and any officer not meeting those standards will be held accountable," she said. "No members of the media have contacted the Internal Affairs Division to make a formal complaint. If anyone would like to make a complaint of officer misconduct, they should contact our Internal Affairs Division via our website (slmpd.org), phone (444-5652) or in person at Police Headquarters, 1915 Olive."
St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Mike Faulk is arrested while covering a protest in downtown St. Louis on September 17, 2017.
",arrested and released,St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department,2017-09-18,2017-09-17,True,4:19-cv-02590,['SETTLED'],Class Action,returned in part,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, chemical irritant, court verdict, kettle, protest",,, 2017-09-21 23:04:24.900549+00:00,2024-02-29 20:03:42.033465+00:00,Independent livestreamer Jon Ziegler pepper-sprayed and arrested in St. Louis,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-livestreamer-jon-ziegler-pepper-sprayed-and-arrested-st-louis/,2024-02-29 20:03:41.932007+00:00,rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2017-10-18),,"(2017-10-01 14:38:00+00:00) Charges against independent livestreamer dropped, (2023-08-03 00:00:00+00:00) Journalist gets part of $4.9 million class-action settlement","Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault",,,,Jon Ziegler (Independent),,2017-09-17,False,St. Louis,Missouri (MO),38.62727,-90.19789,"Jon Ziegler, an independent livestreamer also known as “Rebelutionary Z,” was pepper sprayed and arrested on Sept. 17, 2017, while covering a protest in St. Louis, Missouri.
On Sunday night, hundreds of people gathered in downtown St. Louis to protest the acquittal of Jason Stockley, a white former St. Louis police officer who in 2011 fatally shot Anthony Lamar Smith, a black man.
Around 11 p.m., large groups of St. Louis metropolitan police officers boxed in about a hundred people at the intersection of Washington Street and Tucker Boulevard and ordered them to get on the ground, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Ziegler was among those caught in the kettle. At the time, he was carrying a camera and an iPhone on a tripod.
Ziegler told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that police officers repeatedly doused him and other journalists and protesters in the kettle with pepper spray.
“I was drenched in spray” he said. “I remember my tripod looking like it had rained on it.”
He said that while he lay on the ground, one officer sprayed pepper spray directly at his mouth and others physically assaulted him.
“I start feeling jabs in my back,” he said. “All of a sudden, I feel a foot or a knee on the back of my head just pushing it into the concrete and grinding it into the concrete.”
Ziegler said that police officers celebrated after arresting everyone in the kettle, smoking cigars and mocking the journalists, protesters and legal observers who had been arrested. A bystander interviewed by NPR also claimed that officers smoked cigars and mocked protesters after making arrests. Post-Dispatch photojournalist David Carson tweeted a video on which officers can be heard chanting, “Whose Streets? Our Streets,” in mockery of protesters.
Asked about the video, a police department spokeswoman told Reuters: “The Department is aware of the video circulating on social media, and is reviewing the footage. We hold our officers to the highest standards of professionalism and any officer not meeting those standards will be held accountable.”
Ziegler said that officers specifically alluded to and mocked his journalistic work while arresting him, repeatedly calling him “superstar” and taking selfies with him. He said that the officer who arrested him joked that he was his “biggest fan” and bragged that he watched all of his livestreams.
“They were quoting back my tweets to me and quoting back parts of the stream,” he said. “That kind of joking and sarcastic behavior continued inside the precinct with some of the officers.”
Like others arrested in the kettle, Ziegler was taken to a nearby jail. He said that he was held for more than 12 hours, before finally being released on a $50 bond.
Ziegler’s livestream from Sept. 17 shows police officers surrounding the protesters from all sides and pepper spraying them.
“They maced me for having my camera going,” Ziegler says on the livestream at one point. “We’re all just choking on mace now. We’re drowning in mace here.”
Later in the stream, officers approach Ziegler to handcuff and arrest him. One person offscreen calls him “superstar.”
“You heard them call me superstar on camera, guys,” Ziegler says. “They’re putting on the cuffs real tight, real fucking right. They’re beating the shit out of me. They’re fucking beating the shit out of me! Stop pushing my head in the ground!”
“Shut up,” someone says offscreen.
“They’re pushing my head in the ground, real tight.” Ziegler says, just before screaming out in pain. “Fuck, they sprayed me again!”
As Ziegler is led away from the scene, an officer approaches his phone and shuts off the livestream.
A police department spokeswoman told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that no journalist has made a formal complaint of police misconduct.
"We hold our officers to the highest standards of professionalism and any officer not meeting those standards will be held accountable," the spokeswoman said. "No members of the media have contacted the Internal Affairs Division to make a formal complaint. If anyone would like to make a complaint of officer misconduct, they should contact our Internal Affairs Division via our website (slmpd.org), phone (444-5652) or in person at Police Headquarters, 1915 Olive."
Screengrab from Jon Ziegler's livestream shows a police officer pepper-spraying Ziegler before arresting him, in downtown St. Louis, on September 17, 2017.
