Journalist and photographer Eric Marks was threatened with arrest during a gathering in support of Palestine on Friday. Marks said he and a few other media personnel were on the Virginia Street median in front of the Bruce R. Thompson federal courthouse, taking video footage and images of protesters.
Reno Police ordered the media off the median, an area typically used by the news media to document people gathered in front of the courthouse.
“[Police Officer Erik Tom] was directing us to jaywalk across Virginia Street into oncoming traffic, so I told him to fuck off,” Marks said.
Reno Police spokesperson Stephen Greenlee said Marks was told to go to the east sidewalk–toward the courthouse.
“Officers warned Mr. Marks to avoid the median and use crosswalks. Mr. Marks failed to follow that direction, and instead walked back toward the median,” he said.
Marks said he did walk east. He twice said that RPD ordered people to walk into traffic during the incident, statements confirmed on video.
“Are you directing me into traffic? That’s crazy,” he said at the time.
“Never before have we been told not to stand on the median strip, out of traffic, while covering rallies and protests.”
Tom grabbed Marks by the arm, twisted it behind his back and rushed him across Virginia Street. Marks was handcuffed and detained him for about 30 minutes in a parking garage out of sight of witnesses.
He said he was subjected to harassing, accusatory comments by police and was told he was under arrest. He said officers demanded his identification, but his ID was attached to his smartphone, which was still live-streaming on the median. The officers threatened to arrest him for not handing them his ID, he said.
Another photographer, Michelle Renee Dumont, witnessed the incident and took photos of Marks being detained.
“We were harassed by bicycle RPD for standing out on the raised median strip,” Dumont said. “Never before have we been told not to stand on the median strip, out of traffic, while covering rallies and protests. This was the second time this officer came over to exert his authority. Evidently, something Eric said set the officer off.”
Another witness alleged Marks was told three times to leave the median but did not.
“The officers cautioned him thrice yet [sic] he remained unresponsive. He got arrested the fourth time,” Maryam Goli alleged on Instagram.
Marks was not arrested. He was issued a citation for crossing the roadway in an area other than a crosswalk.
Some witnesses said police officers at Friday’s event were unnecessarily aggressive. Another person at the protest also noted the media have historically staged on the median.
“I’ve been at protests, and typically news media sets up in the median to film,” Meghan Archambault said. “Weird that when we marched down the street [during the Roe v. Wade protest] and blocked the Virginia Street bridge, none of us were cited for it.”
Chris Peterson, attorney for the ACLU of Nevada, said it’s not a crime to criticize the police, and if Marks was the only person cited for jaywalking, it could be considered discriminatory.
“Simply being in a roadway outside of a crosswalk is not jaywalking in most parts of the state,” he said, and being in a street during a protest may not be illegal under Nevada law.
“If it’s the sort of offense where if it’s actually not routinely enforced [like jaywalking], but it is being enforced in this instance because you engaged in First Amendment activity, that violates the First Amendment,” Peterson said.
The incident comes just weeks after Reno Police stated in a news release that community trust was essential to the agency. That statement was an indirect response to the arrest of Walter England, who said he was taking video of police downtown and was aggressively arrested by Reno Police Officer Christian Hoyt. He filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against RPD.
The department recently settled a lawsuit after officers were determined to have aggressively responded to protesters, the news media and ACLU legal observers during the May 30, 2020, downtown riot. The department settled for $250,000 after police shot a legal observer with rubber bullets during the riot.
“Instead of addressing the few perpetrators of vandalism, police indiscriminately launched tear-gas canisters into peaceful crowds and pelted peaceful protestors with rubber bullets,” the lawsuit alleged.
Reno Police officials said in a recent news release that maintaining community trust is important, but they refused to respond to follow-up questions about situations where community members said they had been treated poorly by police.
