WATCH: Cops Cuffed Black WSJ Reporter Doing Interviews At Bank — Threatened ‘This Could Get Bad For You If You Don’t Comply’
Police in Phoenix are under fire for cuffing and detaining Wall Street Journal reporter Dion Rabouin, even after — Rabouin and a witness say — he identified himself and agreed to comply with demands he move from a sidewalk where he’d been conducting interviews.
WSJ Editor-in-Chief Matt Murray has sent a letter to Phoenix Police Chief Michael Sullivan about the November 23, 2022 incident that was obtained by Phoenix ABC affiliate KNXV-TV.
Murray described the incident in the letter, writing:
On November 23, Mr. Rabouin was interviewing passersby on a public sidewalk outside the Chase bank branch located at 12038 North 32nd Street in Phoenix. While Mr. Rabouin was gathering news, he was approached by Officer Zimmerman (badge #10442) of the Phoenix Police Department’s Desert Horizon Precinct. Officer Zimmerman informed Mr. Rabouin that he was trespassing. To be clear, at no point until then had Mr. Rabouin been asked to leave the sidewalk outside the bank by Chase personnel or anyone else.
Mr. Rabouin, being an American citizen, had a clear right to be present on the sidewalk and engaged in newsgathering. Nonetheless, Mr. Rabouin offered at that point to leave. Instead, Officer Zimmerman told Mr. Rabouin that he was being detained and placed Mr. Rabouin in handcuffs before placing him in the rear of a police vehicle.
Much of the incident was caught on video, and shows the passerby who filmed Rabouin’s detention corroborating his version of events, which contradicts Officer Caleb Zimmerman’s official report.
“I heard him say he was going to leave. This is ridiculous. He’s a reporter,” Katelyn Parady says in the clip. The officer threatens to arrest her too, but she continues to film until Rabouin is released.
Perhaps even more chilling were Rabouin’s comments to ABC15 about the moment he was cuffed.
“He said, ‘I’m done with this.’ And he started grabbing me. Grabbing at my arms. And I was kind of flustered and drew back. And he was like, ‘This could get bad for you if you don’t comply and don’t do what I say.’ So he grabs my arms and really wrenches them behind my back and proceeds to put me in handcuffs,” Rabouin said.
He went on to describe the threat he felt, which kept him from placing his feet in the police car:
I didn’t trust what was going to happen. While the woman was recording, I thought the odds of him not doing anything to me whether physically or anything else are a lot higher. Once he closes that door, he could take off, he could take me somewhere. I could be placed under arrest.
Watch above via ABC15.
