St. Paul Police use of force during ICE protests raises press freedom concerns
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Three photojournalists who covered a federal immigration arrest that drew hundreds of protesters to St. Paul’s East Side Tuesday say they believe police targeted them for doing their jobs.
The photographers, including MPR News visual journalist Kerem Yücel, were hit by pepper balls or other less-lethal munitions as they documented the day’s events. Yücel’s injuries sent him to the hospital by ambulance. He has since been released.
Freelance photographer Tim Evans, who was working for Reuters, said he was wearing a vest with the word “Press” written in white block print across his chest when he was hit by a projectile fired by a police officer.
“One of the guys looks at me and shoots me in the stomach as I’m photographing,” he said.
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All three photographers said they were clearly marked as press, had large cameras in their hands and they were grouped together as they worked.
The Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists condemned the actions of the St. Paul Police Department.
“Attacking journalists sends a message to both journalists and everyday citizens that their First Amendment rights will not be respected,” the group said in a statement. “The First Amendment protects the rights of journalists to report on their communities and provide information that communities need — information that, on Tuesday, was not transparently available from any law enforcement agency.”
Police were also criticized by protesters and some city leaders for deploying large amounts of chemical irritants and munitions against them.
St. Paul Police say a “full review of the department’s response” is underway, and said they will be reviewing hundreds of hours of body camera footage as well as footage shared by the public.
The episode started when news spread on social media that an immigration enforcement action was happening at a home on the 600 block of Rose Street East in St. Paul’s Payne-Phalen neighborhood. Protesters quickly gathered and St. Paul Police were called out for crowd control.
Many media organizations responded, including Aaron Nesheim, a staff photographer for Sahan Journal.
“I noticed St Paul police officers, most of them wearing gas masks and dressed for crowd control, start coming down the street,” Nesheim said. Videos from the scene show a white SUV pushing another police vehicle that would not start. A group of protesters walked behind the vehicle.
Evans said some officers began shooting pepper balls at the ground in front of protesters and some of the protesters threw objects toward police striking at least one officer and breaking the back window of the SUV.
“Once projectiles started to come, [police] started to open up pretty freely,” Evans said. He was hit by a pepper ball in the stomach, leaving a black and blue welt.
Nesheim saw Yücel get hit by a projectile in the shoulder.
“They opened fire,” Nesheim said. “And I heard Kerem yell, and saw him kind of grab himself just below his collarbone.”
Then Nesheim says he was hit.
“I felt a round graze the side of my head and left a small bump,” he said. “A matter of an inch and I might have been in the ambulance there with [Yücel].”
As they were pulling back, the men say a canister of chemical irritants landed near them. Yücel said it burned his skin and left him struggling to see.
“Everybody tried to help me to get water and clean my eyes, but I couldn’t open my eyes and [it was] hard to breathe,” he said. “Paramedics came, and then they decided to send me to the ER with the ambulance.”
St. Paul City Council Member Hwa Jeong Kim was at the protest and said it was pretty clear who the press were. She said they moved as a collective throughout the day.
“It’s hard for me to believe that St. Paul Police seeing who’s in the crowd, seeing a ton of cameras and press, and then choosing to, you know, cast a fog of tear gas and then start shooting indiscriminately — that there wasn’t a knowledge that press was present,” Kim said.
“For me, I can’t say that I witnessed targeting, but there’s no doubt in my mind that they knew who was present in the crowd, and at that point, didn’t care.”
The photographers and Kim say they can’t recall hearing any verbal warnings from police before the barrage of sprays and pepper balls were used. The St. Paul Police crowd management policy states that “Crowd dispersal techniques should not be initiated until officers have made repeated announcements to the crowd.”
The department’s policy also says, “The media must not be targeted for dispersal or enforcement action because of their media status. Even after a dispersal order has been given, clearly identified media must be permitted to carry out their professional duties unless their presence would unduly interfere with the enforcement action.”
St. Paul Police did not answer a list of questions from MPR News about the department’s response and tactics during Tuesday’s event. The department instead sent a statement from Police Chief Axel Henry repeating that the department is examining the police response and is “committed to a thorough review.”
In a statement released Wednesday evening, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter called the conduct Tuesday “jarring.”
“The injuries sustained by journalists during Tuesday’s ICE-related incident are troubling,” Carter said. “Reporters play a vital role in telling our community’s story with clarity and accuracy, particularly in moments when reliable information is scarce. When they are harmed while doing so, it jeopardizes public trust and the very freedoms our community deserves.”
In its condemnation of police action against journalists, the Minnesota Society of Professional said, “We demand answers from St. Paul city leadership about why the city’s police department attacked our colleagues and a commitment to seeing that this will never happen again.”
MPR News reporter Jon Collins contributed reporting.
