US Journalists Covering Protests Attacked by Police

For Americans used to seeing scenes of journalists in authoritarian countries being harassed, intimidated, jailed and killed, the sight of reporters covering protests over the death of George Floyd under the knee of a police officer being assaulted by police was shocking – but it kept up.

In the country where freedom of the press is enshrined in the Constitution, it was ignored under the administration of President Donald Trump who critics said opened the door for making journalists a target in declaring the media was “the enemy of the people.”

In city after city, images of people protesting and being beaten back by squadrons of police were accompanied by journalists also under attack.

Until the demonstrations over the death in Minneapolis of Floyd, a black man who kept repeating “I can't breathe,” as the life was choked out of him, only 43 journalists in the US had been detained by police while covering protests.

That included 37 at Trump's 2017 inauguration, said Joel Simon, Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists who said, “It's unacceptable attempt to intimidate them.”

As of June 4, the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker said there were more than 300 incidents, more than 49 arrests, 192 assaults - 160 by police - 69 physical attacks, 43 tear gassings, 24 pepper sprayings and 77 reports of rubber bullets being fired at reporters doing their jobs.

Except for the U.S. Park Police putting on administrative leave two officers videoed savagely attacking an Australian news team as authorities tear gassed and physically removed people outside the White House so that Trump could walk to a nearby church to hold up a bible, no police had reportedly been held to account.

Simon told The Washington Post that police were relying on “quasi-military” tactics to suppress demonstrations, including pushing protesters into a confined space and arresting everyone, including reporters. “I’ve never seen anything quite like this,” he said. “Many of the norms have broken down.”

Combined with Trump using social media to attack media not in his pocket, it was a combustible situation that exploded when reporters were caught up in the crowds protesting Floyd's death.

Following the arrest of a CNN crew on live television by police, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz apologized to the crew and said journalists wouldn't be interfered with.

Vice News reporter Michael Anthony Adams shouted repeatedly he was a member of the media as police in Minneapolis poured out of a van and yelled for people to leave.

“I don’t care,” said one officer, ordering Adams to the ground where, showing his press badge, he was hit by a blast of pepper spray, caught on camera, the Post said.

Los Angeles Times reporter Molly Hennessy-Fiske wrote that several journalists in Minneapolis shouted “press” and waved credentials but police cornered them and fired rubber bullets, one hitting her photographer colleague, Carolyn Cole, in the face.

“I didn’t realize it, but I was bleeding from several wounds to my leg,” Hennessy-Fiske wrote. “Blood covered the face mask of a reporter next to me, who was so stunned someone had to tell him he was hurt.”

The incidents kept up despite being seen on live video reports as the protests spread to more than 140 cities, police attacking reporters showing their media credentials, no one in authority stopping them or investigating the assaults.

The attacks were indiscriminate, even against journalists for major mainstream news outlets and newspapers as well as free lance reporters and continued unabated for days and even accelerated.

Canadian freelance photographer Barbara Davidson said she was shoved by a Los Angeles police officer despite identifying herself. “He literally lifted me off my feet,” she told The Toronto Globe and Mail in an interview. “That’s a whole level of aggression that I’ve never experienced before.”

She said her head struck a fire hydrant, but fortunately she was wearing a skateboard helmet and that she would have been tramped by riot police if protesters hadn't pulled her away to safety.

Trump egged on the attacks on journalists, tweeting: “The Lamestream Media is doing everything within their power to foment hatred and anarchy. As long as everybody understands what they are doing, that they are FAKE NEWS and truly bad people with a sick agenda, we can easily work through them to GREATNESS!”

David Kaye, a law professor and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to free expression, cited the “incessant attacks by Trump on the press” as part of the reason why so many journalists were finding themselves in harm’s way.

Kaye tweeted: “The attacks on journalists are appalling and must be condemned and perpetrators held accountable.” They haven't been.