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

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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.

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.

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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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