",arrested and released,St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department,None,None,True,4:19-cv-02590,['SETTLED'],Class Action,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"Black Lives Matter, chemical irritant, court verdict, kettle, protest",,, 2017-09-22 02:13:59.625024+00:00,2023-08-24 01:01:10.404952+00:00,Getty photographer arrested while covering protest in St. Louis,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/getty-photographer-arrested-while-covering-protest-st-louis/,2023-08-24 01:01:10.272529+00:00,rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2018-09-17),,(2018-09-17 00:00:00+00:00) Charges dropped against Getty photographer,Arrest/Criminal Charge,Police in Ferguson arrest Getty photographer Scott Olson (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/18/ferguson-police-arrest-photographer-scott-olsen) via Guardian U.S.,,,Scott Olson (Getty Images),,2017-09-17,False,St. Louis,Missouri (MO),38.62727,-90.19789,"Getty photographer Scott Olson was arrested while covering a protest in St. Louis on Sept. 17, 2017.
That night, hundreds of people gathered in downtown St. Louis to protest the acquittal of Jason Stockley, a white former St. Louis police officer who in 2011 fatally shot Anthony Lamar Smith, a black man.
Olson told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that more than a hundred St. Louis police officers converged from all sides on the intersection of Washington Street and Tucker Boulevard, where a crowd of people had gathered. He described the crowd as a mix of a few activists, some journalists and many bystanders. He said that the police ordered everyone to disperse while simultaneously cutting off their exits and then ordered everyone to lie down on the ground and started to arrest them.
“They did it kind of violently,” he said. “A lot of people were pepper sprayed or Maced while they were still on the ground.”
He said that he was not pepper sprayed by police officers, which he attributes to his use of a gas mask.
“One of the reasons I may not have been pepper sprayed before my arrest is that it wouldn’t have had much effect,” he said. “I’m pretty sure I was wearing my gas mask because I was anticipating the use of mace or pepper spray. During the protest, I was wearing body armor, a bump cap, mil-spec eye protection and carrying/using a gas mask. Unfortunately, most of this protective gear is used to protect me from police tactics, not those of protesters.”
Although police did not pepper spray him, he said that that police did forcefully push him to the ground.
“I was holding my cameras, they told me to put them down, I didn’t do that, so I just took a knee, and then they forced me all the way down and then zip-tied me,” he said. “They were telling me to drop my cameras. They would not let me take my camera.”
According to Olson, one officer said “Fuck your camera!” after he asked to take it with him.
A spokeswoman for the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that no journalists have filed formal complaints alleging police misconduct.
“We hold our officers to the highest standards of professionalism and any officer not meeting those standards will be held accountable,” she said. “No members of the media have contacted the Internal Affairs Division to make a formal complaint. If anyone would like to make a complaint of officer misconduct, they should contact our Internal Affairs Division via our website (slmpd.org), phone (444-5652) or in person at Police Headquarters, 1915 Olive.”
Olson said that he was arrested and taken to jail, where he was held for around 12 hours and then released on $50 bail. He said that the police returned his cameras to him when he was released and he does not believe that they were searched.
Before the arrest in St. Louis on Sept. 17, Olson said, he had only been arrested once in the course of his roughly 30 years as a photojournalist. His first arrest occurred in 2014, when he was covering protests in neighboring Ferguson, Missouri.
Scott Olson, a Getty photographer, was arrested by St. Louis police on September 17, 2017, shortly after taking this photograph of police arresting demonstrators.
",arrested and released,St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department,None,None,True,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, court verdict, kettle, protest",,, 2017-10-06 08:03:15.085973+00:00,2023-08-21 16:06:06.909938+00:00,"Filmmaker Drew Burbridge beaten, pepper sprayed and arrested by St. Louis police",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/filmmaker-drew-burbridge-beaten-pepper-sprayed-and-arrested-st-louis-police/,2023-08-21 16:06:06.740645+00:00,rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2017-10-18),,"(2019-04-15 00:00:00+00:00) Charges dropped against filmmaker Drew Burbridge, (2021-11-19 00:00:00+00:00) City of St. Louis agrees to pay deceased filmmaker $115k to settle lawsuit","Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault","Filmmakers sue St. Louis police for arrest in 'kettle' (http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/filmmakers-sue-st-louis-police-for-arrest-in-kettle/article_7e3abf60-67e4-54c6-b7cd-a584eeded886.html) via St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Full complaint for damages (https://pressfreedomtracker.us/documents/2/Burbridge_complaint.pdf) via Click to download",,,Drew Burbridge (Independent),,2017-09-17,False,St. Louis,Missouri (MO),38.62727,-90.19789,"Drew Burbridge and his wife, Jennifer, were assaulted and arrested while filming protests in St. Louis, Missouri on Sept. 17, 2017, according to a federal lawsuit that the two of them filed against the city. Both Drew and Jennifer are documentary filmmakers.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri on Sept. 26 and accuses St. Louis police officers (referred to as “John Does”) of violating their First Amendment rights.
