Local journalist Yesica Prado was arrested Tuesday by the Oakland Police Department while she documented a homeless encampment sweep conducted by the city at the intersection of 23rd Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way.
Prado, who has been documenting the sweep since Monday when it began, is seen in a video posted on X by colleague Caron Creighton from KCBS Radio as Prado is handcuffed and escorted by two officers to a patrol car.
Officers arrested Prado on a misdemeanor for trespassing after the journalist allegedly did not leave “a safety work zone” at the request of police officers. She was cited and released after sitting in the police car for some time, she said, and now she will have to appear in court.
“I was about to leave and they said, ‘It’s too late,’ and grabbed me,” Prado said Wednesday. Video shows Prado asking officers why she is required to leave, and then attempting to leave the area. “They handcuffed me and they pulled away all my equipment, which I was really concerned about.”
Journalist @Prado_Reports was just arrested by the City of Oakland for being inside the Safe Work Zone at Oakland's MLK and Grand encampment. The encampment is set to be swept over the next two weeks. This is the second arrest in two days. They also threatened to arrest me. pic.twitter.com/JwzNsj6CnQ
— 📸 caron (@caroncreighton) September 17, 2024
During the arrest, Prado said what came to her mind was all the footage and material she collected from interviews she conducted with those living at the encampment.
“I’m basically just yelling my colleague’s name, Caron, because it’s like, I don’t want people to take my footage or my equipment. She was able to get my stuff,” said Prado. “I think it’s important for people to see that, literally, the only things you can take with you is what you can grab with your own hands.”
Creighton, also a reporter, was at the encampment on Tuesday working on a story for KCBS. She knows Prado from covering homelessness and from their time at the University of California, Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism.
Creighton recalled seeing Prado standing on the sidewalk with officers surrounding her. As Creighton stepped back, she remembers hearing Prado’s screams as she was being arrested.
“I asked the officer, with my phone recording, why she was being arrested, and he said, ‘Because she wouldn’t leave the safe work zone,’” said Creighton. “Then he said, ‘And you will be, too, if you don’t leave.’ Lots of cops were surrounding Yesica.”
Creighton then followed from outside the safe work zone as officers took Prado to the patrol car, and posted the subsequent video on X.
“Safe Work Zones” are designated areas with access provided to city workers, law enforcement and people with special permits only. They are out of reach to the public, and those who stay within the zones are subject to up to six months in jail, up to $1,000 in fines, or both.
Oakland’s City Council passed a law last December designating the zones, following three incidents in which city employees experienced harassment from members of the public.
Both Creighton and Prado said the perimeter of the safe work zone was unclear at the time of Prado’s arrest. Video shows Prado outside an area cordoned off with yellow caution tape when she is surrounded by officers and arrested.
The Oakland Police Department did not reply to a request for comment.
David Loy, the legal director of the First Amendment Coalition, an organization protecting and promoting the freedom of the press, said that, under the First Amendment, journalists don’t have more or fewer rights than the general public.
In other words, if a member of the public can’t trespass, then reporters can’t, either. There is, however, California Government Code §407.9(a)(3), which allows authorized members of the media to enter a demonstration, rally or march, even if closed by a police line.
In this case, Loy said, it is not clear Oakland’s ordinance is in conflict with the statute. He said he would need to see more details of the incident, but this was his take, at first glance, after watching the short videos posted on X.
“You have to look at the language of the city where it talks about marking off a temporary safe work zone. That’s not necessarily the same as closing off an area during an act of protest,” said Loy. “So it’s not clear the city ordinance would conflict with state law, in this instance.”
California Penal Code 602.1(c)(2), which was cited in Prado’s arrest slip, specifically excludes “Any person on the premises who is engaging in activities protected by the California Constitution or the United States Constitution.”
Prado’s arrest came barely a week after the First Amendment Coalition released a statement calling for California authorities to respect the rights of journalists to report at encampment sweeps throughout the state. That follows the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on the Grants Pass case, which freed up cities to dismantle encampments, and has led officials to do so across the state.
