ST. PAUL, MN (September 4, 2008) – NPPA member and Minnesota Daily newspaper assistant picture editor Stephen Maturen tells a compelling first-person account of what happened to him on Thursday while covering protesters in St. Paul, MN.
"On the fourth day of the Republican National Convention, things got a little hectic during the protests," Maturen said. "All day the protesters showed peaceful disobedience toward police action, nothing like the anarchist rioting of the first day. When I heard tear gas and concussion grenades by a nearby Sears, I ran over to see what was happening."
"When I arrived – along with my fellow Daily photographer Matt Mead – I witnessed some disturbing police action. Police were getting a little testy with protesters, telling everyone to back away. There was one girl who started to run after being told to back off. She was followed by an officer, knocked to the ground, and sprayed point blank in the face with pepper spray. Then officer walked back to his unit. There was no arrest made or any further action taken, just a girl crumpled on the ground.
"After seeing something similar happen to another protester behind the Sears building, I decided it was time to get out of there. No one seemed safe. I raised up my arms, camera in one hand, media credential in the other, and yelled 'I am media, I work for the Minnesota Daily. What should I do to get out of here?"
"An officer ran up and told me several times to 'Back the fuck up!' I asked him where I should go and he pointed south with his baton. He told me to, 'Get the fuck out of here,' so I turned and started running. As I started running he unloaded a can of pepper spray into the right side of my face, completely blinding me in one eye and partially blinding me in the left. I stumbled away as fast as I could not sure what would happen if I collapsed to the ground – which is what I felt like doing.
"I called Matt to tell him what was going on. I wasn't sure where I was, I couldn't see a thing, and was scared out of my mind that I might get blasted again for being unable to comply with police requests. As I was telling Matt this, bike cops swarmed into the area pepper spray in hand. Out of my squinting left eye the only thing I could make out was a pepper spray can about a foot from my face. I was screaming that I was blinded and I was media and that I had no idea where I was or supposed to go. Luckily a passerby grabbed my arm and led me in the direction the police were shouting, 'Disperse west.'"
Things were no better in the direction they were now headed.
"As we dispersed west, from what I could faintly see out of my left eye, we were headed into tear gas and flash bangs. We were then cornered by police, told to sit down, and were all placed under arrest. I regained full vision in my left eye and was able to yell to Matt Rourke, the Associated Press photographer arrested earlier in the week. A former Daily employee was running [memory] cards for him this week, so I asked him to call her and to haver her tell the editor in chief that I was okay.
"After being zip tied [riot handcuffs], we were all stood up and then we sat on the curb facing toward the corral of journalists the police had picked up. Some of them recognized me and were yelling, 'Hey, that kid is media, he shoots for the Daily. He should be over here!' It was to no avail. My one saving grace came when Tom Walsh, public information director for the St. Paul police department, came over tapped me on the shoulder and said, 'You from the Daily? We are gonna get you outta here.' He was sent over by another former Daily employee who is interning for WCCO-TV. The WCCO-TV photographer she was with had worked a lot with Walsh, so they called him over and sent for my retrieval.
"About a minute later my zip ties were cut and my [memory] cards and cameras were in hand. Ellen, the WCCO-TV intern, sprayed my eye with a solution to treat the burning and soon I was able to see again. I called the Daily, stumbled off to get picked up, and filed my pictures for the next day's paper.
Maturen said that he doesn't believe the police he saw were intentionally singling out, or attacking, the media. "Running up to a group of people who are getting pepper sprayed will probably get you hosed," he said. "However, a lot of the actions I saw on September 4, including what happened to me, seemed totally unjustified and over the top. I shouldn't have to stumble blindly through a Sears parking lot, terrified that I am going to be pepper sprayed or arrested because I can't see anything."
The photojournalist joined NPPA last year when he started working at the student newspaper.
