Watch bodycam: Asheville police release footage of Aston Park protest, arrests

ASHEVILLE - Asheville police released body camera footage Feb. 27 of officers responding to a Dec. 25, 2021 protest in Aston Park, a night when officers made multiple arrests, including that of two reporters.

All 27 videos were released around 12 p.m. on the city's YouTube page, and range in time from 49 seconds to over an hour.

Videos can be watched here: https://bit.ly/3Zb8zuf.

"These videos are body-worn camera footage from multiple police officers who responded to the demonstration, after the park closure, on the night of December 25, 2021," said a Feb. 27 news release from the Asheville Police Department. "Six people were arrested that night for 2nd Degree Trespassing. Some were charged with resisting arrest."

The release is the result of a petition from multiple agencies, including the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina, which submitted a Jan. 24 court filing for the "unrestricted" release of all body camera footage related to the arrest of the two reporters, Matilda Bliss and Veronica Coit, while covering a homeless camp clearing in Aston Park.

Previous coverage:Aston Park protests: After ACLU petition, Asheville wants bodycam footage on YouTube

More:NC ACLU petitions for release of bodycam footage in arrest of Asheville reporters

N.C. ACLU spokesperson Keisha Williams told the Citizen Times Feb. 24 that they had received the judge’s signed consent order.

According to City Attorney Brad Branham, the city raised no objections to the request.

“The ACLU requested the video, and we willingly complied," Police Chief David Zack said in the Feb. 27 release.

Neither the city or APD could independently decide to release the footage. Any release of bodycam footage in North Carolina requires a Superior Court judge’s order.

The night shown in the footage was one in a string of public facing encampment clearings that winter, and in the week leading up to Christmas Day, the park was the focal point for a number of sanctuary camp demonstrations.

Also following the protests, 16 individuals were charged with felony littering. Five of those cases are going to trial in April. Subsequently, 14 of those charged, all mutual aid volunteers who regularly met in Aston Park to distribute food and gear, were issued park bans, prohibiting them from entering city parks for three years, a policy the N.C. ACLU is also challenging.

Related:ACLU of NC challenges Asheville's park bans against felony littering defendants

In its Feb. 27 release, APD said the felony littering charges, which some attorneys have called "absurd," were the result of a two-month investigation.

"Activists dumped thousands of pounds of garbage in Aston Park during a protest which they described as a family art event," the release said. "The abandoned property included furniture, a kitchen sink, and tires, among many other items."

The trial of Coit and Bliss was set to begin Nov. 21 but has been continued twice, once until Jan. 25 and then again until April 19.

Bliss and Coit are charged with misdemeanor second-degree trespassing. Classified as a Class 3 misdemeanor, the charges carry a penalty of up to 20 days in jail or a $200 fine.

What's in the footage?

A viewing of the first few hours of posted videos, of which there are more than 10 hours, shows footage beginning before 10 p.m., when the park closed, and ending after 11 p.m.

About 14 officers appear in the footage, according to the city attorney's office, many capturing different angles and perspectives of the same window of time.

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As two officers approach the scene in video four, the beginning of a 50 minute clip, bodycam show eight cop cars lining the drive outside Aston Park, streetlamps flooding the grass in an off-yellow light. In earlier footage, about a dozen tents cluster on the hillside.

Though there is much back and forth between people in the video and officers, after being informed of the clearing, and at least one individual being roused from sleep, many people begin to pack up their tents and supplies and leave.

The arrests of the journalists can be seen in various clips, but Bliss' arrest is detailed clearly in video two, beginning at minute 20:33 of the video, taken at about 10:30 p.m., according to the footage's time stamp.

As officers speak to Bliss, she is on the fringes of the field where the tents were set up, standing alone. As Lt. Mike McClanahan, who is wearing the camera in the video, tells Bliss several times if she does not leave the park, she is trespassing. Bliss also repeats that she is a member of the press, covering the event.

"Are you leaving, yes or no?" he asked her.

"Clearly, I have marked identification as press," Bliss said.

"Clearly," McClanahan answered, "you are trespassing."

Bliss was arrested, alone except for officers, in Aston Park's gazebo. From the lip of the building, a sheet hung, reading, "Stop the Sweeps." Bliss's press badge can be seen around her neck.

Video of Coit's arrest can be clearly seen in video four, beginning at the about 4:07 minute mark. An officer asks Coit to leave the park repeatedly. As with Bliss, Coit also identifies themselves as press and says they are "covering a story."

In McClanahan's video, it appears Coit and Bliss are the first two people arrested. Four others were also arrested, dragged out of tents after refusing to pack up and leave on their own. Subsequently, all but Bliss and Coit were also charged with resisting a public officers.

Of the footage, N.C. ACLU staff attorney Muneeba S. Talukder said it was clear the journalists identified themselves as press several times, "and the journalists were not obstructing the police in any way."

"It’s really troubling that the police decided to arrest them for trespass and even more troubling that these journalists are now being prosecuted for trespass charges," she said.

'Let's do the standing ones first'

Seth Stern, director of advocacy for Freedom of the Press Foundation, a New York-based nonprofit, said the afternoon of Feb. 27, while he was still working his way through the footage, he flagged a moment at 17:25 of video two.

Freedom of the Press Foundation is among the organizations that petitioned for the release of the footage.

In the video, officers are discussing whether to "deal with" the people in the tents first, or those standing, which Stern interpreted to be a reference to Bliss and Coit, who were observing the officers nearby.

"... the tents, I'll deal with the standing in a minute," McClanahan said in reference to where to start making further contact.

The officer beside him said, "Why don't we deal with the standing first because they're videotaping?"

About three minute later, both Bliss and Coit are arrested.

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"The videos reveal what we've known since that night," Bliss said in a Feb. 27 email to the Citizen Times, "that Blade journalists were specifically, deliberately targeted and arrested for doing their jobs, that cops dragged locals out of tents and that the APD repeatedly refused to follow their own 7-day notice rule and insisted on sweeping a camp on (C)hristmas night."

Stern said the video raises two separate questions: whether police had the legal right to arrest reporters, and even if they do, should they?

Stern argues the arrests were not legal, because "even generally applicable laws cannot be used to go after the press for exercising constitutional rights, and now there's video evidence that reporters were targeted specifically for recording."

Typically, he said, even when journalists are arrested, the charges are later dropped, such as recent incidents in East Palestine, Ohio, when a reporter was arrested while filming a live report, or Phoenix, where a reporter was detained.

“Either of those places, Phoenix and East Palestine, could have claimed they were enforcing laws of general applicability, and they could have wasted a bunch of taxpayer money testing out that theory in court, but they had enough sense and enough respect for first amendment freedoms to not do that," Stern said.

"So it’s disturbing and striking that Asheville, which markets itself as this progressive oasis in the South, wants to distinguish itself as the place where journalists are tried for doing their jobs at a public park.”

Sarah Honosky is the city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News Tips? Email shonosky@citizentimes.com or message on Twitter at @slhonosky. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Watch now: Asheville police release bodycam from Aston Park protests