Journalist pushed repeatedly by police at Denver protest

Shavonne Blades, publisher of community news outlet Yellow Scene Magazine, was shoved multiple times by law enforcement on May 30, 2020, while covering protests in Denver, Colorado, against the police killing of George Floyd, according to a complaint filed in May 2022.

Three years later, on June 9, 2025, the Denver City Council unanimously approved a $398,500 settlement for incidents of police violence during the 2020 demonstrations. Blades was among those who settled with the city under the agreement.

During the 2020 protest, as described in the 2022 complaint, officers approached protesters, shooting crowd-control munitions. Police targeted people from behind and without warning — and without distinguishing members of the press — as documented in multiple assaults on journalists that same day.

While reporting from the scene on May 30, as well as the day before on May 29, Blades was exposed to large amounts of tear gas, which the complaint said caused burning, irritation and extreme difficulty breathing.

The complaint added that Blades, reporting on May 30 from a public sidewalk on police activities at the protest, had tried to help a man who had been pepper-sprayed in the face and was being shoved by SWAT officers. Blades showed the officers her press badge and a T-shirt labeled “PRESS” in all caps so that she could help the injured man.

Officers then began to push her, saying they did not care that she was with the press. Blades was forced to retreat from the area and stop her documentation, afraid the officers might escalate their use of force.

“This is not the first time that Denver Police Department officers have retaliated against individuals for filming and criticizing the police,” attorney Andy McNulty at Newman McNulty, a civil rights and employment law firm, told The Denverite in commenting on the Blades case. “The Denver Police Department’s persistent violation of the First Amendment should come as no surprise given Denver’s consistent failure to discipline or fire officers who violate civilians’ constitutional rights.”

Since 2020, the city of Denver has paid approximately $18.3 million in settlements related to lawsuits against Denver police officers for their actions during the protests, including another case involving a journalist from Yellow Scene Magazine.