LAPD treatment of journalists in protests once again under scrutiny

Abraham Márquez, a correspondent of Southlander’s reporter of Southlander, who was a non -profit investigation news, was a stance of a “less deadly” launcher among the deputies of Los Angeles County Sharif in Paramount on Saturday night.

Márquez, who perceived a confrontation, raised the press identity and started to run in the opposite direction, even if he turned to the opposite direction, he said, “Press, press, press, press, press,” he said. He made a few meters before he felt a first foam tour, and then another hit his hips and back.

“They were just evacuated,” MPs said.

After a short time, it was almost again shot, when an armored vehicle was sprayed in foam tours, when Márquez and a KTLA-TV news team are looking for a cover, when a gas station entered the parking lot. Shaken, but said it was forced Continue reporting.

“I shot and not, but I’m happy to be there to document,” he said.

According to the interviews and video images reviewed by The Times, it was one of the dozens in which journalists were shot, torn, pushed and detained with less deadly police tours.

Police actions made angry condemnation from public officials and defenders of the 1st. Not only were they shot by bullets, but also have been reported to be reported because they were threatened with arrest, arrest and blocked from the areas that had the right to observe police activities.

Among those shot by the police bullets, there were journalists several times in the last few days, while involving protests in LA city center.

The Lapd and La County Sheriff Department encountered criticisms and cases that they were treated for news media during the past crises, but some of the last events, the situation, said that the situation worsened with the inflammatory anti-media messaging from the Trump White House.

“Free speech price should not be so high,” said Arturo Carmona, president and publisher of Caló News, a news site that covers problems that are important for Latins. “Some of our journalists, many of which were colorful women, were harassed and attacked by law enforcement officers.”

In a high -profile case, a CNN correspondent was briefly detained by civil servants, while making a vibrant segment.

In another, the Australian TV news reporter Lauren Tomasi was hit by a less deadly tour by a revolt -toothed officer moments after wrapping a vibrant segment. The incident became an international relationship, and Australian Prime Minister Tony Albanian calls it “terrible.”

La Mayor Karen Bass said that he had sent a terrible message, and a few members of the City Assembly talked about the reaction of the Lapd chief Jim McDonnell on Tuesday about his reaction to the protests.

LAPD spokesman Jennifer Forkish said that the department supports the basic role of a free press and to ensure that journalists can handle public activities safely and legally, including protests and demonstrations, ”he said. The officers are constantly trained to the rights granted to journalists working in the field throughout their careers and allow the freedom of movement even when they are given to the identification and verification of media members ”and distribution orders.

“At the same time, we acknowledge that the scale and volatility of demonstrations, spontaneously crowded changes and the presence of individuals who claim to be members of the media may make it difficult to implement these policies in this field,” he said.

The Sheriff Department said in a statement that he had reviewed video images from various events containing the news media to determine whether any of the deputies were involved.

The department said, iz To maintain an open and transparent relationship with the media and that journalists can safely perform their duties during protests, civil disobedience actions and public meetings ”.

“Our aim is to support the freedom of press while maintaining public security and operational integrity,” he said.

LAPD Vice President Michael Rimkunas said that two of the 15 complaints exposed by the department on Tuesday, which is expected to grow in the coming days and weeks, said that journalists, a number that is expected to grow, said.

Rimkunas said he decided to start an investigation into the Tomasi incident of the episode, but since then he was in contact with the Australian Consulate.

27 A coalition of press and civilian freedom groups wrote to US Internal Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Tuesday that he might have violated the right to change the right to change the first protests and unrest on the immigration practices of Federal officials in the Los Angeles region ”.

More than one journalist, including protests, told Times that civil servants and MPs used the threat of physical power or arrest and used them to remove them from the areas they have the right to be.

In doing so, journalists said that he accepted the protection of the police by the state law for journalists covering protests, and his own departments accepted after the mass protests after the murder of George Floyd in 2020 and after the cleaning of a homeless camp in Echo Park in 2021.

On Saturday, journalist Ben Camacho documented the scene in Paramount, where the cars that destroyed and burned people dominated the night news. With a camera wearing the press crossing and hanging around his neck, law enforcement officers opened fire on the crowd with less deadly ammunition, and opened fire on the British news photographer Nick Stern, who descended to the place in front of him.

After helping to move Stern to security, Camacho said he was shot in a round of kneeling.

Orum I’m starting to scream on top of my lungs, ”he said. “It was like a sledgehammer.”

He said that many people are working on free contracts that do not offer health insurance, and that civil servants sometimes put aside journalists with identity information from smaller independent sales points, which have an important role in monitoring the events on the ground.

Some police officials, who are not authorized to speak publicly, said that civil servants did their best to host journalists, but the situation on the street contained divided seconds in a chaotic environment in which they see that they were attacked. They also claim that the new sales points, or first of all those who send to social media act by contentious or conflicting ways against civil servants.

Los Angeles Press Club Press Rights President Adam Rose said that he collected examples of civil servants from local, state and federal agencies who violate the rights of journalists – and his promises aroused past protests.

Rose said that most of the events were documented in videos published by journalists on social media. On Wednesday morning, the installment was 43 years old and counting.

The abuse of journalists in the last protests is a part of the “History of Ugly Treatment by the Police ,, Rose is a part of the murder of Ruben Salazar, one of the Chicano Protests of Chicano Rights Protests, when it was shot by a sheriff of 1970 by a sheriff.

Rose is rare, even when police abuses are well documented in the video, the discipline of disturbing officers.

A new generation citizen journalist, which led to the shrinkage of many former news rooms, took a vital role in covering the country -wide communities – his reports were as protected as their mainstream colleagues.

“The truth is that the police are not those who decide who is the press,” he said.

Some major news companies, in response to the aggressive crowd to a large extent, began to hire protective details for reporters in the field.

On Saturday, La Daily News correspondent Ryanne Mena was hit by a bullet fired by law enforcement officers during a demonstration in Paramount.

He was not sure whether he was a tear gas tin or less deadly engineer, but then he was looking for medical treatment and he said he was diagnosed with shaking. He reported the city center outside the prison the day before he was hit by another bullet.

Covering a few previous protests, he always taught him to pay attention to his environment and to “never take my back to an armed person”.

“It is still incredible to be this,” he said. “The target of other journalists is unacceptable.”

Times personnel writers Connor Sheets and David Zahniser contributed to this report.