Incident Details
- Date of Incident
- August 4, 2018
- Targets
- Doug Brown (Paste)
- Assailant
- Law enforcement
- Was the journalist targeted?
- Unknown
Assault
Freelance photographer Doug Brown and independent journalist Donovan Farley were shoved by Portland police officers while covering a protest in Portland, Oregon, on Aug. 4, 2018.
The journalists were in downtown Portland that day to cover the far-right "Patriot Prayer" protest and counterprotests for Paste magazine. Brown was taking photographs of protesters and Portland police officers, who were clad in riot gear and armed with batons and non-lethal weapons.
A video that Brown posted on Vimeo shows journalists and protesters slowly retreating before an advancing line of Portland police officers, as the officers fire non-lethal projectiles at them. At one point, the officers stop at the edge of a street and wait. Without warning, the officers begin running down the street toward towards Brown, Farley, and others. Once they reach them, they violently shove them backwards with their batons.
"Move!" the officers yell as they force Brown backwards.
"What's your name?" Brown asks one of the officers pushing him. "What's your name, sir? What's your name?"
The officer does not reply.
Brown later tweeted a video showing the police charge.
“Here’s riot cops in Portland rushing and hitting me, @DonovanFarley, and others on the sidewalk,” Brown wrote. “I don’t know why they did this.”
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogues press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