The complaint states that Drew and Jennifer Burbridge were filming protests in downtown St. Louis on Sept. 17 when they — along with protesters and other journalists — were enclosed by police in a “kettle” at the intersection of Tucker Boulevard and Washington Ave.
The complaint describes what happened next to Drew Burbridge:
After the initial deployment of chemical agents by the police, Drew Burbridge, who was sitting cross legged on the ground with his arms around his wife, was approached by two St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officers, Defendants John Doe #1 and John Doe #2, in full riot gear.
One of the two officers (John Doe #1) stated “that’s him” and grabbed Drew Burbridge by each arm and roughly drug him away from his wife.
Drew Burbridge immediately identified himself to the Defendants as a journalist and specifically stated that he was not a protester, not resisting arrest, and was part of the media.
Defendants John Doe #1 and Defendant John Doe #2 then purposely deployed chemical spray into his mouth and eyes and ripped his camera from his neck.
At the time Defendants John Doe #1 and #2 purposely sprayed chemical spray into Drew Burbridges mouth and eyes, Drew Burbridge was not resisting and was willing and ready to comply with any order given by the Defendants.
John Doe #1 and #2 threw Drew Burbridge to the pavement, face first, and twisted his arms behind his back, and repeatedly kicked Drew Burbridge in the back while restraining his arms behind his back with zip-ties. During this entire time, Plaintiff was submissive and complying with the officers.
After Drew Burbridges hand were restrained behind his back and while on the ground, SLMPD officers Defendants John Does #1, 2, and 3, then proceeded to strike him on the ankles, legs, body, and head, with their feet, hands, and batons.
While beating Drew Burbridge, one of the John Doe Defendants stated: “Do you want to take my picture now motherfucker? Do you want me to pose for you?”
At no point during the illegal beating was Drew Burbridge resisting or in any other way failing to comply with the officers, and his hands were zip-tied behind his back during the beating.
Defendants continued to beat and pepper spray Drew Burbridge until he lost consciousness from the sustained beating. He awoke to an officer pulling his head up by his hair and spraying him with chemical agents in the face.
Despite repeated requests by Drew Burbridge, none of the law enforcement officers would identify themselves. All of the law enforcement officers involved had removed their name identifications.
Drew Burbridge was transferred to the custody of a uniformed SLMPD officer who placed him in a van for transport to jail.
Although he had been pepper-sprayed and beaten and could not see, the SLMPD officers did not allow or assist Drew Burbridge in rinsing the chemical agent from his eyes and would laugh as he stumbled and ran into objects as he tried to make his way into the van and jail.
Drew Burbridge was jailed for nearly 20-hours.
Drew Burbridge was released with a municipal charge of “failure to disperse.”
Complaint for damages
Jennifer Burbridge was arrested while filming protests in St. Louis, Missouri on Sept. 17, 2017, according to a federal lawsuit that she and her husband, Drew, filed against the city. Both Jennifer and Drew are documentary filmmakers.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri on Sept. 26 and accuses St. Louis police officers (referred to as “John Does”) of violating their First Amendment rights.
The complaint states that Jennifer and her husband were filming protests in downtown St. Louis on Sept. 17 when they — along with protesters and other journalists — were enclosed by police in a “kettle” at the intersection of Tucker Boulevard and Washington Ave.
The complaint describes what happened next to Jennifer Burbridge:
Jennifer Burbridge was among those who were initially indirectly subjected to chemical spray by the police.
Jennifer Burbridge was forced to watch her husband and film partner Drew Burbridge being drug away by Defendants John Does #1, #2 and #3.
She was physically prevented from following or assisting her husband.
She observed the law enforcement assault and beating of her husband.
At one point, while two officers were carrying Jennifer Burbridge away, one of the officers passed another male officer and stated, “Look who I have.” Such statements illustrated a clear intent on the part of the officers to target members of the media, like the Burbridges, who were attempting to document the protests and the SLMPD police response.
Another SLMPD officer made a point to walk up to Jennifer Burbridge after she had observed her husband pepper sprayed and assaulted and exclaim, “Did you like that? Come back tomorrow and we can do this again.” Another SLMPD officer stated, “What did you think was going to happen?”
Like her husband, Jennifer Burbridge was taken into custody of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department who placed her in a van for transport to jail.
On the way to the jail, a detainee in the van requested the name of the transporting officers, one of who responded, “I’m Father Time.”
Jennifer Burbridge was jailed for nearly 20-hours.
Jennifer Burbridge was required to submit to a jail administered pregnancy test as a condition of being released.
Jennifer Burbridge was release with a municipal charge of “failure to disperse.”
Complaint for damages
Chris Burke — a videographer working for Fusion — was forcibly pushed into a wall, handcuffed, and detained by police while covering protests in St. Louis, Missouri, on Sept. 17, 2017.
The protest was a response to the acquittal in September of of Jason Stockley, a white former St. Louis police officer who in 2011 fatally shot Anthony Lamar Smith, a black man.
Burke told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that he was part of a group of photojournalists who were moving alongside demonstrators as they marched in downtown St. Louis on Sept. 17.
