{"id":423806,"date":"2021-12-07T20:51:40","date_gmt":"2021-12-07T20:51:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressfreedomtracker.us\/all-incidents\/photojournalist-arrested-equipment-seized-while-documenting-homeless-encampment\/"},"modified":"2021-12-07T20:51:40","modified_gmt":"2021-12-07T20:51:40","slug":"photojournalist-arrested-equipment-seized-while-documenting-homeless-encampment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/12\/07\/photojournalist-arrested-equipment-seized-while-documenting-homeless-encampment\/","title":{"rendered":"Photojournalist arrested, equipment seized while documenting homeless encampment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Freelance photojournalist Jeremy Portje was arrested and charged with two misdemeanors and a felony while documenting a homeless encampment in Sausalito, California, on Nov. 30, 2021, according to an officer from the Sausalito Police Department.<\/p>

Portje was filming for a documentary about homelessness in Marin County, according<\/a> to the Pacific Sun, a weekly newspaper in the county. A witness identified as a volunteer at the encampment told the Pacific Sun that an officer was following Portje and deliberately stood in front of his camera as he tried to film.<\/p>

The volunteer told the newspaper an officer grabbed Portje\u2019s camera without provocation, and appeared to accidentally hit himself with the equipment.<\/p>

\u201cThe officer reacted to the camera hitting him,\u201d the volunteer told the Pacific Sun. \u201cHe started punching Jeremy.\u201d<\/p>

Portje attempted to defend himself from the blows but was quickly forced to the ground and placed under arrest, the newspaper reported. At some point during the altercation the officer threw Portje\u2019s camera to the ground. No equipment damage was mentioned in initial reports of the incident.<\/p>

In footage<\/a> of Portje\u2019s arrest published by the Pacific Sun, the photojournalist can be heard saying, \u201cWhy are they doing this? Because I asked them questions?\u201d <\/p>

Neither Portje nor his attorney responded to requests for comment.<\/p>

Portje\u2019s camera can be seen lying on the pavement behind him as two officers work to place him in handcuffs while a third keeps the growing crowd back as voices can be heard shouting \u201clet him go\u201d and \u201cdon\u2019t hurt him.\u201d<\/p>

An officer from the Sausalito Police Department told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that Portje was arrested shortly after 5 p.m. and charged with resisting an executive officer, battery on a police officer and battery on a police officer with injury. If convicted on all charges, Portje faces up to $5,000 in fines, three years imprisonment or both.<\/p>

Charles Dresow, a criminal defense attorney representing Portje, told the Pacific Sun the photojournalist spent the night in jail and was released the following morning on $15,000 bail.<\/p>

\u201cMy journalist client ended up on the ground,\u201d Dresow said. \u201cIt\u2019s clear the Sausalito police used force to arrest a journalist. To say this is an outrage of constitutional proportions is an understatement.\u201d<\/p>

When reached for comment, Sausalito Mayor Jill Hoffman told the Tracker officers were called to the park to respond to a disturbance and that Portje had interfered with police activity, injuring a police sergeant in the process.<\/p>

\u201cWe have shown that we support and respect the right to free speech,\u201d Hoffman said. \u201cWhat is unacceptable is impeding a police investigation and injuring a member of our department.\u201d<\/p>

Hoffman confirmed that Portje\u2019s camera equipment was seized as evidence.<\/p>

The Pacific Sun reported that the three officers who arrested him were the same officers who arrested two homeless people for camping in a park two weeks prior. According to the newspaper, Portje had recently made a public records request for the body camera footage from that incident.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n


\r\nThis content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: All Incidents<\/a> and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: All Incidents.
<\/p>\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Freelance photojournalist Jeremy Portje was arrested and charged with two misdemeanors and a felony while documenting a homeless encampment in Sausalito, California, on Nov. 30, 2021, according to an officer from the Sausalito Police Department.Portje …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6009,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30349,30350,30176,27150],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423806"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6009"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423806"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":423807,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423806\/revisions\/423807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}