In January, many reporters were caught in between police and anti-trump rioters. Some were arrested and later charges dropped, but there are many who were observing/reporting that may face prison even though they had no involvement – PB/TK
Reporters face 70 years in prison over anti-Trump march – By Patrick Strickland / June 21 2017
Even when heavily armed riot police closed off a square block and surrounded protesters, media workers and legal observers alike, independent journalist Alexei Wood did not realise he was about to be arrested.
“It didn’t even cross my mind that was what was happening,” the 37-year-old photographer and videographer told Al Jazeera. “I was waiting for an order of dispersal and the mass of people showed no sign of resistance when the police completely surrounded them.”
Yet on that day, January 20, protesters and observers say the order to disperse never came, and more than 230 people were arrested during protests against the inauguration of right-wing US President Donald Trump.
Like other media workers who travelled to the capital from across the country for Trump’s inauguration, Wood was covering the mass protests that gripped the city.
Most of the protests that took place in the city that day passed without violence or mass arrests. Wood, however, was scooped up by police during the anti-fascist bloc’s march.
The arrests came after Black Bloc anarchists and anti-fascists clashed with police. Officers fired a volley of rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters and launched concussion grenades into the crowd.
Continue to Aljazeera.com article: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/06/reporters-face-70-years-prison-anti-trump-march-170615083432300.html