“We were obviously journalists”, Burke said, adding that the group was easily identifiable as press because many of them wore press badges and carried cameras and video equipment.
Burke said the police presence swelled in size as the demonstrators moved away from downtown St. Louis. When the march turned a corner, he said, police drove an unmarked van into the crowd and began shooting pepper spray balls at the crowd.
“They pepper balled journalists as well as protesters,” Burke said.
Burke said that he was not hit by any of the balls, but he saw several journalists who were.
Burke said that he was later detained along with another photojournalist, Davis Winborne, after police enclosed a group of demonstrators and journalists. Burke said that police let some journalists leave the area but pushed him and Winborne into a brick wall.
Burke said that he felt one officer press his thumb behind his jawline.
“It seemed like he was trying to find a pressure point,” he said.
Burke said that, when he asked the officer to remove his hand from his jaw, the officer ordered him to put his hands behind his back and handcuffed him. He also said that police used aggressive and profane language, calling Burke and Winborne “bitches.”
According to Burke, he and several journalists were loaded into a police van and detained for about 30 minutes.
“They never read us our rights, and it seemed like the police were trying to scare us,” he said.
Burke said that he was eventually released after another photojournalist, Marcus DiPaola, was vouched for his identity. Burke also said that a police officer apologized to him after he was released.
Burke told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that the tactics used by the St. Louis police on September 17 seemed “pretty aggressive,” relative to previous protests that he has covered in other cities.
“They felt like scare tactics, to make sure media doesn’t get in the way anymore,” he said.
Chris Burke
",detained and released without being processed,St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department,None,None,True,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, court verdict, kettle, protest",,, 2020-01-27 17:22:34.337149+00:00,2023-08-28 19:02:39.445059+00:00,"Independent filmmaker pepper-sprayed, arrested in St. Louis protests",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-filmmaker-pepper-sprayed-arrested-st-louis-protests/,2023-08-28 19:02:39.197843+00:00,rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2017-10-18),,(2023-08-03 13:29:00+00:00) Filmmaker gets part of $4.9 million class-action settlement,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault",,,,Mark Gullet (Independent),,2017-09-17,False,St. Louis,Missouri (MO),38.62727,-90.19789,"In a lawsuit filed on his behalf, freelance filmmaker Mark Gullet says he was assaulted and arrested by police officers in St. Louis, Missouri, on Sept. 17, 2017, while recording footage of a protest for his film on crime.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that more than 1,000 people had gathered in downtown St. Louis that day to protest the acquittal of Jason Stockley, a white former St. Louis police officer who in 2011 fatally shot Anthony Lamar Smith, a black man.
The Post-Dispatch reported that Gullet said he arrived downtown around 11 p.m., “after all the vandalism had happened.”
“I was on the sidelines with other media. Out of nowhere, we hear marching and batons hitting shields,” Gullet told the Post-Dispatch.
Three lines of police in riot gear and one of bicycle officers advanced around the intersection of Washington Avenue and Tucker Boulevard, boxing in approximately 100 people for arrest or detention in a maneuver called kettling.
According to the lawsuit filed on Gullet’s behalf, Gullet saw the bicycle officers approaching and asked them if he could leave. The lawsuit says the officers wouldn’t allow him to pass, and instead pushed their bicycles towards him and told him to get back. Trapped in the kettle, Gullet got on his knees on his own volition.
“At this point, Mr. Gullet observed officers unleash pepper spray without warning,” the lawsuit states. “Also without warning, a police officer grabbed Mr. Gullet’s arms so forcefully that Mr. Gullet thought his right shoulder was going to pop out. The officer then restrained Mr. Gullet’s hands with zip ties and pepper sprayed him directly in the face.”
Gullet was taken to St. Louis City Justice Center alongside others arrested at the scene, where he was jailed for approximately 20 hours without receiving medical attention, the lawsuit states.
On Sept. 17, 2018, one year after the kettling arrests, ArchCity Defenders, a legal advocacy group, and the law firm of Khazaeli Wyrsch filed 12 lawsuits against the St. Louis Metro Police Department on behalf of individuals whom they said were treated illegally by police officers during the protests. Gullet and two video journalists, Fareed Alston and Demetrius Thomas, were among those represented.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documented 10 journalists detained, arrested, assaulted or had their equipment damaged while covering the protests that night.
Gullet, Thomas, Alston and the other plaintiffs are seeking damages, attorneys fees, expenses and any other relief the court deems appropriate. A trial for Gullet’s case has not been scheduled.
Around 100 demonstrators and multiple journalists were arrested during protests following a verdict of not guilty in the murder trial of a former St. Louis, Missouri, police officer on Sept. 17, 2017.
