Image: Antifa activist, Twitter Screenshot

Videographer Brendan Gutenschwager Assaulted by Antifa Activist While Attempting to Cover Detroit Protest

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As reported by a local outlet, The Detroit News, more than 100 people took to the streets of Detroit on Saturday to protest police involvement in evictions.

Videographer Brendan Gutenschwager attempted to cover the event by filming the hordes of people marching through the street.

Instead, Gutenschwager was assaulted multiple times and was ultimately forced to abandon his coverage.

In his initial tweet, along with a video, Gutenschwager said, “Just got assaulted attempting to cover an anti-eviction march in Detroit this afternoon. A member of the protest ‘security’ ran up, grabbed my camera and forced me against a building.”

Sharing a still from the video, Gutenschwager continued, “A man wearing an Antifa pin committed the first assault during the march. Camera stopped a few times while he attempted to steal it. Eventually, others in the group urged him aside to release me from against the building.”

In a follow-up video tweet, a man can be seen attempting to cover Gutenschwager’s camera with his hand.

“You’re not f***ing welcome here.” A man wearing a Press patch then accosts me and tries to force me to leave, as the crowd marched through Greektown in Detroit,” Gutenschwager said in the tweet.

In a brief reprieve, Gutenschwager was then finally able to share a video of the actual protest and said, “Was able to capture a brief portion showing the original purpose of today’s demonstration, an anti-eviction march. The crowd chanted ‘Black homes are under attack, tell me what do we do, rise up fight back.'”

That apparently didn’t last long as less than 15 minutes later, Gutenschwager tweeted a final video and said, “A man rammed me against a concrete fence and barricade, bloodying my mouth and elbow as well as putting me in a chokehold while stealing my camera. That was then thrown over a fence, which I eventually was able to retrieve and continue recording.”

“Had to leave for my own safety at this point. Lip is busted and am scraped up from the barricade. Praying no other reporters had to endure this while out today,” Gutenschwager concluded.

The report from The Detroit News did not include any reference to the assault on Gutenschwager, although we have reached out to the reporter.

News 2 Share videographer Ford Fischer came to Gutenschwager’s defense and quote tweeting the first video, he said, “Absolutely unacceptable. Physical violence against media… is never ok.”

Referencing what the Antifa activist said to Gutenschwager, Fischer continued, “‘Dude you were at the Capitol, were you or were you not?’ @BGOnTheScene video-documented J6. This interaction reveals the real-world implications of claiming primary source journalism amounts to endorsement. By this argument, Brendan would also be an anti-eviction activist.”

Fischer then shared an experience he had in an opposite manner and said, “This exact interaction happened to me once when a militia group acting as security for the Proud Boys apparently believed online trolling claiming I’m “antifa” because I’ve filmed/interviewed Antifascist activists.”

“The possibility of violence from these innuendoes and disinformation online is not an abstraction. @BGOnTheScene was physically assaulted today. On the day of the example in my previous tweet, Proud Boys did the same exact thing for the same stated reasons,” Fischer explained.

David Caron
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