#JusticeForMikeBrown: Ferguson Police Point Gun At Handcuffed Journalist, Take Her Cell Phone And Cameras For Violating New Curfew

New York Daily News~

Daily News staff photographer Pearl Gabel was covering the tense protests over Michael Brown’s killing in Ferguson, Mo., when police briefly detained her early Sunday. Here is her account:

I was walking toward the police on Florissant Ave. with my hands in the air to signal I was not a threat. Suddenly an officer pointed a rifle at my face.

“Get on the ground!” he barked.

“Put it on the ground,” he then ordered, seeing I was holding one camera and had another slung over my shoulder.

The gun was still trained on me.

“Put your hands behind your head,” he said. “You’re under arrest for curfew violation.”

I was on my knees with my hands behind my head near the QuikTrip store. The cop took my hands, one at a time, and placed them behind my back. Then he slapped on plastic handcuffs.

It was about 1 a.m., one hour after the curfew Missouri’s governor ordered took effect amid a state of emergency. Most of the night’s protesters had left, dispersed by smoke bombs and tear gas and teeming rain.

“What are these?” the cop asked.

“My cameras,” I replied.

He took my equipment and my cell phone as tear gas swirled around me, rain poured down and two other people were similarly detained.

“I have a press pass,” I told him. “Look under my poncho.”

When the cop was satisfied I was a newspaper photographer doing my job, he gave me back my belongings.

He asked, “Who do you work for?”

I said, “The New York Daily News.”

“Welcome to St. Louis,” he said before letting me go.

I walked past two lines of cops in riot gear, felt my eyes tearing from the acrid air and put my gas mask back on.

Pearl Gabel is a Daily News staff multimedia journalist.