",arrested and released,St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department,2017-09-18,2017-09-17,True,4:19-cv-02590,['SETTLED'],Class Action,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,unknown,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, chemical irritant, court verdict, kettle, protest",,, 2020-01-27 17:24:18.063629+00:00,2023-10-27 21:17:42.041017+00:00,"Independent video journalist assaulted, arrested in St. Louis protests",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-video-journalist-assaulted-arrested-st-louis-protests/,2023-10-27 21:17:41.906644+00:00,rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2017-10-18),,(2023-08-03 13:32:00+00:00) Video journalist gets part of $4.9 million class-action settlement,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Damage",,,camera: count of 1,Demetrius Thomas (Independent),,2017-09-17,False,St. Louis,Missouri (MO),38.62727,-90.19789,"According to a lawsuit filed on his behalf, freelance video journalist Demetrius Thomas was assaulted, arrested and his equipment damaged while documenting protests in St. Louis, Missouri, on Sept. 17, 2017.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that more than 1,000 people had gathered in downtown St. Louis to protest the acquittal of Jason Stockley, a white former St. Louis police officer who in 2011 fatally shot Anthony Lamar Smith, a black man.
That night, police officers advanced around the intersection of Washington Avenue and Tucker Boulevard, boxing in approximately 100 people for arrest or detention in a maneuver called kettling.
On Sept. 17, 2018, one year after the kettling arrests, ArchCity Defenders, a legal advocacy organization, and the law firm of Khazaeli Wyrsch filed 12 lawsuits against the St. Louis Metro Police Department on behalf of individuals whom they said were treated illegally by police officers during the protests. Thomas and two freelance filmmakers, Mark Gullet and Fareed Alston, were among those represented.
According to the lawsuit filed on Thomas’ behalf, Thomas drove downtown after receiving a call from a friend telling him about the protests, but by the time he arrived they had all but ended. He parked near Tucker Boulevard, where he saw police officers in “military garb” form a line and begin chanting loudly.
While filming the police, Thomas changed his position to get a better angle. According to the complaint, an officer approached Thomas and told him that he could record as long as he remained on the sidewalk. He complied and rejoined other members of the media on a sidewalk corner.
The lawsuit says that Thomas noticed a change in the officers’ attitudes and that they appeared to be preparing to kettle and arrest all those present, so Thomas attempted to leave the scene via a nearby alley. A police officer blocked his path and directed him back towards the intersection. Thomas complied.
At the intersection, Thomas saw between 100 to 200 officers pounding their batons against their shields and the ground. According to the complaint, Thomas was terrified and attempted to return to his car parked past the intersection. Officers blocked him once again.
“In response to Mr. Thomas’s plea, an SLMPD officer pointed a large can of pepper spray at Mr. Thomas and told him to ‘get out of here’,” the complaint says. Thomas complied, and followed the officer’s directions to return to the intersection. There, the crowd was pushed by police and Thomas was knocked to the ground. Suddenly and without warning, police began indiscriminately pepper spraying the kettled crowd.
According to the complaint, when police advanced into the crowd to arrest those present, several officers held Thomas by the arms and legs while another struck him repeatedly in the ribs with his baton. Another officer confiscated Mr. Thomas’s camera, and in the altercation officers broke Thomas’ drone.
Thomas was zip tied and taken to St. Louis City Justice Center alongside others arrested at the scene, where he was detained for several hours.
“I was strictly there to film and document that night because it’s a part of history. Instead we were kettled, beat, and arrested — there was nowhere to turn, and you couldn’t call the police because they were the ones doing it to you,” Thomas said, according to a press release announcing the lawsuits. Thomas also said that the damage to his camera equipment cost him several job opportunities, making it impossible for him to keep up with house payments.
In a video posted on ArchCity Defenders’ YouTube, Thomas said the events are something he’ll never forget.
“For it to end up the way that it ended up kind of damaged my whole outlook on trying to capture real life events like that, because it could always take a turn for the worse,” he said.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documented 10 journalists detained, arrested, assaulted or had their equipment damaged while covering the protests that night.
Thomas, Gullet, Alston and the other plaintiffs are seeking damages, attorneys fees, expenses and any other relief the court deems appropriate. Thomas’ case is not expected to go to trial until April 2021.
Police corner and detain protesters on the street following the not guilty verdict in the murder trial of a former St. Louis, Missouri, police officer on Sept. 17, 2017. Multiple journalists were arrested in the kettle.
",arrested and released,St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department,2017-09-18,2017-09-17,True,4:19-cv-02590,['SETTLED'],Class Action,None,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,unknown,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, chemical irritant, court verdict, kettle, protest",,, 2020-01-27 17:20:59.306086+00:00,2023-08-28 19:00:05.948939+00:00,"Filmmaker sues St. Louis police for assault, arrest while covering protest",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/filmmaker-sues-st-louis-police-assault-arrest-while-covering-protest/,2023-08-28 19:00:05.410800+00:00,rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2017-10-18),,(2023-08-03 13:31:00+00:00) Filmmaker gets part of $4.9 million class-action settlement,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Damage",,,"camera equipment: count of 1, external battery: count of 1, camera: count of 1",Fareed Alston (Independent),,2017-09-17,False,St. Louis,Missouri (MO),38.62727,-90.19789,"According to a lawsuit filed on his behalf, documentary filmmaker Fareed Alston was assaulted, arrested and his equipment damaged while documenting protests in St. Louis, Missouri, on Sept. 17, 2017.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that more than 1,000 people had gathered in downtown St. Louis to protest the acquittal of Jason Stockley, a white former St. Louis police officer who in 2011 fatally shot Anthony Lamar Smith, a black man.
