Reporter arrested for involvement in Cities Church protest defends her actions
A reporter who was arrested on charges of involvement in a protest against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, last month has defended her actions, believing that her arrest is an attack on press freedoms. But authorities maintain her actions were outside the bounds of a journalist's duties.
In a guest essay published in The New York Times last week, independent journalist Georgia Fort recounted her experience of being arrested and processed at the Whipple Building in the Minneapolis area. At issue is her alleged involvement in a protest held on Jan. 18 at Cities Church, a Southern Baptist congregation in which protesters stormed a worship service to oppose one of the church's pastors who also serves as a local ICE official.
Fort and others were recently charged with “Conspiracy Against Right of Religious Freedom at Place of Worship” and “Injure, Intimidate and Interfere with Exercise of Right of Religious Freedom at Place of Worship.”
Fort wrote that she was “one of the journalists who documented what happened” at the church, believing that her arrest was part of a broader attack on the journalism profession.
“In November alone, three journalists were hit with pepper balls or other less lethal munitions and subjected to chemical agents while covering an ICE arrest in St. Paul,” wrote Fort.
“After the fatal shooting of Renee Good, the independent photographer KingDemetrius Pendleton was tear-gassed by federal agents and was apparently shot with a chemical munitions canister. The Star Tribune video journalist Mark Vancleave was pushed back into his car by federal agents after trying to report on an ICE arrest, which he was covering for The Associated Press.”
These and other incidents, contends Fort, are part of a “pattern of intimidating the press, physically harming reporters who are covering protests and, now, taking legal action against members of the media.”
“A society that claims to value our democracy cannot criminalize those who document threats to democracy. Charges against journalists for doing their jobs must be dropped,” she added.
“Physical harm and intimidation against reporters must carry consequences. If we as a nation fail to defend that principle now, clearly and without compromise, we may soon find that there is nothing left to defend.”
The federal government argues that the Cities Church protesters violated the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which includes a provision protecting houses of worship from physical intimidation.
The official indictment, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, claimed that the protesters engaged in “a coordinated take-over style attack” on the church, which included “acts of oppression, intimidation, threats, interference, and physical obstruction.”
“As a result of defendants’ conduct, the pastor and congregation were forced to terminate the Church’s worship service, congregants fled the Church building out of fear for their safety, other congregants took steps to implement an emergency plan, and young children were left to wonder, as one child put it, if their parents were going to die,” claimed the indictment.
The indictment alleges that Fort and former CNN anchor Don Lemon met with protest leaders “for a pre-op briefing” at a shopping center led by defendants Nekima Levy-Armstrong and Chauntyll Allen, which included “instruction on how the operation would be conducted once they arrived at the Church.”
According to prosecutors, protesters interrupted the sermon with “loud declarations” that included chants like “ICE Out!” and “Stand up, fight back!” as well as yells and the blowing of whistles. Authorities say Fort was among those who occupied the church's main aisle and rows of chairs near the front of the sanctuary.
Lemon, who attempted to interview Cities Church Pastor Jonathan Parnell right after the protest, defended the demonstration as protected by the First Amendment and argued that he was doing his job as a journalist by covering it. The indictment accuses Lemon of keeping the strategic details of the protest, including its church target, a secret in the hours before the demonstration.
The indictment states that Fort, Lemon and one other defendant "approached the pastor and largely surrounded him (to his front and both sides), stood in close proximity to the pastor in an attempt to oppress and intimidate him, and physically obstructed his freedom of movement while [Lemon] peppered him with questions to promote the operation's message."
Although the pastor asked the defendants to leave, the indictment says they didn't immediately leave the building. Lemon was also accused of confronting some congregants as they tried to leave the building. Fort and Armstrong were accused of blocking a minivan with children inside from leaving the premises.
Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, rejected Lemon’s claims that the protest was lawful and that the First Amendment legally protected his actions.
“A house of worship is not a public forum for your protest!” Dhillon tweeted. “It is a space protected from exactly such acts by federal criminal and civil laws! Nor does the First Amendment protect your pseudo journalism of disrupting a prayer service.”
