NYPD Tackled and Arrested Journalists Covering Latest Encampment Sweep

“I was identifying myself as press and I had my colleagues on the side of the road telling them that I was press,” Pacheco told New York Focus at about 2:45 am on Wednesday, minutes after the NYPD released them from 1 Police Plaza. But the police arrested them regardless. Pacheco alleged that police kicked them multiple times while they laid on the ground.

“NYPD was making arrests and had a woman by her hair, dragging her, and then she was on the ground. I was photographing and filming that, and that’s when I got tackled to the ground,” said Fedorova. She added that she had immediately identified herself as a member of the press and had her press badge visible on her. “To no avail,” she said.

The NYPD did not respond to New York Focus’s request for comment before publication.

Fedorova said her first instinct on being pushed to the ground was “to film the person who did it, which was an NYPD officer.”

Independent photojournalist Jon Farina took a video of the incident, which shows police tackling the two journalists to the ground. Speaking to New York Focus, Farina said that seconds after he filmed Pacheco being arrested, he saw “an officer come with his baton and shove Olga down to the ground.” He said he screamed, “Press, press, leave her alone,” but they took her away.

“Once the police had their protestors loaded [onto a bus], a huge crowd of the protesters decided to move into the roadway to stop the bus from leaving. The police started shoving people behind and making way for the bus,” said Caroline Bissonnette, a freelance reporter who was also filming the arrests. “The photographers also got into the roadway to get photographs of people being loaded into the bus, and that’s when they got arrested.”