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NYPD attacked and arrested journalists who reported on…

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New York Police Department officers attacked and arrested two expelled members of the press late Tuesday evening as the journalists were covering a pro-Palestinian protest outside the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in Midtown Manhattan.

Photojournalists Josh Pacheco and Olga Fedorova reported on it NYPDClearance of the pro-Palestinian camp in FIT, part of the State University of New York system. When Israel took control of the Gaza Strip’s Rafah crossing, a key entry point for food and humanitarian supplies, the NYPD conducted its most recent search of a campus solidarity camp and arrested approximately 50 people Protesters according to current reporting. Within seconds, Pacheco and Fedorova were approached by police officers, pushed to the ground and arrested, the journalists told New York Focus.

Student protesters gather at Hamilton Hall in Columbia or "Hinds Hall," renamed after Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl who was shot dead by medics on an IDF-provided rescue route. On the right they hang a banner that says: "Hinds Hall." Protesters sit high up on a facade.

“I identified myself as press secretary and my colleagues on the side of the road told them that I was press secretary,” Pacheco told New York Focus around 2:45 a.m. Wednesday, a few minutes after the incident NYPD released them from 1 Police Plaza. But the police arrested her anyway. Pacheco claimed police kicked them several times while they were on the ground.

“NYPD He made arrests and grabbed a woman by her hair, dragged her and then she lay on the ground. I was photographing and filming it, and then I was knocked to the ground,” Fedorova said. She added that she immediately identified herself as a press representative and visibly carried her press pass. “In vain,” she said.

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

Fedorova said her first instinct when she was pushed to the ground was to “film the person who did it, which is a…” NYPD Officer.”

Independent photojournalist Jon Farina captured video of the incident, which shows police pulling the two journalists to the ground. Speaking to New York Focus, Farina said that seconds after filming Pacheco’s arrest, he saw “a police officer come with his baton and knock Olga to the ground.” He said he yelled, “Push, squeeze, leave her alone,” but they took her away.

A man in a black T-shirt with a camera shows his phone to a woman with brown hair in a camouflage jacket.

Jon Farina shows Olga Fedorova his video of her arrest.
| Uzma Afren

“As soon as the police loaded their protesters (onto a bus), a large crowd of protesters decided to move onto the roadway to stop the bus from leaving. “The police started pushing people behind them to make way for the bus,” said Caroline Bissonnette, a freelance reporter who also filmed the arrests. “The photographers also went onto the roadway to take photos of people being loaded onto the bus and were then arrested.”

NYPD officers at the gates of City College. Protesters drop a Palestinian flag behind them.

Earlier this year, the Freedom of the Press Foundation and the Committee to Protect Journalists raised the alarm with Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez NYPDThe treatment of journalist Reed Dunlea, who was attacked and arrested while covering another pro-Palestinian demonstration. As the organizations emphasized, the NYPD had recently settled a lawsuit over its treatment of photojournalists — and subsequently agreed to reform its practices.

“I think the NYPD must be held accountable for their treatment of the press, for limiting the information reaching the public and for effectively punishing journalists for doing their job and preventing us from doing our job,” Fedorova said.

Pacheco said the arrests affected her ability to document it NYPD Searching the camp. “My work will be featured in a documentary about press freedom,” they said. “And now that’s exactly what I’m experiencing here.”

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