The Stink Of Trump's America Still Lingers

Prosecutors in Iowa began their case Monday against a Des Moines Register reporter arrested during racial justice protests last summer, in a rare trial of a U.S. journalist charged with a crime while reporting.

In a video Sahouri shot after her arrest, still sniffing from the pepper spray, she said the crowds tried to run away as police approached the mall. “I was saying, ‘I’m press, I’m press, I’m press,'” she said. “Police deliberately took me, pepper-sprayed me on my face and put me in zip-ties.”

For months, prosecutors refused to release footage of the Sahouri’s arrest to her lawyer, contending it would be too costly to produce body-camera footage and that they didn’t need to share evidence for a misdemeanor case. When a judge finally ordered them to turn over video and other evidence, police said the arresting officer, Luke Wilson with the Des Moines Police Department, hadn’t hit a button to preserve the footage.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2021/03/08/iowa-reporter-trial/