Alisa Reznick, a news reporter with KJZZ, was arrested Thursday morning by Pima County Sheriff’s Department deputies as she was covering a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Arizona Tech Park in Tucson.
More than two dozen protesters also were arrested.
Reznick is a senior field correspondent covering southern Arizona for KJZZ’s Fronteras Desk and the local NPR affiliate. The journalist was arrested at about 7:30 a.m. and was released at about 11 a.m. Thursday, according to protesters who spoke with Arizona Luminaria and a KJZZ report.
KJZZ officials confirmed the arrest in a news article and told Arizona Luminaria that they are questioning the deputies’ actions against their staff journalist.
“The Pima County Sheriff’s Department handcuffed and detained our journalist, Alisa Reznick, while she was in the course of reporting on a protest outside the UA Tech Park,” Michel Marizco, senior editor of KJZZ’s Fronteras Desk, said in an emailed statement.
“Alisa was released from custody after several hours and is in strong spirits. We are continuing to seek clarity from the sheriff’s department on the circumstances of this incident where a clearly identified journalist was in the course of reporting the news.”
A Pima County Sheriff’s Department spokesman responded Thursday afternoon to Arizona Luminaria’s questions about the law-enforcement agency’s actions and why they arrested Reznick while she was reporting on the protest.
“Regarding the reporter being arrested, they were directed to vacate the private property that they were on but would not comply. They were charged with criminal trespass,” Keith Bee, a public information officer for the department, told Arizona Luminaria in an email.
“Multiple demonstrators entered private property, blocked the roadways, and prevented employees from entering and leaving the facility,” according to a press release issued by the Pima County Sheriff’s Department.
Twenty-six people were arrested for criminal trespass, according to the release. Those arrested were transported to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department’s San Xavier District Office, where they were cited and released.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona called deputies’ actions against Reznick “deeply concerning,” adding on X that “arresting journalists while doing their job to keep the public informed is a blatant violation of their constitutional rights.”
The University of Arizona’s tech park is home to Raytheon Missile Systems, a defense contractor and producer of various weapons that have been shipped to Israel and other parts of the world. Protesters with the Tucson Coalition for Palestine showed up to the business park Thursday morning to stage a road blockade as a civil disobedience action to show their support for the people of Palestine.
Aileen, an organizer with the Tucson Coalition for Palestine, explained that the purpose of the blockade was to bring attention to corporations with ties to Israel who are “complicit in ongoing genocide.” They named IBM, CitiGroup and Raytheon as companies that have ties to Israel and the war the country is waging in Gaza after Hamas militants attacked Israeli communities, killing more than 1,200 people and taking more than an estimated 200 people hostage, according to Israeli officials.
As of Nov. 26, the Israeli Army has killed at least 14,000 people, most of them women and children, according to Gazan officials.
Aileen didn’t want to share their last name for fear of repercussions from the county and her employer.
About four Pima County Sheriff’s Department vehicles showed up about 15 minutes after protesters first blocked one of the entrances to the park, according to Aileen. Deputies initially told the protesters that they didn’t want to make any arrests, but that they were trespassing.
Aileen said the motivation for the protest was to demand a “genocide-free economy.” Raytheon is one of southern Arizona’s largest employers.
“As Tucson residents, we believe we need to be in solidarity with Palestinian people and we need to take the fight straight to where we see it if our leaders aren’t acting,” she said.
This was among many international demonstrations amid the war, and one of a handful of pro-Palestinian protests to take place in Tucson and across Arizona in the last month. The Tucson Coalition for Palestine led a “die-in” on Nov. 2 outside an entrance to a Raytheon plant.
Julius Schlosburg was at the protest participating as an activist and concerned citizen against genocide. He was photographing the scene to document the demonstration when Reznick and others were arrested.
“We were out there, of course, protesting the genocide everywhere, right now, particularly in Palestine,” Schlosburg said. “But also highlighting the link between the university, the Arizona Board of Regents, who owns that property, and Raytheon, and the fact that we cannot exist in this community without being complicit in genocide because of Raytheon.”
Sheriff’s deputies began making arrests about 14 minutes after they arrived, Aileen said. They added that Reznick was one of the first to be arrested.
Schlosburg said deputies’ demeanor was relatively calm while arresting people. “They weren’t being physical,” he added. And protesters were “calm and peaceful the entire time.”
Schlosburg said he was surprised to see Reznick arrested given her First Amendment rights as a journalist reporting on the protest.
“As far as I can see she was wearing her press badge. She wasn’t participating in the blockade,” he said. “I am also mystified because I don’t have a press badge and I was there documenting close to the sheriff’s and nobody told me anything. I am mystified at the discretion and actions of the officers.”
According to video and photographs shared on social media, Reznick was wearing a press badge around her neck and was carrying her recording equipment and a camera.
In one video posted on X, formerly Twitter, Reznick can be heard explaining to the arresting deputy that she was heading to her car, “I’m going right now,” she said. The deputy maintained his grip on her arm and said, “You’re under arrest.”
“I’m a reporter,” Reznick tells him. “How can you arrest me? I’m not even involved in this.”
Schlosburg stressed that protesters want the public to know Raytheon’s presence in Tucson is an injustice to the community’s commitment to human rights and peace.
“Our own government uses these companies to militarize our own border and destabilize nations,” he said.
This story was updated with a statement from the Pima County Sheriff’s Department. Dianna Náñez contributed to this article
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Editor: Dianna M. Náñez Copy Editor: Chelsea Curtis
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