Portland police shove journalist Donovan Farley and photographer Doug Brown with batons

Independent journalist Donovan Farley and photographer Doug Brown were shoved by Portland police officers while reporting on a protest in Portland, Oregon, on Aug. 4, 2018.

Farley and Brown were in downtown Portland that day to cover the far-right “Patriot Prayer” protest and counter-protests for Paste magazine. Brown was taking photographs of protesters and Portland police officers, who were clad in riot gear and armed with batons and non-lethal weapons. 

A video that Brown posted on Vimeo shows journalists and protesters slowly retreating before an advancing line of Portland police officers, as the officers fire non-lethal projectiles at them. At one point, the officers stop at the edge of a street and wait. Without warning, the officers begin running down the street toward towards Brown, Farley, and others. Once they reach them, they violently shove them backwards with their batons.

“Move!” the officers yell as they force Brown backwards.

“What’s your name?” Brown asks one of the officers pushing him. “What’s your name, sir? What’s your name?”

The officer does not reply.

Brown later tweeted a video showing the police charge.

“We were all just charged indiscriminately, press including me and [Doug Brown were] hit with batons multiple times,” Farley tweeted. “Fucking unbelievable. They charged from 50 feet away and then started hitting us, which impeded our ability to get out of the way, to which their response was to hit us more.”

He later thanked his followers for supporting him and Brown.

“Thanks for having the press’ back y’all!” he tweeted. “It’s appreciated. When cops are charging and hitting a bunch of us with cameras and press passes on a sidewalk they’ve overstepped their bounds. That benefits no one.”