Editorial Op-ed
AP photojournalist John Minchillo photographs a protester throwing tear gas
during continued demonstrations in reaction to the death in Minneapolis police
custody of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., May 30, 2020.
Be outraged over police attacks
on journalists in America
BY JUDY PATRICK
Within the journalism community,
there’s outrage over the assaults
our fellow journalists have
endured covering the unrest in America
sparked by the death of a black man, George
Floyd, in police custody in Minneapolis.
We recognize that those reporters are
bearing witness to the events unfolding
before them. They are there to hold those in
power accountable for their actions. Attacks
on journalism diminish the people’s right to
the truth about what government is doing
in their name. This is serious and needs to
be addressed.
But let’s be frank. Protesters, business
owners and police offi cers are being attacked
as well. There’s plenty of violence
to go around, especially when night falls.
America’s outrage is focused, as it should
be, on the racial injustices that permeate
our society. To seriously address these
fundamental problems, demonstrations
and protests need to be followed by lots
of dialogue, education, research and real
change.
Yet to be successful, the sun must shine
on that process. We need to build understanding
and consensus, and for that we
will need journalists every step of the way.
Without them, we will fail.
The ongoing attacks on journalists in
America, especially by police, is truly unprecedented.
To be sure, journalists in many
other countries face far more adversity.
But this is America, the leader of the free
world, where the free press is one of our
fundamental values and sets the standard.
Covering protests, especially chaotic
ones, has always been tough. Reporters are
used to getting jostled, taunted and sometimes
threatened with arrest. And while the
level of aggression has been increasing in
the last decade, the number of attacks of
the past few days are far beyond anything
we have ever seen before.
PHOTO BY REUTERS/LUCAS JACKSON
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, run
by the Freedom of the Press Foundation
and the Committee to Protect Journalists,
typically investigates 100 to 150 incidents
of attacks on U.S. journalists a year. On
Monday, the group was investigating more
than 100 incidents from the fi rst three days
of the current protests alone.
Journalists don’t like becoming part of
the story. It’s a distraction from the central
story, which in this case is the unprecedented
display of national outrage sparked
by systemic racial discrimination.
But it is because the central story is so
important that these shameful attacks must
be called out and denounced. Other countries
may be able to control and limit their
press by intimidation and violence but that
can’t be allowed to happen here in America.
Journalists are getting pushed and
shoved, shot by rubber bullets and pepper
balls, assaulted with pepper spray and
tear gas, punched, slapped, detained and
arrested. Some of this is happening live on
air, before our eyes.
The danger can come from either direction.
Some protesters are targeting journalists,
hurling rocks and other debris at them,
knocking them down, beating them and
setting their vehicles on fi re.
Why this is happening should be no big
surprise. Since taking offi ce, President
Trump has put a big fat “enemy of the people”
stamp on every journalist’s forehead.
He affi rmed it with a tweet at the height of
the protests this past weekend. He’s done
more than give the attackers license to act;
he’s emboldened them.
This is about far more than journalists’
personal safety. This is about democracy.
This is about the public’s right to know.
This is about an institution that, despite
its lapses, strives to help us build a better
society.
Judy Patrick is the vice president for
editorial content at the New York Press
Association.
Work together to change America
There are so many layers to the
unrest we’ve witnessed this week
with the protests sparked by the
police-involved death of George Floyd in
Minneapolis.
Here in New York, the vast majority of
those who took to the streets demanding
justice were peaceful. Most of them demonstrated
their First Amendment rights with
respect for the community, the mission and
themselves. Police offi cers largely stood
back and let the protests happen with little
interference.
But on May 30 and every night up until
Tuesday, all hell broke loose in Union Square,
Greenwich Village, Chelsea and SoHo.
Physical struggles between cops and
protesters.
Police vehicles torched.
Businesses vandalized.
And some cops used very questionable
force against demonstrators.
Each side blames the other for provocation.
Each side has merit in their arguments
— yet each side also has responsibility for
the chaos that ensued.
Yet this situation is not just about riots;
it’s much deeper than that.
Anger and outrage is everywhere, and it
is more than justifi ed — though violence
isn’t. To not acknowledge and understand
that anger and outrage is to willfully ignore
the situation.
Look at the nation we live in.
For decades, Black and Hispanic Americans
have been treated like second-class
citizens by bad cops in police forces across
the country. More often than not, acts of
unjustifi ed brutality result in exonerations
or dead-end investigations, without justice
for victims who were harmed or killed
without cause.
The police fi nd themselves in a tough
place of their own. The majority of cops
who respect an individual’s rights and
serve with integrity are tarnished by every
bad cop who doesn’t. Every time there’s a
police-involved death like Floyd’s, they all
take a hit.
There’s only one way out of it: we must
work together — protesters and police,
community activists and law enforcement
unions, elected leaders and police offi cials
— to rebuild communities and ensure that
every police department in America has the
best-trained men and women who can keep
the peace while always fulfi lling “equal
justice under the law.”
Publisher of The Villager, Villager Express, Chelsea Now,
Downtown Express and Manhattan Express
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