All morning @oaklandpoliceca has been targeting me. While I was documenting people leaving with their possessions, officers decided to ambush me even though other journalists/ppl were on site and no machinery was operating.@FACoalition
— Yesica Prado🔎📊 📸 🎧 🎥✨️ (@Prado_Reports) September 17, 2024
Thank you @caroncreighton for having my back pic.twitter.com/tqbos7EVNY
The First Amendment Coalition statement, co-signed by more than 20 press-freedom organizations, cites four incidents, including one in which Renée C. Byer and Theresa Clift from the Sacramento Bee were blocked by police officers from reporting the sweep of a large encampment in the city, and journalist Lexis-Olivier Ray from Los Angeles, who was asked not to report from inside the safe work zone as city employees conducted a sweep.
In both cases, the statement reads, none of the journalists interfered with the work authorities conducted.
For journalists like Creighton, who have been reporting on homelessness for years, this kind of behavior from authorities is nothing new.
“Unfortunately, I have to say, I’m pretty used to it,” said Creighton. I think I’m a little traumatized from it.”
Despite being arrested on Tuesday, Prado said that documenting what’s going on during these sweeps has to be done. She was back out on the scene Wednesday morning, reporting on the same encampment.
“It’s important for people to see what is being left behind and what is being taken,” said Prado. “I think it’s important for people to see who are the people that are being displaced. A lot of them are disabled and can’t even move their own stuff.”
The day after her arrest, 2,500 miles away, in a basement ballroom of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, Prado received very different treatment: She and reporter Madison Alvarado won an Insight Award for Visual Journalism at this year’s Nonprofit News Awards, for a story in the San Francisco Public Press titled “Facing Brutal Storms, Homeless People Encountered Hurdles to Finding Shelter.”
The story detailed how homeless people sought to stay dry during heavy storms in 2023, and the piece won top honors for using Prado’s photography to “accurately portray a community that has traditionally been underrepresented or misrepresented in news media.”
Gratitude to all the heroic, truth-telling journalists.
But don’t you think it is odd that it is only the so-called “advocacy journalists” who get arrested?
In this case she was told to leave and failed to, So it looks like a fairly clear case of insubordination I would have thought.
You weren’t there and have no idea what happened. I was there shortly before the arrest, and nobody was being told to leave. The cops arrested one (1) advocate per day. Nobody was resisting or trying to stop the sweep – people were documenting or helping people move their belongings. Don’t be a dupe.
Take a look at the actual footage: https://www.instagram.com/loveandjusticeinthestreets/reel/DACXAw9SzJ1/. You can see that she is clearly targeted and surrounded, even with other bystanders around.
If you have ever been to a protest, or tried to expose vile city-backed actions, you know that the police give warnings without enough time to leave, and will arrest people as they are trying to leave.
OPD has a long history of arresting protesters, overcharging them, and sending them to Santa Rita as a form of extra-judicial punishment. on November 25, 2019, under mayor Libby Schaaf, OPD arrested 22 people protesting in tents, charged them with resisting, sent them to Santa Rita instead of citing and releasing, and mistreated them in jail. Something to remember as Schaaf tries to continue in politics. You can see the arrest video and post arrest press confererence on youtube.
“Oakland Police arrest 22 in ‘Housing Justice Village’ at City Hall”
“Oakland Housing Justice Village Oscar Grant Plaza Arrests Press Conference “
Gratitude to Yesica P. and ALL good journalism happening!
Thank you for covering this, Oscar! Its truly sad to see the way cities are conducting the sweeps and also sad to see how journalists are being harassed. Lets push to change these laws. Thanks to Yesica Prado for her brave work.
If you’re going to start covering Oakland … there are a lot more crimes there.
Agreed, OPD shouldn’t arrest journalists. But are you aware of what’s going on with merchants on Hegenberger Road? That’s a much much bigger issue.
THANK you for covering this 🙏
Homeless people are “a community that has traditionally been underrepresented or misrepresented in news media”?”
Homelessness is a predicament, not an identity!
As for encampments, and the entire encampment subculture?
I’ve been destitute and homeless in the past. There’s ALWAYS someplace else to go — another way to approach life.
It’s a big planet. Time to move on.
Sometimes the place to go is the streets. The community at this recently swept encampment were largely elderly and/or disabled. These aren’t people stubbornly refusing to find housing that isn’t rat-infested and exposes them to police and other criminal brutality – these are people just trying to exist, with no help from above.
