A CNN producer was reportedly arrested in a shocking, forceful manner last week as Minnesota law enforcement cracked down on people protesting the fatal police shooting of Daunte Wright.
Carolyn Sung was among the CNN personnel on the ground in Brooklyn Center, MN last week to cover the protests as they grew increasingly heated. Aside from the skirmishes between protesters and law enforcement though, there have been multiple incidents where journalists were allegedly intimidated, assaulted, and otherwise mistreated by law enforcement.
Leita Walker, an attorney representing several news outlets, sent a letter to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) on Saturday with several accusations of unjust actions taken against members of the media. One of the most serious claims revolves around an incident where state troopers reportedly grabbed Sung “by her backpack, threw her to the ground, zip-typing her hands behind her back” while she was trying to leave the area in compliance with a dispersal order.
According to the letter, Sung “did not resist” during the encounter, and she repeatedly tried to identify herself as a CNN journalist. Sung’
Sung (who is Asian American) kept trying to identify herself to the officers while complaining that the zip-ties were too tight on her wrists. Over the course of the arrest, one of the troopers allegedly yelled “do you speak English” at her. Shortly after, she was taken to the local jail where “she was patted down and searched by a female officer who put her hands down Sung’s pants and in her bra, fingerprinted, electronically body-scanned, and ordered to strip and put on an orange uniform before attorneys working on her behalf were able to locate her and secure her release, a process that took more than two hours.”
Witz reacted to the Walker letter over the weekend, posting multiple statements on Twitter that “A free press is foundational to our democracy. Reporters worked tirelessly during this tumultuous year to keep Minnesotans informed. I convened a meeting today with media and law enforcement to determine a better path forward to protect the journalists covering civil unrest.”
However, the details of Sung’s arrest drew considerable outrage from her colleagues at CNN and others in the media as well.