Suits: Journalist assaulted, denied help during Renton’s ‘Drag Queen Story Time’ event
Dec 12, 2022, 6:20 PM | Updated: Oct 1, 2024, 6:11 am
(Photo courtesy of Jonathan Choe's Twitter)
(Photo courtesy of Jonathan Choe's Twitter)
Rumors of protests against Renton’s Brewmaster’s Taproom “Drag Queen Story Time” event hung over the beer hall last week — crescendoing in a Wednesday afternoon pellet gun attack, shattering a window — but the event nearly occurred without a hitch.
Nearly.
Katie Daviscourt, a journalist for Rebel News, was on scene on Saturday, filming a news report and B-roll of the event, before she was swarmed by participants with umbrellas.
Gay rights activists gather in support of ‘Drag Queen Story Time’ in Renton
“I was pushing my luck. I’ll be honest, a little bit at that point. I said, ‘listen, I have no problem leaving, I have no plans to stay today. I just want to get a picture for my report and leave.’ And they’re all mobbing me with their umbrellas as I was crossing the street,” Daviscourt said on The Bryan Suits Show on KTTH 770 AM. “And that’s when an Antifa militant came up from behind me, grabbed my arm, threw my phone to the ground, and then grabbed my phone and ran away with it.”
When she went to the nearest person for help, a reporter with KING 5 failed to oblige.
“He said, ‘that’s not me. You got to figure it out yourself,'” Daviscourt said. “After he denied me, I just felt so helpless in that moment. He wouldn’t let me use his phone, mocked me, and just denied me complete basic human decency at that point. I don’t live in Renton. I don’t know the area. I was left without a phone. I was in an extremely vulnerable position.”
Daviscourt stated there was “no way” multiple reporters and event participants did not witness the crime. One of the reporters at the scene was Jonathan Choe, a journalist and Senior Fellow with Discovery Institute’s Center on Wealth and Poverty.
SPEECHLESS: This is a new low. There is a code among journalists to get each other’s backs in the field. But this @KING5Seattle photog does not even allow @KatieDaviscourt to use his phone to call 911, while the FAR LEFT/ANTIFA loser mocks Katie. Unreal. pic.twitter.com/XPvlT5tcxB
— Jonathan Choe Journalist (@choeshow) December 11, 2022
Daviscourt said she was very thankful for Choe being there, who not only recorded the confrontation between her and the KING 5 reporter, but also was the only one willing to lend her a phone to call the police.
“Police presence actually matters, and I’ve been covering this beat since 2018,” Daviscourt said. “When there’s police on the scene, hardly any assaults or anything happens. But you know, it’s a hard beat, it’s an important beat, and Antifa, now they get to do whatever they want, because there’s no pushback from from authorities. They act with impunity.”
Twitter has even de-platformed and removed left-wing accounts identified as “Antifa” sites since Elon Musk’s takeover, according to The Intercept.
Antifa, a contraction of the phrase ‘anti-fascist,’ is a network of far-left militants that oppose what they believe are fascist, racist, or right-wing extremists, according to The Center for Strategic and International Studies.
More from Bryan Suits: Is blaring music outside an encampment unfair?
Daviscourt has crossed paths with Antifa before, as last May, she was allegedly assaulted by members of an Antifa mob in Seattle while covering a local protest.
Violent ANTIFA militants assaulted video journalist @KatieDaviscourt today at a May Day direct action in Seattle
— Drew Hernandez (@DrewHLive) May 2, 2022
“We’re hiring a lawyer. We’re going to have them talk to the police,” Daviscourt said. “And we’re going to get all this surveillance footage and actually go at this hard because it’s time to actually start pushing back and fighting against what’s happening to journalists trying to report on events here.”
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