Massive, squalid encampments (foisted on any site one might desire) must never be considered as “the place to go.”
Unfortunately, these people are allowing themselves to be used by self-serving “social justice warriors” to score political points, and, in the process, are being encouraged to abuse public space — and thereby, to put themselves in harm’s way.
Respect and consideration for one’s neighbors — housed and unhoused alike — are a two-way street. Recognizing that reality is, in fact, an aspect of genuine (mutual) respect.
ToddM, you write, “Sometimes the place to go is the streets.”
Which streets? Even housed people don’t get to set up house anywhere they desire — and when they do establish a residence, they’re required to abide by all sorts of building codes.
And how about considering the impact of one’s choices on one’s neighbors?
Respect and consideration are a two-way street.
CASE IN POINT:
https://seeclickfix.com/issues/15517785
https://seeclickfix.com/issues/17172917
https://seeclickfix.com/issues/17577857
Me too, Mitchell,
I couch-surfed and pet-sat and lived on job sites for 15 years while moving up and down on the City’s Housing List til Bevan Dufty and the U.S. Navy combined to get me a Voucher for a great place with no desk clerk and your own toilet.
The people in the encampment on not Julian but I think Stevenson around the corner from me who stay put are one of 3 things preventing them from transition
Insane
Addicted
Illegal
Until recently, none of those are a crime.
h.
This is DEEPLY disturbing and chilling. Yesica Prado is a professional law abiding journalist. The video is disturbing. Glad that bystanders and onlookers captured it.
Great work, Oscar,
I have an encampment a block from my house on Julian Street behind the new Greek Orthodox Cathedral that they’ve done their new more intense sweeps on 3 times in last 3 weeks and it keeps coming back cause the people have nowhere to go.
If the 4 ‘Knuckle Draggers’ running for Mayor (Lurie, Breed, Safai and other guy) have their way they’ll lock em all up.
I was arrested and assaulted covering Election Night 2007 when I was on the ballot for Mayor against Newsom.
Next morning SFGH conferred with cops right in front of me when I went for treatment and the nurses made me sit on outdoor bench in the rain entire shift and then would only x-ray one arm.
Gonzo and another friend sprung me within an hour and the cop who roughed me up was dead at 33 a few months ago during a brain operation I assume was about steroids.
Tough scene out there but at least they haven’t begun assassinating journalists like the Israelis do regularly.
I’ve been on the AIPAC black list for a long time so look out.
lol
Go Niners !!
h.
I have covered homeless encampment issues for more than a decade. I don’t believe the police were trying to instigate something here, and made reasonable requests. Rather, it looked to me as though the photographer was at fault and appeared to be attempting to spark an incident. This didn’t look like Selma, Alabama in 1964 to me. Work with the cops and they will work with you most of the time.
When journalists and legal observers are thrown out, there is no public oversight of police actions or evictions from encampments, which are by definition violent. People are being forced out of their only habitation, and whatever is unable to be carried away by that person (no advocate assistance is allowed) is thrown in the trash by the City workers. The “Safe Work Zone” ordinance is especially sketchy because while it pretends to be about all workers safety, SEIU and the Oakland City Council knew that it’s only purpose was to prevent oversight of of encampment evictions. There is no place for people to go to! Oakland, Berkeley, SF, and other cities have declared war on people forced to live on the street, and THERE IS NO PLACE FOR PEOPLE TO GO! “Shelters” are unsafe and only last for days, and further housing is not available, regardless of what spews from politician’s mouths.
Yesica is such a badass. No wonder the corrupt OPD are targeting her. I don’t know how she manages to go to so many different events, take great photos, speak at city council meetings, organize with other community members… A local hero, for sure.
I love on a encampment in Oakland, and I’m afraid that the little things I have will be taken from me. I’ve been here for 3 years. I’m 64 years old and this is my first time being truly homeless. I live in fear that if I leave my place, when I get back I’ll be gone. I went under treatment for lung cancer at the beginning of this year. Even though I beat the cancer for now, there a chance it could back. I’ve tried to get help but I can’t seem to get any for my homelessness. So this is the only place I have to be.