That night, police officers advanced around the intersection of Washington Avenue and Tucker Boulevard, boxing in approximately 100 people for arrest or detention in a maneuver called kettling.
On Sept. 17, 2018, one year after the kettling arrests, ArchCity Defenders, a legal advocacy organization, and the law firm of Khazaeli Wyrsch filed 12 lawsuits against the St. Louis Metro Police Department on behalf of individuals whom they said were treated illegally by police officers during the protests. Alston and two freelance video journalists, Mark Gullet and Demetrius Thomas, were among those represented.
According to the lawsuit filed on Alston’s behalf, Alston arrived in downtown St. Louis with his assistant between 9 – 10:30 p.m. CST on Sept. 17. Both were carrying official press passes and cameras for the purpose of documenting the protest.
Though many of the protesters had already dispersed, a small group was standing on the side of Washington Avenue. The lawsuit says that Alston also saw approximately 50 to 100 St. Louis police officers dressed in riot gear, so he and his assistant split up and began filming. According to the complaint, officers did not indicate that the filmmakers should not enter the area or that a mass arrest was imminent.
Shortly after, a line of police started advancing toward the demonstrators. According to the complaint, an apartment tenant allowed Alston’s assistant to enter the building and escape the marching line of police, but Alston was unable to do the same. Alston then noticed a second line of police approaching from the opposite direction, beginning to box in all those present while pounding their batons against their shields and the ground.
While continuing to film, Alston and a few other people approached the line of bicycle police who made up one side of the kettle so they could ask to leave. As they neared, the complaint says, the officers started “slamming” their bicycles on the ground. Alston searched for another exit, but finding none he re-approached a bicycle officer to ask to be let out.
“Without warning or any verbal directions, the police officer pushed Mr. Alston back with his baton and his shield and started to fire pepper spray directly at Mr. Alston’s face,” the complaint says. “At the same time, a second officer began to pepper spray Mr. Alston.”
Alston and others around him fell to the ground, and were quickly surrounded by police. According to the complaint, a number of officers began kicking Alston while continuing to douse him in pepper spray for several minutes.
Officers then turned Alston over and cuffed him with three zip ties, causing immediate pain. Another officer roughly pulled the camera from around Alston’s neck, “slammed” it on the ground and powered it off.
The lawsuit says that at one point an officer began to taunt Alston.
“The officer said that this is what Mr. Alston got for wanting to videotape the police. Other officers also told Mr. Alston not to record what was happening. It was clear that Mr. Alston was targeted for documenting the protest,” the complaint says.
Alston was taken to St. Louis City Justice Center alongside others arrested at the scene, where he was incarcerated for nearly 24 hours and received minimal medical attention. His camera was returned to him upon his release, but it had been badly damaged and pieces of his lighting equipment — including a lighting fixture and its power source — were lost when he was roughly cuffed.
According to the complaint, Alston continues to suffer physical and psychological repercussions from his arrest and assault, including persistent numbness in his hand, chronic respiratory issues and nightmares. He also no longer feels comfortable covering protests, which had been the main subject of his work.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documented 10 journalists detained, arrested, assaulted or had their equipment damaged while covering the protests that night.
Alston, Thomas, Gullet and the other plaintiffs are seeking damages, attorneys fees, expenses and any other relief the court deems appropriate. Alston’s case is not expected to go to trial until early 2021.
Around 100 demonstrators and multiple journalists were pepper-sprayed and arrested during protests following a not guilty verdict in the murder trial of a former St. Louis, Missouri, police officer on Sept. 17, 2017.
",arrested and released,St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department,2017-09-18,2017-09-17,True,4:19-cv-02590,['SETTLED'],Class Action,returned in part,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, chemical irritant, court verdict, kettle, protest",,, 2017-05-24 22:01:58.221086+00:00,2024-03-22 15:16:04.235104+00:00,Journalist Tonita Cervantes arrested at Standing Rock,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-tonita-cervantes-arrested-standing-rock/,2024-03-22 15:16:04.069366+00:00,obstruction: physical obstruction of a government function (charges dropped as of 2017-07-09),,"(2022-12-19 00:00:00+00:00) Freelance photojournalist sues ND county, city, officers for wrongful arrest at pipeline protest, (2024-03-01 00:00:00+00:00) Journalist’s suit against North Dakota law enforcement dismissed","Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Search or Seizure",,"camera: count of 1, camera lens: count of 1, cellphone: count of 1, external battery: count of 1, storage device: count of 14",,Tonita Cervantes (Freelance),,2017-02-22,False,Morton County,North Dakota (ND),None,None,"Tonita Cervantes, a freelance photojournalist, was arrested on Feb. 22, 2017, while covering events at the Dakota Access Pipeline camp. Police seized her phone, camera, lenses, external battery packs, blank flash cards, and data discs and held them as evidence.
