Video Shows Federal Agents Arresting a Chicago Journalist. They Now Say She Threw Objects at Their Vehicle.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers arrested a Chicago TV producer Friday morning. The federal government now accuses her of throwing an object at a CBP vehicle. 

Video posted Friday shows the officers handcuffing Debbie Brockman, a producer at WGN-TV, a local CW affiliate, while she lies prone on her stomach. Brockman gives her name to the person filming her and identifies herself as media.

The arrest comes less than 24 hours after a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking federal law enforcement agents from interfering with the First and Fourth Amendment rights of journalists and protesters.

A full video of the incident was not immediately available. The Chicago Tribune reported that Brockman and an unidentified Latino man were already being detained when onlookers arrived and began filming:

Josh Thomas, a neighbor who videotaped the detention of Brockman and an unidentified Latino male, who was already in the van when he came down from his apartment.

Nearly two dozen pedestrians gathered and shouted objections at the agents while cars stopped and honked as the scene unfolded, Thomas said.

“I walk out the front door of the condo, she’s laying on the ground in the street and they’re wrestling with her, trying to get her hands behind her back,” said Thomas, 36, who works at a law firm in Chicago. “They said they were detaining her for obstruction. She said, ‘I didn’t obstruct.’”

In an emailed statement to Reason, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said, “U.S. Border Patrol was conducting immigration enforcement operations and when several violent agitators used their vehicles to block in agents in an effort to impede and assault federal officers.”

“In fear of public safety and of law enforcement,” she continued, “officers used their service vehicle to strike a suspect’s vehicle and create an opening. As agents were driving, Deborah Brockman, a U.S. citizen, threw objects at Border Patrol’s car and she was placed under arrest for assault on a federal law enforcement officer.”

This account contradicts the Chicago Tribune, which reported that Brockman was already detained in the van when it drove off and clipped another car.

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