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<font size="1"><a href="https://wagingnonviolence.org/2020/07/inside-battle-for-portland-with-independent-journalists/">https://wagingnonviolence.org/2020/07/inside-battle-for-portland-with-independent-journalists/</a>
</font><h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Inside the battle for Portland with the independent journalists on the streets<br></h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Shane Burley
July 18, 2020</div>
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<p>On the night of July 11, as hundreds of Black Lives Matter protesters
amassed around the Justice Center in Portland, Oregon, federal Homeland
Security officers opened fire with “crowd control” munitions. They <a href="https://www.opb.org/news/article/federal-officers-portland-protester-shot-less-lethal-munitions/">shot a teargas canister directly at the head of Donavan LaBella</a>,
a peaceful protester who had been standing across the street holding a
sign. The video that captured the protester — unconscious, bleeding and
being carried to safety by other demonstrators and street medics — went
viral almost immediately, pushing state officials to make public
statements and demand that federal law enforcement pull back.</p>
<p>This video was shot by a <a href="https://twitter.com/hungrybowtie">17-year-old independent journalist Garrison Davis, who was filming on his cell phone and broadcasting on Twitter</a>. He had spent almost every night of the past two months documenting the uprising and the police’s response to it.</p>
<p>“We wouldn’t have the statements from [Gov.] Kate Brown today if it
wasn’t for people like me filming last night,” Davis said. After the
video was circulated, the governor, Sen. Ron Wyden, and most of the
Portland City Council spoke up and condemned the police behavior. </p>
<blockquote><p>“I see folks running into tear gas with cameras recording
to document the brutality, and I just don’t see mainstream news doing
that.</p></blockquote>
<p>Davis is part of a growing group of independent journalists who have
been documenting this massive surge of protests — both in Portland and
around the country — without any major media affiliation or expensive
equipment. By using social media tools like Twitter and Periscope, they
are giving people a first-hand view of what is happening on the streets —
something local newspapers and television stations are unable to do on a
daily basis due to shrinking budgets. In essence, these independent
journalists are filling the gap in coverage, creating the video that is
used by the major outlets and providing a clear picture of police
behavior that is only possible by being in the middle of the action.</p>
<p>At the same time, reporters like Davis are also documenting their own
repression. As the police continue to use controversial “crowd control”
tactics, the definition of who is a journalist and who is a protester
has been called into question, and this may be providing cover for
police to target the most essential journalists reporting from the
field.</p>
<p><strong>The center of the action</strong></p>
<p>As the protests emerged in Portland on May 29, the first large
demonstration led to a riot in downtown Portland, and the images and
reports that people saw came largely from those wielding cell phones,
who were able to get in close to film both police and protesters. Many
of the establishment journalists had to report from a distance or were
not able to blend into the crowd, which gave them a more distant
viewpoint. However, many were willing to film the faces of protesters, a
practice that has come under fire as progressive activists have been
threatened and targeted by the far right. </p>
<img src="https://wagingnonviolence.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/unnamed-6-615x492.jpg" alt="" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="461" height="369">Federal agents in Portland confront protesters on July 11. (WNV/Daniel V. Media)
<p>As the protests turned from days into weeks, several of the
independent journalists started to establish themselves as people to
follow on social media sites. Those who wanted to stay informed knew to
check in with specific journalists, watch their videos and livestreams
and get a direct feed from the center of the protests.</p>
<p>“There’s no real mainstream media out here. They rely on people like me to record videos for them,” Davis said.</p>
<p>This is reflected in a lot of the wider coverage, which often uses
the videos from independent Portland reporters in major reports. Without
their on-the-ground reporting it would be hard for the larger outlets
to have a view of the events as they are happening, which means that
most of the journalism that has been done about the Portland protests
has heavily relied on these accounts.</p>
<p>“I’ve noticed that independent journalists aren’t afraid or held back,” said a journalist who goes by the handle <a href="https://twitter.com/jung_sisyphus">Jung Sisyphus</a> and is a part of <a href="https://twitter.com/defendpdx">Defend PDX</a>,
a media collective of radicals-turned-reporters documenting the
protests. “I see folks running into tear gas with cameras recording to
document the brutality, and I just don’t see mainstream news doing that.