Cervantes is charged with physical obstruction of government function, a Class A misdemeanor that could result in a year in jail. According to police records, Cervantes pleaded not guilty.
Cervantes’ seized equipment was returned to her on March 1, according to the National Press Photographers Association.
Cervantes is scheduled to go to trial in June 2018.
Photojournalist Tonita Cervantes was arrested shortly after taking this photo of law enforcement officers enforcing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer’s evacuation order for the Oceti Sakowin camp in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, on Feb. 22, 2017.
",arrested and released,Morton County Sheriff's Department,2017-02-23,2017-02-22,True,1:22-cv-00211,['DISMISSED'],Civil,returned in full,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"environmentalism, protest",,, 2017-05-25 21:05:01.655397+00:00,2024-03-20 16:36:18.309940+00:00,Reporter Jenni Monet arrested at Standing Rock,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-jenni-monet-arrested-standing-rock/,2024-03-20 16:36:18.148947+00:00,"rioting: engaging in a riot (charges dropped as of 2018-05-10), trespassing: criminal trespass (acquitted as of 2018-06-01)",,"(2018-05-10 13:24:00+00:00) Rioting charge dropped, (2018-06-01 18:47:00+00:00) Not guilty",Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Jenni Monet (Freelance),,2017-02-01,False,Morton County,North Dakota (ND),None,None,"Jenni Monet — a freelance journalist who has written for The Center for Investigative Reporting, Indian Country Today, and Yes! Magazine — was arrested while covering protests opposing the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota. Monet had been continuously embedded at Standing Rock since December 2016. On Feb. 1, 2017, she was detained and arrested after presenting law enforcement officers with her press credentials.
Writing in Indian Country Today, Monet reported that she was denied a phone call to her attorney until 25 hours after her arrest and was detained for more than 30 hours before finally being released. She also said that she and other Native American and non-white detainees were subjected to strip searches that their white counterparts were not.
Monet was charged with criminal trespassing and engaging in a riot, both Class B misdemeanors that could result in up to two months in jail, a fine, or both.
She is scheduled to go to trial in June 2018.
For her coverage of the Standing Rock protests, she has received Columbia University's 2017 Paul Tobenkin Memorial Award and the Hugh M. Hefner Foundation's 2017 First Amendment Award.
Jenni Monet at Standing Rock
",arrested and released,Morton County Sheriff's Department,2017-02-02,2017-02-01,True,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"environmentalism, protest",,, 2017-05-24 01:48:49.773084+00:00,2023-11-03 18:33:48.368171+00:00,"Vocativ journalist charged with rioting in Washington, D.C.",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/vocativ-journalist-charged-with-rioting-in-washington/,2023-11-03 18:33:48.240158+00:00,rioting (charges dropped as of 2017-01-27),,(2021-09-17 00:00:00+00:00) Vocativ journalist receives payout from class-action settlement with District of Columbia,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Search or Seizure",What happened during my arrest at Trump's Inauguration (https://freedom.press/news/what-happened-during-my-arrest-trumps-inauguration/),"camera: count of 1, cellphone: count of 1",,Evan Engel (Vocativ),,2017-01-20,False,Washington,District of Columbia (DC),38.89511,-77.03637,"Evan Engel was arrested on Jan. 20, 2017, while covering protests in Washington, D.C., on the day of President Donald Trump's inauguration. At the time, Engel was a senior producer at Vocativ. Vocativ spokeswoman Ellen Davis told the Committee to Protect Journalists that police seized Engel’s camera and mobile phone.
In a blog post for the Freedom of the Press Foundation, Engel wrote about the circumstances of his arrest:
The group – which included protesters, journalists (including myself), medics, and legal observers – raised their hands in the air and awaited further instructions from the police.
I livestreamed the detention on Facebook. After about 40 minutes, police officers from DC’s Metropolitan Police Department began pulled me from the group (livestreamers were among the first arrested). As I’ve done in numerous protests since 2008, I showed officers my camera and business cards and explained that I was a journalist.
“That’s great,” one officer replied. “I’m a sergeant.”
Engel was charged with the highest level of offense under Washington, D.C.’s law against rioting, which applies when there are injuries as a result of the activity or property damage in excess of $5,000, which can be punished by a maximum of 10 years in jail and fines of up to $25,000.
Engel wrote that he was detained for over 27 hours. He said that he and other detainees were subjected to abusive treatment, including being locked in the back of an overheated van.
On Jan. 27, all charges against Engel were dropped. Police later returned his phone and camera.
Independent journalist Shay Horse was arrested on Jan. 20, 2017, in Washington, D.C., while covering protests around the inauguration of President Donald Trump.
Like other journalists and protesters arrested that day, Horse was charged with the highest level of offense under the district's law against rioting, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail and fines of up to $25,000.
In February, the charges against Horse were dropped.
Activists stand amid smoke from a stun grenade during a protest against President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the inauguration in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 2017.
