Police drop charges against, CBS News, journalist arrested after chaotic Trump event

Police drop charges against, CBS News, journalist arrested after chaotic Trump event

Police drop charges against, CBS News, journalist arrested after chaotic Trump event

Authorities in Illinois said Thursday that they were dropping charges against a CBS News journalist who was arrested last week while covering a Donald Trump event in Chicago

On Friday, Sopan Deb was reporting on the chaotic scene outside a canceled rally for Trump when the journalist was arrested by the state police and, according to CBS News, charged with resisting arrest

The Chicago Police Department and the Illinois State Police have been reviewing the arrest and the administrative citation issued to Deb since Saturday, said Anthony Guglielmi, spokesman for the Chicago police

“While this incident was very dynamic and troopers and officers were forced to make split-second decisions in the interest of public safety of demonstrators and police officers, we have collectively decided to drop the administrative charges in this case,” Guglielmi said in an emailed statement. “This decision was made after a methodical review of the physical evidence including video and interviewing both troopers and police officers involved in the incident

Reporter arrested after unrest follows canceled Trump rally

After Trump abruptly canceled the event, citing what he called “growing safety concerns” posed by the thousands of protesters who were gathered there, skirmishes began to erupt inside the University of Illinois at Chicago’s arena. Protesters and Trump supporters began shoving one another, and the situation spilled outside into a mass protest on the streets

Hundreds of Chicago police officers went into the arena in response to the escalating situation inside, while others took to the surrounding streets as the scene unfolded, joined by University of Illinois police officers and Illinois State Police troopers

When Deb was arrested, he was recording confrontations between police and protesters, he told CBS News in an interview. While he was charged with resisting arrest, video footage did not show any sign of a struggle

After months of playing protesters to his advantage, Donald Trump is overpowered in Chicago

“Another scuffle breaks out and I’m shooting this scuffle and before I knew it a police officer, at least one police officer, maybe multiple, pulled me down from the back of my hoodie and threw me to the ground and bashed my face into the street and then this police officer put his boot to my neck and cuffed me,” Deb said in an interview with “Face the Nation” over the weekend. “I am continuously identifying myself as press, I said, ‘I have credentials, I can show you I have credentials,’ but they are not listening to me

Police said five people were arrested by authorities Friday night — two by the Chicago police, two by the university police and Deb, who was arrested by the Illinois State Police