>
A Wall Street Journal reporter was arrested after standing outside a Chase Bank branch in Phoenix and interviewing clients for a story he was working on about savings accounts.
The newspaper is now demanding an investigation after Dion Rabouin was arrested and handcuffed during the incident in November, but it has just come to light after being informed by a ABC affiliate.
The disturbing encounter has caused concern among press freedom advocates and is seen as an example of growing hostility toward journalists from local law enforcement across the United States.
Rabouin, who is black, was trying to interview people on the sidewalk in front of the bank when he was approached by bank representatives and then stopped by an officer.
The Wall Street Journal has asked the Phoenix Police Department to investigate the arrest and handcuffing of one of its reporters, Dion Rabouin.
A police officer arrived at the scene and handcuffed him and the officer threatened to force him into a police vehicle if he did not comply.
Rabouin said he was trying to interview passersby on a sidewalk in front of the bank as part of a story about savings accounts, but the officer wouldn’t listen.
Rabouin, casually dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, identified himself as a journalist and offered to leave, but the officer continued to handcuff him and threatened to put him in the back of a police vehicle.
The officer did not seem to mind when Rabouin identified herself as a journalist and a bystander who filmed the incident was also threatened with arrest.
Rabouin was only released after around 15 minutes when more officers arrived.
‘I identified myself as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and the police said ‘you can’t do that. This is not public property,” she said. CNN.
Rabouin explained how the officer appeared to threaten him, adding: ‘This can be bad for you if you don’t do what I say. You were on private property and they asked you to leave.
Rabouin said he was wearing casual clothes clothes because I didn’t want people to think I was selling something.
He also explained that he was unaware that the sidewalk was private property and at no point was the bank asking him to leave.
The incident has recently come to light, criticized by press freedom advocates as a violation of the First Amendment with The Journal demanding an apology.
Phoenix chief Michael Sullivan says officers acted appropriately throughout
A customer, Katelyn Parady, who had been inside the branch also came out to defend him.
‘He’s a reporter. I heard him say that he was going to leave. He said that he was going to leave. You didn’t need to handcuff him,” Parady told the officer.
Chase Bank has since apologized to Rabouin, but the police department has not.
The Phoenix Police Department said they checked the body camera and said their officers did nothing wrong.
In his incident report, Officer Caleb Zimmerman wrote that bank employees claimed that Rabouin refused to leave and that the reporter initially refused to identify himself.
Zimmerman also wrote that he had probable cause to arrest Rabouin for trespassing.
‘Force is under investigation for excessive force. However, they still continue to operate in this way,” Rabouin said in disbelief.
“I did not trust what was going to happen,” he said ABC15. “While the woman was recording, I thought the chances of him not doing anything to me, either physically or anything else, were much higher. Once he closes that door, he could take off, he could take me somewhere. They could put me under arrest.
The Department is already under investigation by the Department of Justice for possible retaliation against people who exercise their First Amendment rights and for falsely accusing protesters of being gang members.
“As journalists, we really don’t want to be the story. We want to report the story,” Rabouin said. ‘I think it’s important to talk about it. This is a department that is under investigation by the Department of Justice for excessive force, under investigation for the way it operates and runs business, and yet continues to operate in this manner.
After being released from the handcuffs, Rabouin was warned to leave the area or he would be charged with trespassing.
The Department stated that the incident occurred on private property, but that it has shared the concerns raised by the Journal with its Office of Professional Standards and that an investigation is underway.
The Journal has said it is “deeply concerned” about the treatment of its reporter and has raised First Amendment concerns, arguing that “no journalist should be detained simply for exercising their First Amendment rights.”
The magazine’s editor-in-chief, Matt Murray, wrote a letter last month to Acting Phoenix Police Department Chief Michael Sullivan describing the officer’s conduct as “offensive of civil liberties.”
Murray demanded to know what the department was going to do to “ensure that neither Mr. Rabouin nor any other journalist is subjected to such conduct again.”
“I am shocked and concerned that officers in your department are attempting to interfere with Mr. Rabouin’s constitutional right to engage in journalism and seek to limit anyone’s presence in a public place,” he wrote.
The US Press Freedom Tracker notes that at least 218 journalists have been arrested in the United States since 2020.
Phoenix police responded with a statement:
The Phoenix Police Department received a letter from the editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal expressing concern about an interaction with one of its reporters and a Phoenix police officer.
‘This letter was shared with our Office of Professional Standards for review and they are conducting an administrative investigation. Once the administrative investigation is complete, it will be available as part of a public records request.
Bank staff contacted police after receiving complaints from customers that a man would approach people as they entered the bank to ask personal questions.
“The interaction between the officer and the male subject of the complaint took place on private property.”