Police arrested a photographer who was documenting the anti-deportation protest at the Gary/Chicago International Airport Saturday.
Matthew Kaplan, a well-known photographer from Chicago who had exhibited his work widely across Northwest Indiana, was arrested along with two protesters at the demonstration.
Kaplan, a 69-year-old Whiting native, often photographs industrial scenes in Northwest Indiana depicting refineries, steel mills and other heavy industries. His work has been widely exhibited in Chicago, including at the Field Museum, an Art Design Chicago exhibit and ARTery_SE. He also has exhibited in many Northwest Indiana venues, including South Shore Arts and the Marshall J. Gardner Center for the Arts.
He also often photographs protests in and around Chicago.
"I'm from Northwest Indiana. I take an interest in anything going on in the Region. So if I hear there's a protest going on in the Region, I try extra hard to get there," he said.
Kaplan said he was photographing protestors who got off the South Shore Line train station, marched down U.S. 12 to the airport and protested deportations.
"They had signs like 'no humans are illegal' and 'education, not deportation,'" he said. "They went to the airport, spent about 10 minutes there, tried to hang up a banner on the fence, shouted back and forth with the airport and headed back to the South Shore tracks."
Gary Police did not respond to requests for comment.
Gary Police Department Cmdr. Jack Hamady previously told the Times that officers made arrests after protestors were marching down Airport Road, blocking traffic, and refused to move off the road.
No police were present at the protest at the airport but about 10 to 15 police cars started to follow the protestors as they marched away, Kaplan said. Police ordered the protesters to get off the road and then started making arrests when they got onto the grassy shoulder, he said.
Kaplan said he was photographing protesters being arrested when an officer came behind him, grabbed him and arrested him while he was taking pictures. He said he had professional cameras with large lenses that made it clear he was a photographer.
He said he was locked up at the Gary Police Station for two hours before he was released on his own recognizance. He's slated to be arraigned in court Wednesday on charges of disorderly conduct, criminal trespass and resisting law enforcement.
"I spent two hours in a cell by myself when I hadn't done anything wrong," he said. "I've covered many demonstrations in Chicago and never come close to being arrested. They tell me to get away and I get away."
He said he never heard any orders to move and was clearly there as a photographer. He posts his protest photography on social media, has sold pictures and sometimes freelances for media outlets.
"In my experience, the police yell at you to get away and you get away," he said. "I had two pretty good cameras. It should have been obvious I was a serious photographer documenting an event."
Fellow photographer Lisa Kiselevich took a series of photos capturing Kaplan's arrest.
"The policeman grabbed him from behind and arrested him," she said. "He was concentrating on his shots, shooting the image. I got his cameras and was walking away and the policeman was walking behind me saying, 'I'll arrest you too.'"
Kiselevich said it was clear that Kaplan was a photographer and not a protestor.
"He had two professional cameras with big lens and a monopod," she said. "All he was doing was taking photos. He wasn't chanting. He wasn't doing anything else. He just does documentaries as a photojournalist. He doesn't chant with them. He doesn't resist. He's not participating. He's always just a photographer."
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has flown deportation flights out of the Gary airport since 2013, leading to many protests over the years. The protest Saturday was one of many "festival of resistance" demonstrations nationally protesting the mass deportations expected under a new administration.
"I'm hopeful that everything will turn out okay, but there are people who are more fearful now about what will happen that is worse than what I went through in that cell," he said.
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