I was detained tonight by the NYPD while taking hard footage (not live reporting) of a F12 demonstration. The NYPD took my @IWWFJU press badge, which they don’t have the authority to do. Bruised on my wrists from flexcuffs being too tight. Otherwise safe.

No bail required. Received a desk appearance for “unlawful assembly” (240.10). One person may need bail assistance and will provide that info if/when it becomes available.

My arresting officer’s name was Lieutenant Wiener.

I was filming the arrests of 3 people. One of the arrestees saw me and was yelling my name, asking to look for their phone. I asked SRG if I could look around for it and an SRG officer said yes, “just a few minutes.” I said okay.

Another SRG officer, Lieutenant Wiener, then moved toward me and aggressively demanded I move up the block. I said SRG had just told me I could wait and look around. He told me again to move up the block. The arrestee was still yelling my name.

I was moving back as he yelled at me. I tried to ask if he could tell the arrestee that I can’t look for their phone so they would stop calling for me. He again told me to move up the block, at which point he said “I’ve told you three times now.” SRG previously had no issue—

But he decided because he said it three times that was just cause for arrest. No other SRG officer joined in with him, no other SRG told me to move. It was just him. He then grabbed my arm and grabbed another officer walking past and yelled “What are you doing! Arrest her!”

I was wearing my press badge and verbalized that I was press and attempted to verbalize what was going on. I asked why I was being detained. He didn’t respond. It wasn’t until I was detained & had all my belongings removed that he bothered to let me explain the situation.

Unsure if this is normal, but the two officers holding me kept my back turned to the sidewalk where everyone was filming as they removed my press badge and camera from around my neck. It was only after they removed those that they allowed me to face the crowd.

I was detained at 9:17pm. We got to the 7th Precinct at approximately 10pm. I was released around 3:30am. In that time, detainees repeatedly asked for water and toilet paper. None were provided. The sinks in the cells do not function and had no hand soap.

The fingerprint machine did not appear to have been sanitized prior to my hands on it — it was smudgy. I asked for hand sanitizer after being fingerprinted, at which point the processing officer complied and pulled out sanitizer from her pocket — not readily available to all.

The cell I was in had a plumbing leak. Every time you flushed, a pool of water on the floor would grow. We were kept in separate cells, a total of 11 people.

I repeatedly verbalized to my second arresting officer (the one on the DAT, not the one who grabbed me) that the flexcuffs were too tight & were causing severe shoulder pain. When the cuffs were removed, I was told to take off my hoodie to cut the string ties off it. I couldn’t.

I have chronic shoulder pain and verbalized this. I was told to remove my shoe laces and hoodie (to cut the string ties off it). Moving my arms was excruciating for several minutes. The arresting officer had to remove my coat for me because I couldn’t pull it off myself.

All of this comes in the wake of a draft bill introduced by @KeithPowersNYC about removing press credentialing authority from the NYPD.

If passed, the shift could potentially force a restructuring of how NYPD interacts with press. Currently they only see NYPD creds as “real” and don’t arrest those with NYPD cards, but don’t view any other badge as legitimate.

The precedent for such a shift is the LAPD: previously they viewed no press as legitimate (I don’t think they offer credentialing) and got a lot of bad press for arresting journalists, the most prominent case being Josie Huang, a reporter for KPCC who was violently arrested.

Instead, LAPD got new guidelines stating that anyone who identifies as press is to be treated as such (i.e., establish a press pen, don’t decide who’s press based on whether you think they are or not).

Also, it looks like the LAPD does issue press credentials.

The arresting officer claimed I “refused to leave” while arresting me. A crowd turned a corner & saw me being walked backward away from them, so I yelled my name & “I’m a member of the press with the Freelance Journalists Union.” Helpfully, the AO didn’t stop my phone recording.

In that footage, you hear someone yell that it’s illegal to arrest press in NYC. Later you also hear a detainee begging for their flexcuff to be loosened, which they did not do.

There was dried blood all over a seat in the arrest van I was loaded into. I pointed it out to my AO. He chuckled and said “don’t sit there.”

+ No one detained was given a phone call.