CUNY Journalism Student Arrested While Covering Protest Over Eric Garner’s Choking Death

By: Anna Schiffbauer | SPLC

NEW YORK — A journalism student at the City University of New York faces a disorderly conduct charge after police arrested her Wednesday night at a protest over a grand jury’s decision not to indict police officer Daniel Pantaleo in the choking death of Eric Garner.

Desiree Mathurin, a CUNY graduate student, said she was reporting on the protest for CUNY’s New York City Newswire when protesters began to sit down in the Brooklyn Bridge roadway. After New York Police Department officers used a bullhorn to tell demonstrators they were not allowed to obstruct traffic, they began to arrest people who did not comply.