A documentary by AJ Schnack, the director of "Escalation," explores a trend of police attacks on journalists. The film, which is part of the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival, explores the militarization of police response to protests after the death of Michael Brown in 2014. The director points out that police often target citizens, as well as those covering the demonstrations. The statistics show that in 2019, there were 42 assaults against media members, compared to 653 in 2020. While this has decreased since then, it is still high: 193 such incidents in 2025, and at least 58 in 2026 due to Operation Metro Surge and other immigration-enforcement actions. The criticism of the press is not limited to the executive branch, with President Donald Trump contributing to this toxicity with his first term.