Video Journalist Assaulted While Covering Detroit Anti-Evictions Protest

A video journalist covering an April 10 anti-eviction demonstration in Detroit, Michigan, filmed himself being assaulted and confronted by multiple protesters.

In this footage shot by Brendan Gutenschwager, he is called a “f****** nazi” and told he is “the threat” by a man in a plaid shirt who breaks away from the march to confront him.

In another altercation, a man wearing a backpack with a “PRESS” patch tells Gutenschwager, “It’s time for you to leave.” Gutenschwager replies that he is “a working journalist,” to which the man says “it doesn’t f****** matter.” The man then attempts to grab Gutenschwager’s camera.

In a third incident, Gutenschwager’s camera abruptly stops filming as he follows the anti-eviction march along a street with a high fence on his right. When the video resumes he is filming from the other side of the fence. “I think you’re bleeding, bro,” a woman says, moments before he is verbally harassed by two people who had previously confronted him.

“Just got assaulted attempting to cover an anti-eviction march in Detroit this afternoon,” Gutenschwager wrote of the final incident. “A member of the protest ‘security’ ran up, grabbed my camera and forced me against a building.”

Gutenschwager regularly works with Storyful. Credit: Brendan Gutenschwager via Storyful