New Jersey state police blocked every exit on a street near Delaney Hall, trapping a group inside a formation known as a kettle.
Clear plastic riot shields covered officers from helmet to knee.
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Inside the kettle were a few dozen people. Some were protesters defying a curfew intended to quell demonstrations at a nearby ICE detention facility.
But most appeared to be journalists covering the event.
An officer's helmet peeked over the shields, which parted to let him through.
He barked: "If you are press, you got the opportunity right now – and that's it – to leave.
If you don't leave out here in an orderly fashion, you are coming with us." He pointed at someone and snapped: "You are not press."
Newark's curfew exempted journalists with "verified credentials," but what counted as verified was unclear.
Media workers had come to Delaney Hall to document an ongoing hunger strike by ICE detainees over dangerous conditions inside.
As protests swelled, law enforcement's response created dangerous conditions outside.
State police yanked a WNBC crew from their vehicle, exposing them to tear gas.
Newark police forced Ali Velshi and his crew beyond sight of the protest while they were live on MSNBC.
An independent photographer was allowed access only after a police pat-down and being driven in the back of a police car.
Newsrooms nationwide face a difficult calculation when police threaten arrests at demonstrations. Editors want the story but also want their reporters to return safely.
Increasingly, the public learns about protests through independent livestreamers, who, though rarely employed by major outlets, sell footage to large news organizations.
On paper, laws and courts respect that press are exempt from curfews and dispersal orders, recognizing the need for "sight and sound access."
But on the street, constitutional protections can boil down to an officer's snap decision.
Near Delaney Hall on Sunday, some of those decisions were visible on five live video feeds inside the kettle.
None came from traditional TV cameras. State police quickly released most of the press and ordered them about 100 feet away.
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From that distance, they posed no risk of obstruction, yet Newark police ordered them further down the road.
Journalists objected, realizing they would again be denied sight and sound access.
An officer grabbed his radio to report that press wouldn't go further. A voice crackled back: "If they refuse to move, push them back yourselves."
Back in the kettle, at least three journalists were stranded. Each would spend a full day in custody while lawyers were denied access.
One was injured and taken to a hospital, where he saw two arrested protesters being treated.
Without press cameras rolling, it wasn't clear how or if they were hurt while detained.
Before being handcuffed, another journalist wore a blue vest with "press" and an ID from his company. He was a member of the National Press Photographers Association.
Officers told him his credentials were not verified.
Hours earlier, I'd asked the New Jersey governor's office what "verified" meant. A day later, I asked the Newark mayor's office.
Neither answered.
Nationwide, it's unusual for police departments to issue press passes. Of the few that once offered them, most have abandoned the practice.
Courts increasingly have ruled that law enforcement should look for "indicia" of who is press, such as IDs, business cards, letters of assignment, distinctive clothing with "press" labels, or professional equipment.
Officials sometimes complain this makes it harder to be sure who's a journalist. But the First Amendment wasn't intended to make an officer's job easier.
The indicia approach affirms that journalists are not special because a central authority says so; the point is to protect the act of informing the public.
In the late 1700s, the authors of the Bill of Rights knew Thomas Paine's pamphlets and Benjamin Franklin's twice-weekly newspaper.
Fast-forward 250 years, Paine and Franklin would be at home on Substack or YouTube.
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If an officer can point at them and say they are not press, the First Amendment ceases to have meaning.
