This week at a contentious school board meeting in Tucson, KOLD News 13 photographer Edgar Ybarra was shoved by Tucson Police officers and barred from covering the event.  Police defended their actions and said he was in the way; Police Chief Roberto Villasenor told KOLD he “was standing right in the pathway” and refused to leave. Ybarra said he was just trying to cover the story. The video shows what seems to be unnecessary aggression against Ybarra. 

As the Tucson Weekly reports:

KOLD cameraman and filmmaker Edgar Ybarra, who was following police and Castillo with his camera, was roughly pushed by the police and forced out of the building along with Baldenegro, Garcia, Rodriguez and several other activists. (It’s important to note that Ybarra tried to get the police to let him back in so he could continue to work, while his reporter co-worker waited for him in the lobby. They refused to let him back in, although they did let another cameraman in to continue working.)

Maybe shoving is something taught in police school in Arizona? It seems so by the looks of this video, where a 15-year-old girl is slammed to the ground by Phoenix Police Officer Patrick Larrison. (Go to about 1:56 if you want to see something truly alarming.) Amazingly, the police department wasn’t aware of the incident until a staffer saw the video on YouTube and alerted the higher-ups. There is now a criminal and internal investigation underway in that case.

Source: KOLD and Tuscson Citizen