LAPD treatment of journalists in protests once again under scrutiny

Abraham Márquez, a journalist from the Southlander non-profit investigative start-up, turned a tense confrontation between the Sheriff’s deputies of the County of Los Angeles and the immigrant rights demonstrators on Saturday evening when he saw a deputy vice assistant to a “less lethal” launcher in his direction.

Feeling a confrontation, Márquez said, he raised his press diplomas and “continued to shout, to the press, to the press”, even though he turned and began to run in the opposite direction. He barely made a few meters before feeling pungent pain like a first foam, then another slammed in his buttocks and his back.

“They have just unloaded,” he said about deputies.

It was almost hit again shortly afterwards, when the deputies leading to a armored vehicle sprayed foam tours in a gas station where Márquez and a team of new KTLA-TV had sought a blanket, he said. He was shaken, but said he felt forced to continue to report.

“I was touched and so on, but I’m happy to be there to document it,” he said.

The incident was one of the dozens in which journalists have been slaughtered with less lethal police, tears with tears, thrusts and detained while distorting civilian disorders and the current military intervention in the second largest city in the country, according to interviews and video sequences examined by Times.

Police actions have aroused an angry conviction against civil servants and defenders of the 1st amendment. There have been several cases reported by journalists not only struck by projectiles, but also to search for their bags, to be threatened with arrest and to be blocked in the areas where they had a right under the law of the State to observe the police activity.

Among the people affected by police projectiles, there were several times journalists during the coverage of demonstrations in downtown Los Angeles in recent days.

The Department of Sheriff of the County of LAPD and the Comté de la A faces criticism and proceedings on their treatment of the media during past crises, but some covering recent events say that the situation has only won the inflammatory anti-media messages from the Trump White House.

“The price of freedom of expression should not be so high,” said Arturo Carmona, president and publisher of Caló News, an information site that covers questions that matter for English -speaking Latinos. “Several of our journalists, many of whom are women of color, have been harassed and attacked by the police.”

In a large -scale case, a CNN journalist was briefly owned by officers while he was lively segment.

In another, Australian journalist TV News, Lauren Tomasi, was shot dead by a less lethal turn by a riot officer dressed a few moments after having finished a live segment live. The incident has become an international affair, Australian Prime Minister Tony Albanian calling him “horrible”.

The mayor of Karen Bass said that he “sent a terrible message”, and several members of the municipal council referred to him when the head of FACD Jim McDonnell was referred on Tuesday to his department’s response to demonstrations.

LAPD spokesperson Jennifer Forkish said that the department “supports the essential role of a free press and remains determined to guarantee that journalists can safely and legally cover public events, including demonstrations and demonstrations”. His officers are continuously trained throughout their career on the rights granted to journalists working in the field and have given “clear advice” on “the identification and verification of media members” and allowing the freedom of their movement even when dispersion orders are given.

“At the same time, we recognize that real -time challenges – such as the scale and volatility of demonstrations, spontaneous crowd changes and the presence of individuals wrongly being members of the media – can complicate the application of these policies on the ground,” she said in a press release.

In a press release, the Sheriff department said it was examining video sequences from several incidents involving information media to determine whether one of its deputies was involved.

The ministry said that it was “determined to maintain an open and transparent relationship with the media and guarantee that journalists can exercise their functions in complete safety, especially during demonstrations, acts of civil disobedience and public gatherings”.

“Our goal is to support press freedom while confirming public security and operational integrity,” the statement said.

Deputy chief of the LAPD, Michael Rimkunas, said that two of the approximately 15 complaints on which the ministry was investigating on Tuesday involved any ill -treatment of journalists – a number that should grow in the coming days and weeks.

Rimkunas said the ministry decided to launch an investigation into the Tomasi incident in itself, but has since been in contact with the Australian consulate.

A coalition of 27 press advocacy groups and civil freedoms wrote on Tuesday to the Secretary of Internal Security, Kristi Kristi, “to express his alarm that federal officers may have violated the rights of the first amendment of journalists covering recent demonstrations and disorders related to the application of immigration in the Los Angeles region”.

Several journalists who covered the demonstrations told Times that officers and deputies used physical strength or threat of arrest to remove them from the areas where they have the right to be.

In doing so, journalists said the police ignored the protections established by state law for journalists covering the demonstrations, as well as the policies of their own services adopted after mass demonstrations after the murder of George Floyd in 2020 and on the elimination of a homeless camp in Echo Park in 2021.

On Saturday, journalist Ben Camacho document the scene in Paramount, where images of people vandalizing and burning cars dominated nighttime television. Dressed in his press pass and with a camera suspended around his neck, he looked in shock while the police opened fire on the crowd with less lethal ammunition, hitting Nick Stern, a British press photographer, who collapsed on the ground.

After helping to bring the stern to security, Camacho said he was also struck by a turn in the ball joint.

“I’m starting to shout almost at the top of my lungs,” he said. “It was like a hammer.”

He has noted that many people are working on independent contracts that do not offer medical insurance, and said that agents sometimes burst journalists with skills in small independent points of sale, who have an important role in monitoring events in the field.

Some police officials – who were not allowed to speak publicly – said the police were doing their best to welcome journalists, but the situation in the street involves decisions fraught in a chaotic environment where they find themselves attacked. They also argue that journalists from new points of sale or those who publish mainly on social media are revealed in an adversary or conflictual way towards the officers.

Los Angeles Press Club Press’s Rights President Adam Rose said he had perceived examples of local, state and federal agencies violating the rights of journalists – apparently ignoring learned lessons and promises made the wake of past demonstrations.

Rose has said that many incidents had been documented in videos that journalists themselves have published on social networks. Wednesday morning, the count was 43 years and counted.

The ill -treatment of journalists during the recent demonstrations are part of a “ugly treatment story by the police,” said Rose, which included the murder in 1970 of one of the main voices of the Latino media in the city, Ruben Salazar, who had covered a chicano rights demonstration when he was struck by a gastronomy cabbage dismissed by a deputy of Sheriff.

Even in cases where police abuses are well documented on video, the discipline of mistakes in faults is rare, said Rose.

With diving income leading to the reduction of the reductions of many inherited editorial rooms, a new generation of citizen journalists has played a vital role in the coverage of communities across the country-their report is as protected as their consumer counterparts, he said.

“The reality is that the police are not the one who is authorized to decide who is the press,” he said.

Some major companies have been hired to be hired for protection details for their journalists on the ground, largely in response to aggressive crowds.

On Saturday, the Daily News journalist Ryanne Mena was struck by a projectile drawn by the police during a demonstration in Paramount.

She was not sure if it was a lacrymogenic gas cartridge or less lethal ammunition, but said that she had then asked for medical treatment and that she had been diagnosed with a concussion. The day before, she was struck by another projectile as she brought in the city center outside the prison, she said.

Covering some previous demonstrations had taught him to always be aware of his environment and to “never have my back towards anyone with a weapon”.

“It is still a little incredible that it happened,” she said about her concussion. “It is unacceptable that this happened that other journalists have been targeted.”

Times Connor Sheets and David Zahnister staff editors contributed to this report.