Abraham Márquez, a journalist at the nonprofit investigative news startup Southlander, filmed a tense standoff between Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies and immigration rights protesters Saturday night in Paramount when he saw the deputy’s target was a “not too weak” launcher.
Max said feeling the confrontation, he raised his news certificate and “continue to shout news, the press, the news,” even as he turned around and started running in the opposite direction. He barely did a few feet before he felt pain as the first foam circle was then another slammed his hips and back.
“They just took it off,” he said of the delegate.
He said he was almost hit again soon after, when deputies rode foam into the gas station parking lot in armored vehicles, Márquez and KTLA-TV news personnel sought cover. He was shaken, but said he felt compelled to continue reporting.
“I was hit, but I'm glad I'm able to record it,” he said.
According to interviews and video footage reviewed by The New York Times, the incident was dozens of journalists shot, police tours, torn, stuffed and detained, while documenting ongoing civil unrest and military interventions, and conducting military interventions in the U.S. second-largest city.
Police actions have sparked angerous condemnation from public officials and First Amendment advocates. The reporter was reportedly not only hit by a projectile, but also searched his luggage, threatened to be arrested and blocked by state laws to observe police activities.
There have been several journalists among the people shot by police during protests in downtown Los Angeles in the past few days.
The LAPD and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department faced criticism and lawsuits for their handling of the news media during past crises, but some involved in recent events say the situation will only get worse due to inflammatory anti-Michigan news from the Trump White House.
“The price of free speech shouldn’t be that high,” said Arturo Carmona, president and publisher of Carlo News. “Several of our journalists, several of whom are women of color, were harassed and attacked by law enforcement.”
In a highly anticipated case, CNN reporters were briefly detained by officers while conducting live broadcasts.
In another, Australian TV News reporter Lauren Tomasi was shot by a riot's gear cavalry moment after the live broadcast that will be broadcast live. The incident became an international event, which Australian Prime Minister Tony Albanese called “terrible”.
“It conveyed a horrible message,” said La Mayor Karen Bass, who mentioned it while grilling LAPD director Jim McDonnell on Tuesday, his response to the department's response to the protests.
The Sheriff’s Department said in a statement it is reviewing videotapes of several incidents involving news media to determine whether any representatives were involved.
The department said it was “committed to maintain an open, transparent relationship with the media and to ensure that journalists can perform their duties safely, especially in the event of protests, civil disobedience and public gatherings.”
“Our goal is to support press freedom while maintaining public safety and operational integrity,” the statement said.
LAPD Deputy Director Michael Rimkunas said two of the approximately 15 complaints investigated by the department on Tuesday involved abuse of journalists – a number that is expected to grow in the coming days and weeks
Rimkunas said the department decided to start an investigation into the TOMASI incident itself, but has been in contact with the Australian consulate since then.
A coalition of 27 press and civil liberties organizations wrote to U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem on Tuesday, “To express an alert, federal officials may have violated First Amendment rights for journalists involved in recent protests and immigration enforcement.”
Several journalists covering the protest told The Times that officers and deputies used corpses and threats of arrest to evacuate them from areas with rights.
In doing so, the police ignored the protections that state law has laid out for journalists involved in protests and departmental policies adopted after George Floyd's 2020 murder case and 2021 mass protests following George Floyd's 2020 murder.
Journalist Ben Camacho was recording the scene in Paramount on Saturday, with images of people destroying and burning cars dominating the night news broadcast. He wore a media pass, a camera hanging around his neck, and watched in shock as law enforcement opened fire at the crowd with less deadly ammunition, hitting British news photographer Nick Stern, a British news photographer who collapsed on the ground in front of him.
After Camacho helped bring Stern to safety, he said he was also hit by a round in his knee.
“I started screaming in my lungs,” he said. “It's like a sledgehammer.”
He noted that many are signing free contracts that do not provide health insurance, and said officials sometimes abandon journalists with certificates from smaller independent channels, which plays a major role in surveillance on-site activities.
Some police officers who are not authorized to speak publicly said police would do their best to accommodate journalists, but the situation on the street involves momentary decisions in a chaotic environment where they find themselves under attack. They also believe that journalists from new media or people who post primarily on social media act in confrontational or confrontational official behavior.
Adam Rose, the rights president of the Los Angeles Press Club, said he has been collecting examples of officials from local, state and federal agencies that violate journalists’ rights – seemingly ignoring the lessons learned and promising to make past protests happen.
Ross said many of the incidents were recorded in videos posted by the reporters themselves on social media. As of Wednesday morning, Talley was 43 years old, counting.
Ross said the abuse of journalists in recent protests is part of the “history of ugly treatment of police officers.”
Ross said even in cases of police abuse recorded in detail in the video, the criminals were very little disciplined.
He said that with revenues that have led many traditional newsrooms to scale down, a new generation of citizen journalists has played a crucial role in communities covering all over the country—their reports are as protected as mainstream peers.
“The reality is that police are not allowed to decide who is the press,” he said.
Some of the larger news companies have hired protective details for their journalists in the field, primarily in response to radical populations.
LA Daily News reporter Ryanne Mena was hit by a projectile fired by law enforcement during a demonstration in Paramount on Saturday.
She wasn't sure it was a tear gas tank or a deadly ammunition, but she said she later sought medical treatment and was diagnosed with a concussion. She said the day before she hit her thigh while she was holding a downtown report outside the prison.
Covering some previous protests, she taught her to always be careful about her surroundings and “never hold my weapons against anyone”.
“What happened is still incredible,” she said of the concussion. “The goal of other journalists happening is unacceptable.”
Times worker Connor Bedsheets and David Zahniser contributed to the report.
