*The Phoenix Police Department has allegedly launched an internal investigation into why a Black reporter for The Wall Street Journal was handcuffed and detained for conducting interviews outside of a Chase Bank.
The incident that took place in November between reporter Dion Rabouin and a Phoenix police officer. As Journal-isms reports, a witness named Katelyn Parady captured on her cell phone the moment Rabouin was detained outside a Chase Bank branch in Phoenix. She told Dave Biscobing of KNXV-TV, “My husband’s a journalist. He’s also white, as am I. And in that moment, I just knew he wouldn’t be in handcuffs if things had gone the same way. And it doesn’t really matter to me that he was a journalist. No one should have been cuffed with that kind of speed when there was no problem.”
Rabouin, who is a finance reporter with the WSJ based in New York, was detained after conducting interviews with customers about savings accounts. Check out the video report via the YouTube clip above.
”I saw a police car pull up. And the officer came out, walked into the branch, after about five minutes came out, and talked to me,” Rabouin told ABC15 in a recent interview.
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I wanted to write this because people keep asking me if I’m ok. Of course I’m ok. If I broke down every time I was harassed, assaulted, detained or had my rights violated by the police, all I would be is broken. And I refuse to let them break me.
— Dion Rabouin ???????? (@DionRabouin) January 9, 2023
”He asked me what I was doing. I identified myself. I said, “I’m Dion Rabouin. I’m a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. I’m working on a story. I told the people in the branch what was going on.” And he said, ‘Well you can’t do that.’”
The officer, identified as Caleb Zimmerman, accused Rabouin of trespassing and took him into custody.
“We’re deeply concerned that Wall Street Journal reporter Dion Rabouin was detained, handcuffed and placed in the back of a police vehicle while reporting,” a WSJ spokesperson told NPR in a statement. “No journalist should ever be detained simply for exercising their First Amendment rights.”
The encounter between Rabouin and Zimmerman became public this week after Phoenix TV station ABC15 [KNXV] reported on it.
Wall Street Journal reporter @DionRabouin was conducting interviews outside of a Chase Bank before he was handcuffed and detained by policehttps://t.co/vgFXWJ5vQJ pic.twitter.com/FTeInnjXPl
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) January 5, 2023
Per Journalisms, Matt Murray, Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief, wrote Interim Police Chief Michael Sullivan on Dec. 7, saying: “Naturally, I am relieved that Mr. Rabouin’s interaction with Phoenix police officers ended peacefully. But I am appalled and concerned that officers at your department would attempt to interfere with Mr. Rabouin’s constitutional right to engage in journalism and purport to limit anyone’s presence in a public location. Such conduct is offensive to civil liberties, and also a pretty good news story.”
The Arizona Association of Black Journalists has reportedly requested a meeting with Sullivan. “If this can happen to one journalist, it could happen to any of us; and this is completely unacceptable,” the group said in a statement.
Watch the full @DionRabouin arrest video, but I found this extra-chilling: Another cop shows up, and casually but ostentatiously puts on black latex gloves. Intimidation. https://t.co/f4Zzh1WZeq https://t.co/rm3SfLHPYb pic.twitter.com/UgOXw4rd5b
— Tommy moderna-vaX-Topher (@tommyxtopher) January 5, 2023
Rabouin commented on the situation in a post on Twitter, writing, “I wanted to write this because people keep asking me if I’m ok. Of course I’m ok. If I broke down every time I was harassed, assaulted, detained or had my rights violated by the police, all I would be is broken. And I refuse to let them break me.”
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