“Don’t make Minneapolis look like a war zone!” On the evening of the 14th, a team led by leftist CNN correspondent Miguel Marquez was thrown water bottles by protesters while covering the demonstrations in the Brooklyn Center near Minneapolis, and they were even forced to interrupt their work and driven from the scene.
Nic Rowan, a reporter for the conservative Washington Examiner, captured the incident on camera and posted two videos on his social media accounts.
In the first video, the CNN reporting team and the protesters have a heated argument, with one of the CNN staffers calling for people to “keep the peace. Suddenly, an elderly-looking CNN staffer is struck in the head by a flying plastic water bottle, which splashes water out at the moment of impact. The sudden attack caused the staff member to stagger backwards several steps, lose his balance and fall to the ground. After being helped to his feet by those around him, he was still a bit dazed as protesters around him continued to heckle him, “A bottle of water knocked you out?”
CNN worker hit by sudden water bottle
The man who was hit stumbled and fell to the ground
In the video, Marquez calls on the crowd to “stay calm,” saying, “We’re CNN reporters and we’re covering what’s going on here.” But Marquez’s words were drowned out by the protesters’ anger.
Rowan, who shot the video, recalled that protesters kept urging CNN reporters to cover “peaceful protesters” in another area, rather than focusing on the animosity between protesters and law enforcement, which was not representative of Minneapolis and the local community. One protester told Rowan, “Don’t make Minneapolis look like Fallujah [the Iraqi city],” as if it were “in a war.
In a second live video posted by Rowan, several protesters tried to force the CNN reporting team out, pushing CNN personnel and shouting “get out” as they followed CNN staffers to their cars. In the meantime, the CNN employee who was hit by a water bottle held up his hands and told the protesters, “We’re leaving, we don’t want to get into any trouble.”
As the CNN team’s vehicle drove away, eggs also hit the side doors and glass windows of the car.
The CNN reporting team was driven to the car by the protesting crowd and left the scene, with traces of broken eggs visible on the glass of the car door
Rowan’s two videos of the scene sparked a buzz on social media. Some expressed dismay at the protesters throwing water bottles, arguing that they should not have done anything to hurt people in any way.
“It’s not right to do that, it’s not right to try to hurt anyone.”
“I may hate CNN, but I don’t want anyone to get hurt either.”
At the same time, however, there were some Internet users who did not sympathize with what happened to CNN. “I can’t help but laugh that they (CNN) got what they deserved.”
“Actually CNN doesn’t care about their employees, they just want to desperately chase advertising profits to keep their brains full.”
After the incident, CNN reporter Marquez, who led the team, tweeted in response that his team was “all right” and said they would continue to report on the incident.
CNN’s coverage of the 12-day protest in Brooklyn Center also sparked discontent among demonstrators. The crowd demanded that media outlets, including CNN, leave the city.
“Everything you guys are doing is making things worse!” one protester said excitedly, “You all have to leave here, you media that distort the truth …… Really ……” , “You guys are cutting out footage that you don’t need and making people more crazy.”
People hold up signs during the protest calling for justice for Wright
In another protest, protesters set fire to flammable materials
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) tweeted that he was praying for Wright’s family “while our state mourns the life of another black man taken from us by law enforcement.” In addition, Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon said he believes the female officer who killed Wright intended to fire a Taser and that the eventual killing of Wright was an accident.
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