Reporter targeted with tear gas, stun grenades at New Jersey protest

Status Coup reporter and CEO Jordan Chariton and his colleague, videojournalist Jon Farina, were targeted with crowd-control munitions by New Jersey State Police while documenting protests outside a federal detention center in Newark on May 29, 2026.

Protests outside the Delaney Hall immigration detention facility began May 22, when many detainees went on a hunger strike. Members of Congress, state and local lawmakers and rights groups have alleged dire conditions at the facility.

Federal officers responded to the protests with chemical irritants, physical force and arrests, as did state police in the days that followed.

The Department of Homeland Security has denied allegations of detainee mistreatment.

Farina told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he and Chariton had been covering the protests for Status Coup, and that May 29 was the first day that state police managed the protest response.

After state troopers pushed their line forward, Farina said things calmed down significantly for several minutes.

“Jordan’s just talking, the protesters are not doing anything — they’re just standing around — and the state police are standing behind their shields,” he told the Tracker. “Then I tell Jordan, ‘Hey, let’s go across on the other side of the street, I want to interview somebody.’

“We’re walking, and as soon as we get to the middle of the street, that’s when they shoot the flash bangs and tear gas, or whatever, directly at our feet.”

In their live reporting, Chariton says, “They just targeted us specifically. They threw it at us.”

Chariton immediately started running, Farina said, but the reporter hurt his back and ultimately had to crawl to the side of the road to get to safety.

“After they shot those flash bangs and grenades, they didn’t push the line or anything. They didn’t move,” Farina told the Tracker.

The New Jersey State Police Office of Public Information did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

In a statement posted to X early May 30, New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport wrote that state police were clearing the area outside Delaney Hall because a small number of people were blocking the pathway for law enforcement vehicles. She did not address the use of force against members of the press.