",arrested and released,Metropolitan Police Department,2017-01-21,None,True,1:17-cv-01216,['SETTLED'],Class Action,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"chemical irritant, election, Election 2016, kettle, protest",,, 2018-01-12 01:29:25.162296+00:00,2023-11-03 18:38:43.984745+00:00,Citizen journalist Nydia Tisdale arrested and attacked by police officer while filming rally,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/citizen-journalist-nydia-tisdale-arrested-and-attacked-police-officer-while-filming-rally/,2023-11-03 18:38:43.853434+00:00,"obstruction: obstruction of a law enforcement officer (convicted as of 2017-12-04), obstruction (acquitted as of 2017-12-04), trespassing (acquitted as of 2017-12-04)",,,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault, Equipment Search or Seizure, Equipment Damage",,camera: count of 1,work product: count of 1,Nydia Tisdale (Independent),,2014-08-23,False,Dawsonville,Georgia (GA),34.42121,-84.11908,"Nydia Tisdale, an independent video journalist, was arrested and charged with criminal trespass and obstruction of an officer while filming Republican candidates’ speeches at a rally in Dawsonville, Georgia, on Aug. 23, 2014.
On Dec. 4, 2017, Tisdale was convicted of misdemeanor obstruction of a law enforcement officer but acquitted of felony charges.
Tisdale runs and owns AboutForsyth, an independent news website, and regularly documents and films videos of public meetings.
She told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that, on Aug. 23, 2014, she attended a rally for Republican candidates at Burt’s Farm, a private pumpkin farm in Dawsonville, Georgia.
As she was filming the speeches, she said, she was physically accosted by Dawson County Sheriff’s Office Captain Tony Wooten.
“Fifteen minutes into the rally, I was attacked,” Tisdale said. “I was grabbed out of my chair, twisted up, and one hand was yanked off my tripod. I was pushed and pulled and dragged and spinned in circles, and [Wooten] twisted my arm behind my back, and forced me into the barn, and slammed me against the countertop.”
In video of the altercation recorded by Tisdale, she can be heard repeatedly asking Wooten, “What is your name? What is your name, sir?”
Wooten refuses to give her his name and says, “I’ve been real nice, but now you’re going to jail for resisting arrest.”
“You’ll see [my name] on the warrant when we get to the jail,” he tells her at another point in the video.
Tisdale protests that she has the right to film the public rally — “this was a public event posted on Facebook by [Georgia] governor [Nathan] Deal,” she says — and claims that she received permission to film from Kathy Burt, who owns Burt’s Farm along with her husband.
“I spoke with several candidates, and they didn’t mind,” she says. “Kathy Burt said it was OK. I spoke with her when I first arrived!”
In the video, Johnny Burt says that she does not permission to film the rally: “Listen, I’m the owner and I say no.”
Burt’s Farm did not respond to a request for comment.
The video ends shortly after Wooten forcibly pushes away Tisdale’s camera, at which point Tisdale can be heard screaming off-screen, “Ow, that hurts! You’re hurting me! You are really hurting me!”
Tisdale told the Freedom of the Press Foundation that after the video was shut off, two uniformed Dawson County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived to take her into custody. At this point, she said, Wooten finally revealed his name and formally placed her under arrest, but did not give a reason for the arrest or read Tisdale her Miranda rights.
Tisdale was eventually charged with felony obstruction, felony trespassing, and misdemeanor obstruction of an officer. At trial, prosecutors accused her of elbowing and kicking Wooten.
The Dawson County Sheriff’s Office seized Tisdale’s camera when she was arrested and held it in custody for six days before returning it to her.
Tisdale believes that the police may have edited her video footage of the altercation.
She said that she checked the video footage on her camera once it was returned to her and noticed that her video footage had been split into two separate videos, and the portion of the video in which she could be heard screaming had been inexplicably deleted.
An audio recording of the incident, captured by Brian Pritchard of FetchYourNews, clearly shows that Tisdale screamed for help during the altercation.
Dawson County Sheriff Billy Carlisle told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the department had not edited Tisdale’s video footage.
Tisdale said that she had bruises on her arms, feet, and pelvic region for days after the altercation and had trouble eating and sleeping.
In August 2016, Tisdale filed a sexual assault complaint against Captain Tony Wooten, alleging that he pushed his crotch into her buttocks while he bent her over a countertop. That case was stayed pending the outcome of the criminal charges against Tisdale.
On Aug. 8, 2016, Tony Wooten resigned from the Dawson County Sheriff’s Office.
On Dec. 4, 2017, a Dawsonville jury convicted Tisdale on a misdemeanor charge of obstruction of an officer, but acquitted her of felony charges of obstruction and trespassing.
“This is a partial victory, but not a complete victory, and I maintain my innocence of all charges,” Tisdale told the Freedom of the Press Foundation. “Video recording is not a crime.”
On Dec. 18, 2017, Tisdale was sentenced to 12 months probation, 40 hours of community service, and a $1000 fine.
A screengrab from Nydia Tisdale's video shows Dawsonville County Sheriff's Office deputy Tony Wooten pushing her into a countertop before taking her into custody.
",arrested and released,Dawson County Sheriff’s Office,None,None,True,None,[],None,returned in full,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,,,,