Chicago Police release body cam videos from protests during DNC

CHICAGO (CBS) — Chicago Police body camera videos from the Democratic National Convention last month have been released, including one showing a journalist being arrested.
Sinna Nasseri talked was arrested on the evening of Tuesday, Aug. 20—the second night of the protest. He told CBS News Chicago afterward that he was just doing his job when he was zip-tied and held for at least eight hours—only to be cited with an ordinance violation.
Nasseri said the entire chain of events could have been avoided if officers had listened to his pleadings that he was a journalist—which he can be heard saying over and over again on the body camera videos.
The body camera video starts with Nasseri falling over a planter as he is being taken into custody by police, camera in hand. It is important to note that this was the first moment seen leading up to the arrest.
The Los Angeles-based freelance photographer shoots for outlets like the New York Times, Time Magazine, and the Wall Street journal. He said he showed up at the protest organized by the group Behind Enemy Lines outside the Israeli Consulate in the West Loop Aug. 20 to take photos of protesters’ interactions with police.
“Once told them I’m a journalist, and they saw my press ID and they saw my gear, they should have known that I was doing nothing wrong—which I wasn’t—and they probably should have let me go,” said Nasseri.
In the body cam video, Nasseri is heard telling officers: “Guys, I’m certified press, man! I’m from the New Yorker magazine. Just let me go. This is crazy!”
An officer replies, “You don’t have any press pass.”
“Yes, I do,” Nasseri says. “It’s in my wallet.”
“It’s got to be displayed,” the officer says.
As the video continues, the officer checks Nasseri’s credential as he explains that there is nowhere for him to go as police start making arrests.
“I was cornered in the area. There was nowhere to go,” Nasseri tells officers in the video. “I was on the sidewalk like you said.”
While being arrested, Nasseri even acknowledges that he’d been impressed by how CPD had handled the protest—telling the officers they have been “doing a good job.”
On Wednesday, Aug. 21, CBS News Chicago asked police Supt. Larry Snelling why Nasseri and two other journalists were arrested. Snelling said the journalists got in the way of Chicago Police officers doing their job.
“There are times where we’re calling a mass arrest, or we’re attempting to move in—we need you guys to step to the side,” Snelling said in response.
Nasseri said he sat for two hours in a bus, and then another six hours in jail, before being released. He said he would have moved out of the way if he could have.
“You should have listened earlier when they told all the press to move,” an officer says in the body cam video.
“I never heard that,” Nasseri replies. “Y’all never said that.”
Nasseri said he plans to fight the ordinance violation with which he has been cited. His next court date is Sept. 27.
So far, the Chicago Police Department has released 56 body camera videos of interactions with protesters, which provide a better sense of exactly what officers were up against.
During the arrest of a man in a ski mask on Monday, Aug. 19—the first night of the convention, body cam video shows a gun on the ground.
An arrest report obtained by the CBS News Chicago Investigators said the suspect charged into another officer, and an officer’s gun became unholstered. That officer was sent to the hospital and treated for a concussion.
The body cam video also shows it was not just CPD officers controlling crowds. Illinois State Police can also be seen in formation.
The video also shows the meticulous process of documenting evidence from arrestees—including a stack of cash officers are seen counting.
Snelling, who was out with the rank-and-file all week during the DNC , is featured prominently throughout the videos interacting with protestors.
“You are not going to come up and swing your fingers in front of an officer’s face,” Snelling tells one man. “Do you understand? Do you understand that’s assault?”
CBS News Chicago has since learned the man was not charged with assault, but he was cited with a disorderly conduct violation.
In another clip, Snelling is seen pointing to a group being asked to back up.
Police pull on a man’s legs in the scuffle to get him to comply with officers.
The videos released so far have to do with 23 of the 74 people who were arrested throughout the duration of the Democratic National Convention.
It was unclear late Friday if and when the others might be released, but CBS News Chicago has requested videos of all of the arrests.