A KJZZ News reporter covering a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Tucson was one of more than two dozen people taken into custody Thursday morning.
Images and video posted online show KJZZ’s Alisa Reznick being handcuffed and detained by a Pima County sheriff’s deputy. She was wearing a clearly visible KJZZ News press pass and identified herself to deputies as a reporter.
Reznick was covering a protest outside UA Tech Park, home to Raytheon — a defense contractor that produces various weapons that have been shipped to Israel, which is currently at war with Hamas.
Protesters with the Tucson Coalition for Palestine had blockaded a road entering UA Tech Park as a show of support for the people of Palestine.
Michel Marizco, editor of KJZZ’s Fronteras Desk, said in a statement that Reznick — a senior field correspondent covering southern Arizona for KJZZ and the NPR network — was in strong spirits.
“We are continuing to seek clarity from the Sheriff’s Department on the circumstances of this incident where a clearly identified journalist was in the course of reporting the news,” Marizco said.
Reznick was one of 26 people arrested and cited for trespassing. She was released from custody by 11 a.m.
Pima County sheriff Chris Nanos told AZPM he stands by the deputies who arrested Reznick.
“If you find that our deputies did something that you think was inappropriate, unprofessional, illegal, please, I want to be the first to know about that,” Nanos said. “But from what I've seen, and what I've heard from talking to all the other media outlets, they don't believe our deputies were in violation or any of that, that they did their best to keep things calm.”
When asked why Reznick was arrested while walking away from the protest and returning to her vehicle, as shown in a video posted online, Nanos told AZPM that Reznick was repeatedly asked to leave the area of the protest, but refused.
“I am hearing that she was given that opportunity, as several other people, multiple times when she was requested, as were several others, to leave the area,” Nanos said. “Her, as well as now I understand this number has gone up to 26 people, chose not to do that.”
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