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Abraham Marquez, a reporter for nonprofit investigative news startup Southlander, was filming a tense confrontation between Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies and immigration rights protesters on Saturday night.
Feeling the conflict, Marquez said he raised his press credentials and “continued to scream for reporting, reporting, reporting, reporting,” even as he turned and began to run in the opposite direction. He made it almost a few feet before he felt a stinging pain as the first one form round.
“They were just dropped off,” he said of the agent.
He was attacked again a little later. He got on an armored vehicle and sprayed foam, then curled up into the car park at the gas station where Marquez and the KTLA-TV news crew were seeking cover. He said he felt shaken but forced to continue his reporting.
“I took a hit, but I’m glad I was there to document it,” he said.
The incident was one of dozens of journalists who were shot dead, shed tears, seduced, and shot dead and detained in a non-fatal police round, according to interviews and video footage reviewed by the era.
Police actions elicited angry accusations from civil servants and First Amendment advocates. There have been multiple reported cases in which reporters were not only struck by projectiles, but were also searched for bags, threatened with arrests and blocked from areas they have rights under state law to observe police activities.
Among those attacked by police projectiles were several reporters in the process of covering protests in downtown LA over the past few days.
While the LAPD and the LA County Sheriff’s Office have faced criticism and lawsuits over the treatment of news media during past crises, those who cover recent events have only been exacerbated by inflammatory anti-media messaging from the Trump White House.
“The price of free speech isn’t this high,” said Arturo Carmona, president and publisher of CaroNews, a news site that covers issues that are important for English-speaking Latinos. “Some of our reporters are women of color and are being harassed and attacked by law enforcement.”
In one well-known case, the CNN reporter was temporarily detained by an officer while conducting a live-on-air segment.
The other is Australian television news reporter Laurent Masi was shot in the leg by a less-than-fatal round by an officer who overturned riot gear after closing out the Live-on-air segment. The incident became an international event, and Australian Prime Minister Tony Albanese called it “terrifying.”
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La Mayor Karen Bass said he would “send a terrible message,” and several city councillors referenced LAPD chief Jim McDonnell on Tuesday as they grilled about his department’s response to the protest.
LAPD spokesman Jennifer Faulksch said the department “supports the essential role of the Free Press and is committed to ensuring journalists have safe and legal coverage of public events, including protests and demonstrations.” The officers are continuously trained throughout their careers on the rights granted to journalists working on the field, giving them “clear guidance” on “identifying and verifying media members,” allowing freedom of movement even when distributed orders are given.
At the same time, we acknowledge that real-time challenges, such as the scale and volatility of demonstrations, the voluntary crowd change, and the presence of individuals who falsely claim to be members of the media, can complicate the application of these policies on the ground,” she said in a statement.
In a statement, the Sheriff’s Office said it has reviewed video footage from several incidents involving news media to determine whether their deputies are involved.
The department said it was “committed to maintain open and transparent relationships with the media and to ensure that journalists can safely perform their duties during protests, acts of civil disobedience and public gatherings.”
“Our goal is to support freedom of the press while supporting public safety and operational integrity,” the statement said.
LAPD Deputy Director Michael Limkunas said two of the roughly 15 complaints the department had investigated as of Tuesday were likely to be abused by journalists.
Rimkunas said the department has decided to begin an investigation into the Tomasi case on its own, but has since been in contact with the Australian Consulate.
A coalition of 27 press and civil liberty advocacy groups wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Christie Noem on Tuesday “to express a warning that it may have violated the journalist’s initial right to amendment covering recent protests and anxiety related to immigration enforcement in the Los Angeles area.”
Multiple journalists who covered the protest told the Times that officers and deputies would use physical force or threats of arrest to remove them from the area they have rights to.
In doing so, the journalists said police ignored the protections established by the state laws of journalists covering protests. They also adopted the policy of their own sector, which was adopted after the murder of George Floyd in 2020 and the mass protests beyond the clearance of a homeless camp at Echo Park in 2021.
On Saturday, journalist Ben Camacho was documenting the Paramount scene. There, images of people destroyed cars, and burning cars dominated the nightly newscast. He watched in shock as he wore his press pass, cameras hanging around his neck, law enforcement fired at the crowd with non-fatal ammunition, struck British news cameraman Nick Stern, smashing Nick Stern into the ground in front of him.
After helping to carry Stern safely, Camacho said he was also hit by the kneecap round.
“I almost started screaming at the top of my lungs,” he said. “It was like a sledgehammer.”
He said many people are working on freelance contracts that don’t provide medical insurance, and officers sometimes say they will sideline reporters who are eligible for smaller, independent outlets.
Some officers were not allowed to speak publicly – said officers were doing their best to deal with reporters, but said the situation on the streets includes a one-second decision in a chaotic environment where they feel they are being attacked. They also argue that journalists from new outlets, and journalists who post primarily on social media, act in hostile or confrontational ways to executives.
Adam Rose, the Los Angeles Press Club Press Rights Chair, said he is collecting examples of local, state and federal agency officers violating the rights of journalists.
Rose said many of the incidents were recorded in videos posted on social media by the journalists themselves. As of Wednesday morning, the tally was counted at age 43.
The abuse of journalists in recent protests is part of a “history of ugly treatment by the police,” Rose said. This covered Chicano’s rights protests in 1970 when one of the city’s leading Latino media voices, Reuben Salazar, was attacked by a tearroom canister, who was shot dead by an inspector.
Even when police abuse is well documented on video, discipline for problematic officers is rare, Rose said.
The surge in revenue that has led to downsizing many legacy newsrooms has played a key role in covering communities across the country. Their reports are as protected as their mainstream counterparts.
“The reality is that police are not the ones who are allowed to decide who is the press,” he said.
Several large news companies are working to hire protective details for reporters in this sector, primarily in response to offensive crowds.
On Saturday, LA Daily News reporter Ryanne Mena was hit in the head by a projectile fired by law enforcement during a demonstration at Paramount.
She wasn’t sure if it was a can of tear gas or a non-fatal ammunition, but later asked for treatment and said she was diagnosed with a concussion. She said the day before she was hit by another projectile on her thigh while she reported downtown outside the prison.
Covering some previous protests taught her to always be mindful of her surroundings and “not turn her back on those who carry the weapon.”
“It’s still incredible that it happened,” she said of the concussion. “It is unacceptable that other journalists were targeted.”
Times staff writers Connor Seat and David Zanizer contributed to this report.
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