The people who are out there acting as an independent, individual, or
citizen reporters have a lot more skin in the game than someone who
works for a Sinclair station. So I think they’re going to do a better
job.”</p>
<h6>Previous Coverage</h6><li><a href="https://wagingnonviolence.org/2018/10/increased-protest-restrictions-wont-keep-communities-safer/"><img src="https://wagingnonviolence.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/portlandpolice-615x395.png" alt="" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="461" height="296"></a> <a href="https://wagingnonviolence.org/2018/10/increased-protest-restrictions-wont-keep-communities-safer/">Increased restrictions on protest won’t keep communities safer</a></li>
<p>With the heavy-handed tactics that the police have been using, many
of these unaffiliated journalists have been hit hard. While reporters
from larger regional stations — such as the <a href="https://twitter.com/bethnakamura/status/1272551330184228864">PBS affiliate Oregon Public Broadcasting</a> and the <a href="https://twitter.com/PDXzane/status/1272058454799028226"><em>Portland Tribune </em></a>— reported being attacked by police, many of the independent journalists received less notice.</p>
<p>One of the stories that first brought attention to the repression was of <a href="https://twitter.com/TheRealCoryElia">local journalist Cory Elia</a>, who has been a reporter for a few years, working with both the <a href="https://kboo.fm/">community radio station KBOO</a> and the <a href="https://villageportland.com/">website the <em>Village Portland</em></a>.
Elia says that he was outraged by the killing of George Floyd and
wanted to come down to document the protest, speeches and art that
people were making against police violence.</p>
<p>“I thought it was just going to be regular protests like in the
past,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting [the] extreme levels of force that I
have [now] seen used so far in multiple occasions.” Over six weeks of
encounters with the police Elia reports seeing protesters and
journalists beaten with batons, hit with tear gas and regularly
attacked. “There were a half dozen incidents where I was struck with a
baton,” he noted.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.opb.org/news/article/portland-police-arrest-3-journalists-during-violent-protests/">On June 30</a>,
the night that demonstrations surrounded the Portland Police
Association building in North Portland, Elia was filming the rough
treatment police were leveling on protesters. He says that shortly after
he identified one officer by name, he was suddenly swooped up by a
group of them and arrested, spending the night in jail and having his
property seized. He has now been charged with two felonies and two
misdemeanors, including assaulting a police officer and resisting
arrest. </p>
<p><strong>An assault on journalism</strong></p>
<p>The assault on journalists is not just a Portland phenomenon as
reporters across the country began documenting — oftentimes with clear
evidence — the aggressive abuse police were levying against them while
in the line of duty. High-profile incidents in Minneapolis, New York,
Los Angeles and other cities saw police beating and arresting
journalists, even while they were showing their press passes or
explaining that they were reporters. </p>
<img src="https://wagingnonviolence.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/unnamed-8-615x439.jpg" alt="" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="461" height="329">Federal agents in Portland confront protesters on July 11. (WNV/Daniel V. Media)
<p>As the uprising continued city to city, the blanket response from
police was so aggressive that journalists became some of the most vocal
advocates for a review of use-of-force protocols — particularly as the
aggression threatened their ability to accurately report the situation
on the ground.</p>
<p>Attacks on journalists in Portland became so common that the police
tried to explain themselves on July 14, saying that journalists had to
follow dispersal orders. This, of course, runs counter to the very
nature of journalism, which is to be there to capture events as they are
happening, despite the conflicts or disruptions taking place.</p>
<p>“After that first week, it quickly escalated to us being treated like
protesters. We weren’t being treated as neutral observers,” said <a href="https://twitter.com/MrOlmos">Sergio Olmos</a>, a freelance reporter who has been at the protest nightly capturing footage.</p>
<p>The behavior by the police created outrage and a <a href="https://www.change.org/p/mayor-ted-wheeler-mayor-wheeler-protect-the-first-amendment?utm_content=cl_sharecopy_22859541_en-US%3A3&recruiter=198319646&recruited_by_id=286c7600-8606-11e4-a980-79260ccd9e1b&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=petition_dashboard">petition signed by journalists began circulating</a>, asking police to stop infringing on their First Amendment rights. On June 30, the Oregon ACLU filed a <a href="https://aclu-or.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/woodstock_portland_aclu_or_06282020.pdf">class action lawsuit</a>
against the city seeking to stop the Portland police from “assaulting
news reporters, photographers, legal observers and other neutrals who
are documenting the police’s violent response to protests over the
murder of George Floyd.” </p>
<p>“Police do not seem interested in protecting freedom of speech,
assembly or press, despite what they may claim on the LRAD,” said <a href="https://twitter.com/tuckwoodstock">Tuck Woodstock</a>,
a freelance journalist who has been covering the protests and has
