Three independent journalists say they were shoved by law enforcement in Portland

Three independent journalists said they were shoved by law enforcement officers while covering a protest in northeast Portland, Oregon, on Aug. 30, 2020.

Nicholas Lee, Scott Keeler and Alissa Azar were pushed while documenting protesters getting arrested outside the Penumbra Kelly Building, while Keeler and Azar also were shot at with pepper balls, they said.

They were documenting one of the many nightly protests held in Portland in response to police violence and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis on May 25. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting assaults, arrests and other incidents involving journalists covering protests across the country.

Law enforcement officers in Portland have targeted journalists since the outbreak of the demonstrations, according to a class-action lawsuit filed in June by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon. The ACLU suit led the city to agree to a preliminary injunction in July to not arrest, harm or impede the work of journalists or legal observers of the protests.

The Kelly building has been a repeated focus of demonstrators because it houses the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office and some Portland Police Bureau units. The Aug. 30 protest was declared an “unlawful assembly” at 10:40 p.m. after protesters threw rocks and eggs at officers, according to the local KATU news station. Law enforcement officers pushed people to the west of the building, Lee told the Tracker.

Lee and the other journalists were covering a confrontation between protesters and law enforcement across the street at around 11 p.m. when the incidents occurred. Video posted on Twitter by Keeler shows officers from the PPB and MCSO taking several protesters to the ground and arresting them.

An officer from the sheriff’s department is seen pushing back Lee, wearing a helmet and backpack marked as “press,” while telling him to “back up.” Lee can be heard responding, “I’m on the sidewalk.”

“[The officer] pushed me into a bush,” Lee said.

In a separate tweet, Keeler said he and other members of the press “were shot in the feet with pepper balls from no more than a foot away to force us to back despite being forced to stay in the completely confined space by another cop on the opposite side of the scrum.”

Around the same time, Azar tweeted that she “got shot with a pepper bullet for recording an arrest, pushed down to the ground aggressively.”

Griffin Malone, another independent journalist, captured the scene from across the street in a video he posted on Twitter.

The MCSCO didn’t respond to a request for comment. The PPB has said it wouldn’t comment on incidents involving journalists covering the protests, citing continuing litigation in the ACLU case.