Consider This from NPR - How One Night In LA Illustrates The Growing Tension Between Police And The Press

Episode Date: April 29, 2022

Over the past two years, about 200 journalists across the country have been detained or arrested while on the job. Many were covering the social and racial justice protests that began after the murder of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis. NPR Media Correspondent David Folkenflik and NPR producer Marc Rivers look at the growing tension between police and the press through the lens of one March 2021 night at Echo Park Lake, when police detained at least 16 journalists.In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University performs breakthrough research every year, making discoveries that improve human health, combat climate change, and move society forward. More at iu.edu forward. Late in March of last year, police descended on a homeless encampment at Echo Park Lake in Los Angeles. Breaking news, it appears the crackdown has finally begun tonight to clean up one of L.A.'s largest homeless camps. As the news spread, activists began gathering. Their protests were directed at the police

who had orders to clear the park and then the streets. Reporters rushed to Echo Park 2. That was kind of my beat. Housing, homelessness, cops, the intersection of all three. Lexis Olivier Ray writes for a culture and news website called LA Taco. It was like one of the most covered events, stories that I've ever reported on. Police tried to direct the reporters to a staging ground outside the park and away from the most intense protests.

How do I tell a story that now I don't even have access to? Kate Cagle, a reporter for Spectrum News 1 in LA, was there to capture what happened when the police swept through the camp, displacing nearly 200 people. Instead, she got caught in the middle. Wait, I'm with Spectrum News 1? They have my middle. Wait, I'm with Special News 1. They have my name. Wait, I have to stay with my crew.

Police zip-tied Cagle's wrists and moved her away from the scene moments before she was to go on air. I have a clip of me holding up my press pass next to my face saying like, hey, I'm press, this is my crew, we just want to go. And they said, no, you have to stay. Consider this. Over they said, no, you have to stay. Consider this.

Over the past two years, about 200 journalists across the country have been detained or arrested while on the job. Many were covering social justice protests. When I saw the police officers, I no longer felt like they were providing safety for me. Coming up, we'll look at the growing tension between police and the press through the lens of one chaotic night in L.A. From NPR, I'm Ari Shapiro.

It's Friday, April 29th. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend, or receive money internationally, and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the WISE app today or visit WISE.com. T's and C's apply. It's Consider This from NPR. That night at LA's Echo Park Lake in March 2021 was bigger than one night of chaos. It seemed to me a moment where we could look at a single night and use that as a prism through which to look at this larger dynamic and to explore what got us to that point.

That's NPR's David Fulkenflik. He and NPR producer Mark Rivers spent time in Echo Park Lake recently talking to reporters who were there that night about what happened. I wouldn't say police always loved reporters, but there clearly was a shift that as things were incredibly tense for police in public settings, as they were handling at times the violence associated with these protests, reporters were getting tear gassed, reporters were getting detained. Fulkenflik says that shift happened during the racial justice protests of 2020, protests that began after the murder of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis.

Since then, there have been multiple high-profile incidents of reporters being detained forcefully by police, even after identifying themselves as press. What was different about Echo Park was that although the protests got heated, it carried the emotional weight and freight of all that had come before. Scrutiny of police actions has intensified over the last couple years. Producer Mark Rivers says this scrutiny has led many police officers to feel targeted. And I think that sense of feeling targeted creates a tension and also kind of an animosity that the press aren't going to be, quote unquote, objective, that there's going to

be a bias against the police. And, you know, I think it forces us to question and grapple with what exactly the police are for, what we want from the police, how the police are used. And exploring that question honestly and thoroughly is going to be one of the essential jobs of the press today. We pick up now with more of their reporting and what they learned about that night in Echo Park. Police officer zip-tied Cagle's hands behind her back. A reporter who covers criminal justice for the LA Times was held that same way for more than an hour.

Lexus Olivier Ray was confined for even longer. In all, police detained about 200 people there, but at least 16 journalists. And that's more than a quarter of all journalists detained or arrested across the nation last year. Officers formally arrested two other reporters and a social media news blogger holding them at a police station. Police also shot two photojournalists at Echo Park with what are called less lethal rubber bullets. One has covered combat for the LA Times. The other, a freelancer, was hit twice. Those shots left a bloody welt the size of a baseball. Adam Rose chairs the Press Rights Committee for the LA Press Club.

These are things that would chill what we would consider part of this constitutional right and the need, not just a right, but a responsibility to inform the public of how police were executing these sweeps and clearing out what they declared as unlawful assemblies. Officers gave the order to disperse, but journalists didn't realize it applied to them. Rose started tracking allegations of police mistreatment of the press in September 2020. That's when L.A. County Sheriff's deputies tackled KPCC reporter Josie Huang as she taped them making an arrest.

They arrested her, too, even though she repeatedly identified herself as a reporter. Rose found a pattern around the state. Reporters detained and handcuffed, shot with rubber bullets, tear gassed. Their equipment seized or destroyed, and all reporters prevented from reporting. In fact, it turns out that over the course of a 12-month period in California, there were at least 50 incidents where police violated the rights of

members of the press in some way, shape, or form. During protests or riots, officers have often let reporters behind police lines to witness events. At the least, it's a guarded recognition of the job journalists do. At Echo Park, that recognition collapsed. I mean, there were, like, tensions on top of tensions. Captain Stacy Spell heads the Los Angeles Police Department's Media Relations Division. Spell and other LAPD officials will not comment directly on that night in Echo Park due to legal challenges. Even so, Spell says police officers face tough choices in handling

reporters during protests. I want to make sure that people, if they want to gather stories, if they want to inform the public that they have the ability to do that. Of course, anyone with a smartphone can post footage online. When you have those, for lack of a better term, bad actors who are now blending in with a crowd, you know, representing themselves as members of the press, but they're really reflecting their own personal interests and not the interests of either a news organization or the interests of the public. Ray asked why the police get to make such distinctions.

Ray doesn't have an official LAPD press badge, never applied for one, and when we met, he wore a red baseball cap with an LA Taco logo perched atop his afro. A lot of times it feels like the cops don't believe that I'm a reporter. You know, they think that I'm a protester. And I think that definitely has a lot to do with my appearance, you know, not just like the color of my skin, but also the way I dress and, you know, kind of carry myself. A May 2021 internal police memo said Ray's conduct at protests, quote,

blurs the lines between functioning as the press versus functioning as an activist. The memo provided no evidence for that characterization. Oh, it's completely false. When celebrations over the L.A. Dodgers World Series championship got out of hand months earlier, police officers rushed Ray. Member of the press! Get up! Member of the press! Get up! Member of the press!

Get up! That's Ray shouting repeatedly, member of the press. I've never even been to a protest as a protester. I don't consider myself to be a protester. That was really frustrating. Really, really rubbed me the wrong way. Captain Spell is himself black, and he later called Ray to talk, seeking to build trust. Ray says he appreciated that, but remains shaken.

Leaving the house was, at some points, a little bit scary for me, for sure. And it took a while to get over that, I think. Ray says he carries himself differently now. He's more guarded. Spectrum News' Kate Cagle says she had always thought her professionalism would be respected and protected by cops in times of tumult, but not anymore. When I saw the police officers, I no longer felt like they were providing safety for me. That they would take care of you. That they would take care of me. I felt like we're on our own. In 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill

giving reporters more protections after law enforcement officials objected. Last fall, Newsom reversed course and signed a similar bill into law. Journalists say they're heartened but remain wary with strong memories of Echo Park. That's NPR's David Fulkenflick and Mark Rivers. You're listening to Consider This from NPR. I'm Ari Shapiro.