What is "press" anyway?

I thought long and hard before commenting on this video. 

https://youtu.be/st4VFoQIFLQ

The fact that I had pause because of fear of retaliation is the very reason my conscience compels me to speak up. And it took me so long to craft my comment that I felt it deserved it's own post, since my response is one of 8k on the original posting. 

"Oregon's reporter's privilege extends to every person engaged in any medium of newsgathering." (Rcfp. Org) Police Officers are employed to uphold the law not usurp due process. When Portland Police attack Press they do so in violation of Oregon State Statutes and The United States Constitution. PPB have continued to harass and abuse not only members of the community but news gathering persons engaged in the transmission of information to the public. 

It is not for Police to decide who is and isn't Press. With the rise of citizen journalism the definition of press has evolved with the times. One need not be employed by a major news outlet to transmit news to the world. And, with the technological advances in cell phones, it allows journalists to use phones for transmission instead of carrying a lot of bulky camera equipment. 

In fact, in 2015, a feature length film "Tangerine"won  an award at Sundance and it was shot entirely with iPhones. The officers assertion in the video that "you can't get out there with your cell phone and call yourself press" illustrates his lack of knowledge and training. He doesn't get to decide who is press and who isn't based on his limited experience and world view. And neither do any other police officers. 

I've observed Portland Police destroy personal property, attack and gravely injure unarmed people, instruct the crowd to disperse in a direction and then surround those following the directions and arrest them indiscriminately, use tear gas and smoke in neighborhoods, threaten and bully residents in their own yards, refuse to identify themselves to detainees, make racist and sexist remarks, unnecessarily touch female arrest victims, brutally beat people until they are bloody and break people's bones. 

ORS 166.015 is so ambiguous that the police can call a gathering of five people in a park a "riot" if one of them jaywalks. And that's what I've observed and recorded them doing, night after night after night. Last Thursday they arrested multiple people who were literally standing peacefully in the street and broke a woman's hand. Last weekend they arbitrarily called "riot" and tear gassed a children's elementary school and then terrorized residents shouting at them to "stay inside or be arrested". 

They yelled at a street medic on their way out of a neighborhood to "make good choices" in a mocking tone while hanging off the side of a riot van. 

I am in shock and utter disbelief every time I go out to gather footage or interview people... As a Portlander and as a member of the media. It saddens me and I wonder why more of my peers don't speak out. Many have greater reach than I do and they could shed light on the true happenings of this civil rights movement... Yet they don't. And I am again reminded that I watched this video interview and sat for more than an hour trying to decide if I should comment or not, so I can't blame anyone else for doing the same.