Private security used to protect reporters during protests
Charlotte NC June 1 2020 During the third straight night of violence, numerous news crews across the country, brought something with them that had been left behind on the previous nights coverage of the protests, “armed” security officers.
Two armed Washington DC security officers who were also commissioned “special police officers” kept an eye on a news team following protesters block to block and across to Lafayette Square. Protesters chanted and shouted threats, but the news crew stayed safe.
An armed security officer working for Q13 FOX’s reporter Brandi Kruse spotted several people break into a parked police vehicle and take out an aR-15 and begin to shoot it in the air. He quickly crossed the street with gun in hand and took the weapon from the man and notified police.
A reporter in New York City and his two security officers came under attack and were assaulted on Friday night.
A Fox News reporter and a security guard was pummeled and chased by protesters who had gathered outside the White House early Saturday as part of nationwide unrest following the death of George Floyd.
Fox’s Leland Vittert was rattled following the Washington attack he said was clearly targeted at his news organization “We took a good thumping,” he told The Associated Press.
A live shot he was doing was interrupted by a group of protesters who shouted obscenities directed at Fox.
Flanked by two security guards, he and photographer Christian Galdabini walked away from Washington’s Lafayette Park trailed by an angry group before riot police dispersed them.
Vittert said there were no markings on him or the crew’s equipment to identify them as from Fox. But he said during the demonstration, one man continually asked him who he worked for. He didn’t answer, but the man found a picture of Vittert on his cell phone and shouted to other protesters that he was from Fox.
“The protesters stopped protesting whatever it was they were protesting and turned on us,” he said, “and that was a very different feeling.”
Suzanne Scott, CEO of Fox News Media, said in a memo on Saturday that Fox was taking all necessary security precautions to protect its journalists covering the story. Although a security company is used at their properties and at times do escort reporters, CNN would not say if their reporters were currently being guarded.
In Louisville, WAVE-TV was on the air covering a demonstration when video showed a police officer aiming a rifle at reporter Kaitlin Rust and her crew. She was heard yelling, “I’ve been shot! I’ve been shot!” and described them as pepper bullets.
Louisville Police spokeswoman Jesse Halladay apologized for the incident, and said police would review the video for potential discipline.
In Minneapolis on Saturday, a Swedish journalist was shot in the thigh with a rubber bullet, apparently from a police gun, while covering a protest, according to the Norwegian newspaper VG.
Reporters from several local broadcast stations also had security escorts as they reported the protests.
