A San Francisco Chronicle photographer covering the protest in Berkeley over the Michael Brown and Eric Garner killings was hit by a police baton and suffered a mild concussion.
From sfgate:
A freelance photographer who was struck in the head by a police baton while working on assignment for The Chronicle was among members of the news media who reported being mistreated by police officers in Berkeley during a protest over the weekend.
Sam Wolson, 25, said a Berkeley police officer struck him about 7:30 p.m. Saturday as he crouched to take pictures between a line of officers and protesters outside Berkeley police headquarters on Martin Luther King Jr. Way. The baton strike came after officers had touched Wolson twice, apparently to stop him from moving near the line, he said.
A YouTube video of a CNN news report, posted at http://bit.ly/... shows the officer hitting Wolson with a baton roughly 30 seconds into the segment.
“I was really surprised and disappointed, and a little bit angry,” Wolson, who suffered a mild concussion, said Monday. “People might disagree with how much the media represents the situation, but if you can’t have media safely holding accountable anybody in that situation, then the whole entire system breaks down.”
Here is the youtube video:
Professional journalists organizations want Berkeley officials to investigate the inappropriate uses of force by officers against members of the news media.