Journalists Among Arrests at Demonstration for Immigrant

Police in Cincinnati arrested at least 13 people, including two journalists, after demonstrators protesting the immigration detention of a former hospital chaplain blocked a two-lane bridge carrying traffic over the Ohio River. A reporter and a photography intern who were arrested while covering the protest for CityBeat, a Cincinnati news and entertainment outlet, were among those arraigned Friday morning in a Kentucky court, the AP reports. Video from the demonstration in Cincinnati on Thursday night shows several tense moments, including when an officer punches a protester several times as police wrestle him to the ground.

Police in Covington, Kentucky, said those arrested refused to comply with orders to disperse. The department said in a statement that officers who initially attempted to talk with the protest's organizer were threatened. Among the charges filed against those arrested were rioting, failing to disperse, obstructing emergency responders, criminal mischief, and disorderly conduct. Reporter Madeline Fening and photo intern Lucas Griffith were charged with felony rioting and several other counts, said Ashley Moor, editor in chief of CityBeat. A judge on Friday set a $2,500 bond for each of those arrested.

The protest was in support of Ayman Soliman, an Egyptian immigrant who worked as a chaplain at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. He was detained last week after showing up for a routine check-in with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. Other journalists reporting on protests around the US have been have arrested and injured this year. More than two dozen were hurt or roughed up covering protests against immigration raids in Los Angeles. A Spanish-language journalist was arrested in June while covering a No Kings protest near Atlanta.