Police forces photojournalists on the ground and takes their photos during protests in Minnesota
Apr 20, 2021
Dunja Đuđić
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, concerts, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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For over a week, people in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota have been protesting after a white police officer shot a Black man dead. And what started as a peaceful protest turned into havoc on Friday. On the sixth night of the protest, police officers reportedly targeted photojournalists and other members of the press. They forced them to lie on the ground, photographed their faces and press credentials, and some of them were reportedly even detained.
The protesters have gathered every night since 11 April. This is when Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter shot Daunte Wright during a traffic stop. As the police said after the incident, “Mrs. Potter shot Daunte Wright accidentally, having mistakenly drawn her gun instead of her Taser.” If I may ask – is this even possible to happen to a trained police officer? Mistake a Taser for a gun? I just had to comment on it because I find it hard to believe, but I may be wrong.
On the sixth night of the protests, there were around 500 protesters marching peacefully. Around 9 p.m., an incident reportedly triggered police to start using tear gas, pepper balls, and projectiles, according to Jasper Colt of the USA TODAY Network. After about half an hour, the sheriff’s department the protestors over a loudspeaker announcement to leave the area. They reportedly called the protest “an unlawful assembly,” and the crowd started to disperse.
“A lot of journalists like myself were slow to leave the area,” Colt told USA TODAY. “We didn’t think we needed to, and we wanted to cover what was happening.” He says that the police then gathered the remaining protesters and photojournalists and yelled at them to get flat on their stomachs. They reportedly identified the journalists, and then took their credentials and IDs. They took photos of them, as well as of the press members’ faces.
The Minnesota State Patrol (MSP) recently issued guidance to its troopers and other law enforcement agencies. In the statement, MSP writes that it “has and will continue to respect the rights of the media to cover protest activity.” The guidance reads that “MSP is prohibited from arresting, threatening to arrest, or threatening/using physical force against someone we know or have reason to know is a member of the media unless they are suspected of a separate crime (not simply violating a dispersal order, which doesn’t apply to them).”
“The MSP has not and will not target media for doing the important work of showing those who are exercising their first amendment rights to express themselves, or those who are engaged in the violent, illegal activity law enforcement is trying to prevent.”
Interestingly enough, MSP also writes that its troopers “will not photograph journalists or their credentials” (but will still be checking them). And according to ACLU, the Friday incident was a direct violation of MSP’s own order:
Adam Hansen, an attorney working on the civil case with ACLU-Minnesota, said:
“The emergency order requires law enforcement to take certain steps to protect journalists… the order requires law enforcement to leave them alone. We absolutely see what happened last night as a violation of the court’s order and we’re doing everything we can to make sure that it doesn’t continue tonight and on into the future.”
Sadly, this isn’t the first time that we’ve seen press members being targeted at a protest. This happened during protests in Minneapolis last year, after the death of George Floyd. Photojournalist Linda Tirado was even blinded by a rubber bullet while covering the same series of protests. Earlier this year, a photojournalist was arrested in the UK for doing his job and covering a story.
Sadly, sometimes these incidents end tragically. A photographer was shot dead last year during protests in Jefferson Square Park in Louisville. And earlier last year, a photojournalist from Chile was found dead in her apartment after covering anti-government protests.
All these stories give me chills and they’re scary on multiple levels. First of all, what about the freedom of the press and the freedom of opinion? Then, what about human health and human lives that were taken away from photojournalists just because they were doing their job. I must say that I agree with the attorney Adam Hansen – leave the journalists alone and let them do their job.
[via USA TODAY]
Dunja Đuđić
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, concerts, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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17 responses to “Police forces photojournalists on the ground and takes their photos during protests in Minnesota”
Because : Liberals are in charge. But, please get out of politics and just do what your site says: DIY Photography. We get enough politics everywhere else.
Martin Gillette This is a photography issue. It’s not a political issue. It’s about ensuring photographers are free to do their job.
Martin Gillette only reason you are posting here and on Facebook is for political reasons. Perhaps you could share with us some of your photography and articles you have written. Nah you will stick to trolling it’s what Martin Gillette is best at.
Martin Gillette oh piss off. That’s the stupidest thing I have seen all morning.
Martin Gillette exactly correct Martin.
Jolyon Ralph it is a political issue. If it were white people rioting and it could be twisted to be called insurrection the photographers would be escorted in… and told what to photograph.
No if white people were rioting it would be called a riot. Just like
when BLM rioted it was called a riot. I’m sure you are referring to that
time not too long ago when insurrectionists ATTACKED the UNITED STATES
CAPITOL BUILDING during the formalization of the current presidents
victory. You know, that time when trump supporters brought bombs and
guns and used them as threats & intimidation tactics to get what
they wanted. That time a woman tried to climb though the broken part of a
door to the HOUSE CHAMBER in an effort to try and threaten the lives of
government officials to force them to keep an out going president in
office despite what voters clearly voted for and then got shot and
killed by capitol police. Oh can’t forget about those blue lives matters
people that KILLED a capitol police officer. That does not compare at
all to people protesting for civil liberties and Justice reform in a
system ripe with corruption that has been built against minorities. It
does not compare In any form. Those insurrectionists knew what they were
doing and why and you know just as well. Any one that supports the jan
6th insurrection is a traitor to the United States. What those
insurrections did was an attempted coup d’etat. Plain and simple. You can try and
justify it all you want but the meaning of coup is exactly what those
people tried to do. In case you don’t know the definition, here it is:
“A coup d’état or coup is the removal and seizure of a government
and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal, unconstitutional seizure of
power by a political faction, the military, or a dictator”.
Martin Gillette it is a freedom of the press issue. when the press is blocked, right or left, the stories don’t come out and we are all worse off.
Whether it’s a political issue or not is irrelevant. It’s a photographer issue, so it gets posted about on photography sites (funny how thhat works, huh?). If you don’t like it, then you know where the door is. :)
Martin Gillette for those of you saying this is political, can you please explain which party this is criticizing? This is a state of the freedom of press article and photographers are at the front line of that fight right now.
This site actually says what it’s about. It only takes a couple clicks to find it and read it. So this article fits. Also please consider that DIY Photography’s authors and audience are international in nature, so no rationale for photojournalism ugliness to be out of bounds just because events take place in the U.S.
Martin, in this day and age…politics can mean life or death. So it is important to stay current.
I get the news wherever I can. MSM can’t be relied upon any longer. And bottom line it deals with photography and the website is to be commended for bringing us ‘all’ the news.
Those were mainstream journalists who were being targeted. I trust CNN, NPR, AP, Reuters over some “amateur journalist” any day of the week.
Because they know the officer that murdered George Floyd wouldn’t even be on trial right now except for the fact that he was caught on camera murdering a handcuffed man…
The best non violent defence against civil rights and human rights abuses by police officers is to record them..
People should consider filming the police to be a civic duty if they believe in the Constitution and if they believe in human rights, And the police should respect the law and not harass arrest or confiscate property
This happens because Antifa is known to wear fake press tags and show fake press IDs. This is old news.
No, that’s an old rumour. Known by whom? Please present some proof of your claim.
Put up, or shut up.