Incident Details
- Date of Incident
- June 30, 2020
- Targets
- Tuck Woodstock (Freelance)
- Case number
- 3:20-cv-01035
- Case Status
- Settled
- Type of case
- Civil
- Assailant
- Law enforcement
- Was the journalist targeted?
- Unknown
Assault
A June 2020 demonstration in Portland, Oregon, after the murder of George Floyd. Journalist Tuck Woodstock was pushed by police and hit with crowd-control munitions while documenting one of the nightly protests that month.
Journalists settle with Portland, Oregon, over 2020 protest violations
A group of journalists who were assaulted and had their equipment seized by police officers in Portland, Oregon, while covering Black Lives Matter protests in June 2020 have settled a federal lawsuit with the city for nearly $1 million. The Portland City Council approved the settlement payment on March 5, 2025.
The $938,000 settlement also reinforces protections through 2028 for journalists who document protests in Portland, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the case on the journalists’ behalf.
The protections were initially put in place by a preliminary injunction in July 2020, which barred the Portland Police Bureau from arresting journalists or seizing their equipment without probable cause, and exempted journalists from dispersal orders.
A similar injunction was later entered against the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Marshals Service personnel. That order was dissolved in March 2022, when the court ruled that fewer, smaller protests in Portland had reduced the need for it.
Independent journalist Tuck Woodstock and a group of other journalists, as well as two legal observers, filed their suit in federal court in late June 2020, alleging that violent behavior by law enforcement was intended to intimidate the press and suppress reporting on officers’ misconduct.
In the complaint, Woodstock described witnessing police assaults on journalists, including “reporters getting shot with rubber bullets or maced in the face when they tried to gather evidence.”
Two days after the suit was filed, Woodstock was documenting a protest when they were pushed multiple times and hit by shrapnel from a canister thrown by police.
The injunction targeting Portland police was dissolved in May 2023 after the court dismissed some of the plaintiffs’ claims against the city, pointing to changes in state law governing police crowd-control techniques, including limiting the use of tear gas.
The Portland Police Bureau had also updated its directive on responding to lawful demonstrations to include protections similar to those established by the injunction, according to the ACLU.
Attorney Matthew Borden, whose firm BraunHagey & Borden also represented the journalists, celebrated the protections established by the agreement.
“Freedom of the press is a constitutional check against abuse of government power—one that has become all the more critical in light of the current federal regime,” he said. “Nobody should have to face the nightly storm of violence that our clients braved to capture what actually happened at the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in Portland.”
Independent journalist Tuck Woodstock said they were pushed several times and hit by crowd-control munitions while covering protests in Portland, Oregon on June 30, 2020.
The Portland-based journalist 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. Woodstock is a plaintiff in the suit, 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 North Portland.
Soon after protesters arrived at PPA offices around 9 p.m., the police declared an “unlawful assembly” and ordered them to disperse. When Woodstock arrived just after 9:30 p.m., the scene involved police pushing protesters and the press and shooting impact munitions at the crowd, they said.
“I got to the PPA just in time to watch PPB shoving protesters, NLG, and press while insisting that they walk faster,” Woodstock tweeted at 9:26 p.m. In the accompanying video, the camera goes askew as police push people around Woodstock.
About a half hour later, Woodstock was pushed several times when police bull-rushed a crowd of protesters. While trying to film the arrest of some protesters, Woodstock “felt a baton pressed into their back as an officer yelled ‘move, move, move, move,’ directly in their ear,” according to court documents in the ACLU case. Despite informing an officer that they were press, Woodstock was pushed at least four times, the filing said.
Then, a little after 10 p.m., Woodstock was hit by shrapnel from a canister police threw that appeared to explode on the curb in front of them. Woodstock tweeted a video of the incident, writing, “Yup just got hit in the leg with shrapnel. Seems very superficial.”
Woodstock declined to comment further about the incidents.
The PPB has said it wouldn't comment on incidents involving journalists covering the protests, citing continuing litigation in the ACLU case.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogues press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].