Journalists covering nights of protests and unrest found themselves under attack

On any given day, any one of the attacks that I mention in this column would be newsworthy. The fact that this is only a sampling of the many attacks on journalists this weekend underscores the dangers that they are willing to face to document an outpouring of anger, frustration and, in some cases, senseless opportunistic violence.

A crowd swarmed WLKY chief photographer Paul Ahmann, knocked him to the ground, then surrounded him while laughing and taking pictures of him.

Demonstrators trashed news cars in Boston, Atlanta, Louisville and Los Angeles. They tossed bottles at reporters in Minneapolis, grabbed a reporter while she was on the air in Phoenix and smashed the windows and iconic CNN sign outside the networks’ Atlanta headquarters.

Police added to the danger. In Louisville, a police officer fired more than a half dozen nonlethal PepperBall rounds that hit WAVE-TV reporter Kaitlin Rust and photojournalist James Dobson. Dobson said he was wearing a protective vest that said “press” in reflective lettering but received several shots to the chest from an officer who fired straight at the news crew on live TV. Rust screamed on air when the round hit her, but kept on reporting even while the officer aimed his weapon. The crew said they were standing behind the police lines when the officer fired.