signed on as a co-plaintiff in the ACLU suit. The LRAD is the audio
system police use to communicate with protesters or to disperse them
with dangerously loud sounds.</p>
<blockquote><p>“The police might even act more violent than they already
have been if the videos, photos and stories journalists share weren’t
used to help hold them accountable.”</p></blockquote>
<p>Elia has <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6983639-EliaMcLam-Complaint.html">filed his own suit as well</a>,
along with his co-plaintiff Lesley McLam, which alleges “the
deprivation of rights guaranteed to them by the First, Fourth, Fifth and
14th Amendments to the United States Constitution.” The petition goes
on to say that the behavior of the police has led to a violation of
basic rights by their use of force, disallowed access to space, and
disregard shown for protesters and press.</p>
<p>“One of the main things I am really frustrated about is the level of
respect they were showing not only to myself but to every member of the
media,” said Elia, who is demanding in his lawsuit, among other things,
that police be put through de-escalation training. </p>
<p>Part of the argument police made was that anyone with a phone and a
social media account could call themselves a journalist. So they felt
they should not have to treat them all with the same credibility as
legacy media. </p>
<p>“With the advent of livestreaming and social media there are many
more independent journalists in the field … the unlawful orders apply to
everyone, without exception,” said Lt. Tina Jones in a June 14 video
posted to Portland Police social media.</p>
<p>What much of the argument misses is that these independent
journalists — many of whom are just starting out or have joined in
support of the protests — are crucial to providing the in-depth coverage
the public deserves.</p>
<img src="https://wagingnonviolence.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/unnamed-9-615x439.jpg" alt="" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="461" height="329">Federal agents in Portland confront protesters on July 11. (WNV/Daniel V. Media)
<p>“I’m out there to tell the story of what is happening in the streets and in our communities,” said <a href="https://twitter.com/danielvmedia">Daniel Vincent</a>, an independent journalist who runs the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn1VnGzwMGHSjz6V7O-fDjA">YouTube account Daniel V. Media</a>.
“Without journalists out there, documenting important stories can go
untold. The police might even act more violent than they already have
been if the videos, photos and stories journalists share weren’t used to
help hold them accountable.” </p>
<p>After outcry from public officials and additional lawsuits, there were some changes put into place. <a href="https://www.dontshootpdx.org/">Don’t Shoot PDX</a>, a local anti-racist organization that has been organizing some of the protest actions, <a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Dont-Shoot-1.pdf">filed a lawsuit related to the use of tear gas</a>, which resulted in a <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2020/06/lawyer-for-dont-shoot-portland-suggests-police-should-retreat-not-use-tear-gas-city-argues-plenty-of-limits-already-in-place.html">temporary injunction</a> last month. Then, on July 2, a federal judge issued a “temporary restraining order” that <a href="https://www.opb.org/news/article/federal-judge-portland-police-journalists-protests/">limited some of the Portland police’s treatment of protesters</a>,
including barring arresting anyone who obviously appears to be a
reporter. The independent journalists who felt targeted have followed
suit by ensuring that press passes are visible and that they have
“PRESS” written on clothing and helmets, clearly visible to police
clearing the area with crowd control methods.</p>
<p><strong>In come the Feds</strong></p>
<p>Journalists say that the lawsuits, injunctions and high-profile
response by Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and other officials condemning
the police’s actions had a calming effect on the police behavior. That
was until <a href="https://www.wweek.com/news/2020/07/10/the-trump-administration-ordered-federal-agencies-to-patrol-portland-uprising/?fbclid=IwAR12ygLwrRVI4mWh01WuuXLenGMpuWWJB2bMnZg8j09o85Zn5W52HkmBmSk">Department of Homeland Security agents were deployed to Portland</a>
following President Trump’s June 26 executive order designed to protect
monuments. While the Portland police were sanctioned for their
aggressive treatment, and subsequently modified their protocols, the
federal law enforcement personnel have no such orders.</p>
<p>“The ACLU lawsuit offered journalists some protections from Portland
Police Bureau [or PBB]. But days later, the federal officials took over,
and journalists were back to getting bull-rushed away from the scenes
they were trying to cover,” Woodstock said. “Federal officials operate
under different rules than PPB, so it’s definitely very different. We
all got used to the rhythms and processes of PPB. This is a new
ballgame.”</p>
<h6>Previous Coverage</h6><li><a href="https://wagingnonviolence.org/2018/08/portland-police-patriot-prayer-antifa/"><img src="https://wagingnonviolence.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/portlandpolice-615x410.png" alt="" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="461" height="307"></a> <a href="https://wagingnonviolence.org/2018/08/portland-police-patriot-prayer-antifa/">As the far-right descends on Portland, police target counter-protesters</a></li>
<p>The federal officers have reportedly failed to pull back and respect
the rights of journalists, as the Portland police have recently done.
