Photo/Video Still, Washington Post video
Editor’s note: The police violence against the press covering the protests has spurred responses from leading journalism organizations, who reminded law enforcement: “These cities belong to all of us.”
Excerpt from press release by groups such as the Society of Professional Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and the National Press Club): “ [Police] have opened fire with rubber bullets, tear gas, pepper spray, pepper balls and have used nightsticks and shields to attack the working press as never before in this nation. This must stop. … When you silence the press with rubber bullets, you silence the voice of the public. Do not abandon our Constitution and its First Amendment. And, above all, do not abandon your training. You are professionals. You have been trained in how best to work with journalists in the most trying circumstances. That is not happening here … talk to your commanders … your officers, the men and women to your right and your left. Be leaders. Do not fire upon members of the working press . . . .”
Excerpts from members of the News Guild of New York: “The stakes are too high, the issues too fundamental, for us as a union to remain silent. Not speaking out about the human rights violations perpetrated during these protests, and their context in American history, would be an abdication of our responsibilities to each other as colleagues, as citizens, and as fellow human beings. This includes the deliberate police assaults on and arrests of journalists that have been widely documented – and our concern about those incidents extends to all protesters, many of whom are doing their own journalist work of recording and questioning authority. A free press requires us to be vigilant and take a clear stand against the abuse of power. The use of violence to silence the necessary work of questioning those who maintain and enforce the status quo is a direct attack on our democracy.
