After Dion Rabouin, a black Wall Street Journal reporter, was detained while interviewing outside a Phoenix bank in November, the police department is undertaking an investigation of the matter. Journal editor-in-chief Matt Murray wrote to the department, “I am relieved that Mr. Rabouin’s interaction with Phoenix police officers ended peacefully, but I am appalled and concerned that officers at your department would attempt to interfere with Mr. Rabouin’s constitutional right to engage in journalism and purport to limit anyone’s presence in a public location. Such conduct is offensive to civil liberties.” (The New York Times, January 8, 2023, by Livia Albeck-Ripka)
The reporter was handcuffed and detained after his interviews. He was unaware that the sidewalk in front of the bank was private property, but, nonetheless, none of the bank’s employees asked him to leave. The arresting officer said he was responding to complaints from bank employees that Robouin was making customers uncomfortable and took him into custody for trespassing. (NPR, January 10 2023, by Jonathan Franklin)