Instead, there is a blanket use of force, where they have cleared
protest spaces with an aggressive use of tear gas and crowd control
munitions. This is what led to the blow that fractured the skull of
LaBella.</p>
<p>Now the repression against journalists is back on the table as the
entire city has to reckon with the incredibly aggressive law enforcement
approach that has been implemented.</p>
<p>“I’ve been flash banged, tear gassed and shot with pepper rounds and
rubber bullets dozens of times — often for just filming the scene,
sometimes in an empty park with not even a protest happening and marked
identifiably as press,” said Mierin Fanucchi, an independent reporter
who has been <a href="https://twitter.com/grassgoth">broadcasting on Twitter</a>.
“I know that there would be a higher risk — if only slightly — of being
detained without my press pass, but it certainly doesn’t stop us from
getting shot at and gassed. More so now that the feds have been
mobilized, I’ve been shot at, gassed and disrespected with increasing
frequency and aggression.”</p>
<p>The protests have continued nightly as both Portland police and
federal law enforcement use weapons to disperse the crowds, and the
anger across the city is becoming palpable. Mayor Wheeler has said that
he expects the federal officers to follow the same protocols as was
given to the city police, and he is facing angry denunciations and
lawsuits from protesters and journalists alike. The police response
seems a likely culprit for why the protests have been going on for more
than six weeks in Portland, despite having somewhat subsided around the
country.</p>
<p>“I think a lot of people are honestly committed to the idea of police
reform or abolition,” says Laura Jedeed, who reports for the<a href="https://twitter.com/defendpdx"> Defend PDX collective</a> on <a href="https://twitter.com/1misanthrophile">Twitter</a>.
“The more you go to these protests, the more names you learn and the
more you realize how deep the problem goes. And feeling that brutality
on your own skin does tend to inspire one to continue fighting. But if
we’re all being honest, it’s not the only reason. With COVID, there’s
not a lot of sanctioned nighttime activities, and I think just
socializing with humans is a huge draw.”</p>
<p>The federal officers shocked the entire country when <a href="https://twitter.com/Eleven_Films/status/1283967750981873670">video from an independent journalist</a>
surfaced where officers, dressed in fatigues as though they were there
for war, “snatched” a protester and shoved them into an unmarked van
without warning. This seeming violation of basic rights frightened many
and became the leading story across the country, as Trump’s treatment of
protesters has come to a head. While local officials are now demanding
that federal authorities leave, they are there on Trump’s orders, and
there is no indication they are going anywhere.</p>
<p><strong>Committed journalism</strong></p>
<p>On the 46th night of protests, the crowds decided to move from the
Justice Center back to the police union’s building, where police <a href="https://katu.com/news/local/five-arrested-during-riot-outside-portland-police-association-headquarters">arrested five protesters in what they said was a riot</a>.
As with previous nights, reporters, protesters and politicians raised
concerns about the violent methods the police have used, which are
causing serious injuries. Over the following nights, they moved around
the city, and federal officers were continuing to use impact munitions
and broad blankets of tear gas to clear crowds.</p>
<p>As the protests continue, a growing collection of independent
journalists are continuing to create an uninterrupted stream of coverage
of the demonstrations. Since few of these reporters are getting paid
for their work — and many just have apps like Venmo or CashApp listed on
their profiles — they are driven by the importance of their journalism
work.</p>
<p>“You go out there and people really test their character,” Olmos
said. “You see medics throw water on people’s eyes. Outside of this it’s
very hard to show valor or a sense of brotherhood or sisterhood. That’s
the kind of thing you see in conflict areas, and we’re seeing it in
downtown Portland. People go down there and put themselves at risk for
others, and that is pretty amazing.”</p>
<p>On July 17 the ACLU announced that it was <a href="https://aclu-or.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/index_newspapers_-_tro_against_feds.pdf">filing a lawsuit against DHS</a>
to stop federal officers from “dispersing, arresting, threatening to
arrest, or using physical force against journalists or legal observers.”
There are multiple independent journalists named as plaintiffs in the
lawsuit, including Woodstock and Olmos. Now most of the state’s elected
officials are calling for the officers to stand down.</p>
<p>Portland has already made public moves to alter the police force, such as <a href="https://www.opb.org/news/article/portland-mayor-ted-wheeler-changes-city-police-bureau/">disbanding a long-controversial gang unit</a>,
now called the Gun Violence Team. Without the close documentation of
alleged abuses, this likely would not have happened. Protesters are not
stopping there and are demanding a more systemic end to the structure of
policing. With this in mind, the journalists documenting what is
happening in the streets play a critical role in exposing the exact
police practices that have sparked the demonstrations in the first
place.</p>
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