Journalists & Reporters Attacked By Police During Protests: Videos  – Hollywood Life

Journalists Targeted & Viciously Attacked By Police After Trump Blames Media For Protests 

Despite showing proof that they're part of the press, many journalists and reporters covering anti-racism protests around the globe are being targeted by police. They've since used their platforms to speak out, and their encounters with police are harrowing.

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Reading Time: 3 minutes
June 2, 2020 1:58PM EDT
Omar Jimenez
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A person walks past a graffito showing late George Floyd, in Berlin, Germany, 30 May 2020. A bystander's video posted online on 25 May, appeared to show George Floyd, 46, pleading with arresting officers that he couldn't breathe as an officer knelt on his neck in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The unarmed black man later died in police custody. A series of demonstrations throughout the German capital, calling for ending of the social and economical restrictions imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The events are organised by groups of various motives, right wing activists, conspiracy theory believers and more, several counter demonstrations by left leaning organisations were also taking place. Anti-restrictions protests and counter demos in Berlin, Germany - 30 May 2020
Mayor Bill de Blasio, third from left, participates in painting Black Lives Matter on Fifth Avenue in front of Trump Tower, in New York. The mayor's wife, Chirlane McCray, is fourth from left and Rev. Al Sharpton is second from left Racial Injustice , New York, United States - 09 Jul 2020
People pose with a new Black Lives Matter mural outside of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York. Black Lives Matter mural, New York, USA - 09 Jul 2020

It’s been two days since Donald Trump blamed the “lamestream media” for the ongoing anti-racism protests in a tweet, calling journalists “truly bad people with a sick agenda.” Even before the president’s lewd tweet, police had been targeting journalists and reporters covering the nationwide protests calling for justice in the death of George Floyd, 46. And, the senseless attacks are still ongoing as day five of the protests — some of which turned violent at the White House on May 29 — continue.

Journalists from news outlets including, CNN, Vice, LA Times and more are posting videos and images from their first-hand encounters with police on social media. LA Times Reporter, Molly Hennessy-Fiske said she, along with a dozen other media members, were hit with “tear gas canisters” at “point blank range” by the Minnesota state patrol. Vice Reporter, Michael Anthony Adams said he “was thrown to the ground” by police, while “another cop came up and peppered sprayed me in the face while I was being held down.” These reporters and many more have one thing in common — they identified themselves as members of the media upon attack, yet they say they were still targeted and pursued.

MOLLY HENNESSY-FISKE,
LA Times

“We identified ourselves as press and they fired tear gas canisters on us at point blank range. I got hit in the leg,” Fiske recalled in a video pinned on her Twitter page. “We asked the, I was saying, ‘Where do we go, where to go,’ they didn’t tell us where to go, they just fired on us,” she said.

Michael Anthony Adams
Vice Reporter

“The cop had his gun trained on me the moment he saw me,” Adams, said in an article published by Vice, recalling the situation.  “At this point, I already had my hands up, press ID in hand, and was yelling ‘PRESS’ over and over and over,” he remembered, explaining, “It didn’t matter. Not to him. He told me as much before forcing me to the ground near the gas pump where I was taking cover. Then, a second later, another cop came by as I was lying there, my press card still raised above my head.”

Omar Jimenez,
CNN

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez,
89.3 KPCC & LAist

Scott Thurman
Chief Political Correspondent for Sinclair and Full Measure

Editor’s Note: It is unclear if Scott Thurman is in the video he shared to Twitter.

Many reporters, photographers and members of the press continue to speak out about the treatment of journalists by police officers amid the protests. President Trump hasn’t helped the matter by his constant verbal attacks on the media.

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