Adelmi Ruiz was live streaming a pro-Palestinian protest at Cal Poly Humboldt when police detained her on Wednesday.
The reporter for the for Redding, California ABC affiliate KRCR, said police first told her to move to the side and then told her to go with them.
“And then, they took off my backpack and they were saying that I was detained. And I was explaining to them that ‘I’m news!’ I was showing them my press badge, I was showing them my jacket. I was like, ‘I’m here for the news,’ ‘I’m here to do my job,'” she said.
Below is a transcript of the audio she captured when it happened:
Officer: “Put your hands behind your back.” an officer is heard saying.
Reporter: “Wait I’m press! Wait can I at least text my boss?”
Officer: “No.”
A different officer can then be heard saying, “She had the opportunity to leave. This is a crime scene. It’s been declared a crime scene. The press knows that.”
The reporter then says that her boss had her assigned to cover the protest.
When the officer said that she was told to leave, she said she couldn’t because of her job.
Officer: “You were told multiple times to leave, otherwise you would be arrested.”
Reporter: “But I can’t. My job. My job has me here all night.”
Officer: “Find a different job, if this causes you to break the law.”
“They took my mugshots…and then I just waited around,” Ruiz told the station. “And then, Sheriff William Honsal ended up approaching me and he pulled me aside and then we talked a little bit about what happened and how I got in the middle of it. He apologized that I got caught in the middle of it and then he said that they’re just going to process my stuff and then I would be free to go. And so, Sheriff Hansol took me back to Cal Poly Humboldt and then he got my belongings back from the other…sheriff’s deputies, and then I was free to go,” Ruiz said. “And then, I just got back to work.”