The murder of George Floyd, an unarmed 46-year old man who was killed by a white police officer, Derek Chauvin after he kneeled down on his neck for nearly nine minutes, sparked rage among the people across the country of the United States.
Protestors in hundreds and thousands came out on the streets to protest against the rising rate of police brutality and the death that the Black people have been consistently experiencing because of it.
When the new reporter from Vice news Michael Anthony Adams reported that despite him shouting that he is part of a media and is covering the story, the police officers from Minneapolis poured out of the van and yelled at the people to leave.
“I don’t care,” screamed one of the police officers, who then pitted Adam against the ground face down. He then tried to show his press identity card to further get out of the situation he was trapped in.
“I am from Press. Please do,” said Adams following which he was sprayed with pepper spray.
The situation, which was caught on camera, is not the only case or incident that took place on Sunday but similar incidents happened across the country in different sites of protest. The police were found spraying tear gas and even use rubber bullets to hurt the protestors.
Majority of such incidents that were caught on camera were shown to the Governor of Minneapolis, Tim Walz, who condemned such acts. He further condemned the arrest of CNN’s Omar Jimenez on live television.
The protection and security and safety of journalists covering this is a top priority, not because it’s a nice thing to do, but because it is a key component of how we fix this,” said Walz.
Just the next day of the protests, an Indian-origin journalist, Ali Velshi from MSNBC, who was on site of the protests to cover the riots and the scene unfolding around stated saying that the distress was extremely bad.
“They have now fired at us. Anybody hearing it? The gentleman next to us got hit,” he said. “We got gassed. They are continuing to fire at us. … There has been no provocation. There has been nothing that happened whatsoever,” Velshi screamed out in protest.
Later, taking it to his Twitter, Velshi reported that he was hit on his leg with a rubber bullet.
Not just that, even LA Times reporter Molly Hennessy-Fiske clarified that several of the press people and journalists had consistently raised their badges, IDs and tried to prove their identity but were still cornered by the police and were chased down with tear gas and rubber bullets. It even got to a point that a rubber bullet hit one of her colleague’s face.
Hennessy-Fiske further reported that she didn’t realise that she was badly injured until later. She was bleeding from several of the wounds from her leg. Not just that, she was stunned to see one of her colleague’s face mask covered and soaked in blood which later was revealed to be a wound as well.
Reuters TV cameraman Julio-Cesar Chavez was on site during one of the protests and was filming the police when they began firing. He later reported that he was hit on the face by a bullet along with the back of his neck as well.
And, not just the journalists working on the field of protests, even the ones inside their cars weren’t safe. Ryan Faircloth from the Star Tribune was injured and experienced blood running down his face, when he reported that all that he was doing was getting out of the area. The police fired at his car, which shattered his window and injured him.
Several reporters around the protest sites were also detained by the police officers, despite them wearing all the necessary ties and credentials. Jim Schaefer, another journalist reported that the police were constantly using pepper spray on the people around the area.
“One of the craziest nights of my career. Got tear gassed multiple times. Police shot rubber bullets at us even (though) we were moving where they wanted us to go, holding up our press passes and yelling media,” said David Jesse, a Free Press reporter.
Even an officer from Louisville on Friday night was found pointing a gun at one of the local TV newspaper reporter, Kaitlin Rust, who screamed about the urgency before something worse happened.
When Rust was asked from back in the studio who were targeting them, she replied that it was the police officers.
The Louisville police spokesperson reported that they are still trying to find the individual who fired at them.
“Targeting the media is not our intention. There was a lot going on last night, and to be fair to both the officer and to Kaitlin, we need to take a deeper look at what happened and what prompted that action,” she further added.
