Multiple members of the media have been injured by nonlethal rounds fired by law enforcement while covering dayslong protests over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Los Angeles, prompting the Committee to Protect Journalists to sound an alarm about the intimidation of reporters.
Authorities braced for a fifth day of demonstrations on June 10, with President Donald Trump ordering the National Guard and members of the U.S. Marine Corps in a show of force against unrest. The administration’s stepping in has also ignited a clash between local leaders, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and the federal government.
As officers use force against protesters, some journalists reporting on the melee have been caught by nonlethal rubber rounds and other projectiles. Adam Rose, the secretary of the Los Angeles Press Club, has documented more than 30 incidents of reporters, photographers and other media professionals impacted by police actions that range from searching a journalist’s bag to firing tear gas or rubber bullets at them. In one viral video, an officer appears to aim and take fire at Australian reporter Lauren Tomasi, who yelped in pain when she was hit in the leg.
More: Australian journalist shot with nonlethal bullet while reporting on LA protests
The committee, which advocates for press freedom and documents cases of journalists who are killed, imprisoned or missing, said it was “greatly concerned” by the reports of officers’ shooting nonlethal rounds at reporters on the ground.
“Any attempt to discourage or silence media coverage by intimidating or injuring journalists should not be tolerated,” Katherine Jacobsen, program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean, said in a statement. “It is incumbent upon authorities to respect the media’s role of documenting issues of public interest.”
The Los Angeles Police Department and the California Highway Patrol didn’t immediately respond to a USA TODAY inquiry on the injured journalists. The department told the Committee to Protect Journalists it will investigate the incidents.
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Journalists injured by rubber bullets, other nonlethal rounds
Tomasi, the Australian reporter, was sore after being hit by the rubber bullet but otherwise unharmed, her employer Australia’s 9News said.
British freelance photographer Nick Stern had to undergo emergency surgery after also being hit in the leg with a nonlethal round, he told the BBC. Stern said he was covering the protests in Los Angeles on June 8 when he was hit by a 3-inch “plastic bullet,” BBC reported. He said he was wearing his press credentials and wearing a big camera around his neck.
“There was something hard sticking out of the back of my leg and my leg was getting wet from blood,” he told the outlet. Stern told BBC protesters helped carry him away from the “danger area” and a medic applied a tourniquet.
“I intend, as soon as I am well enough, to get back out there,” he told BBC. “This is too important and it needs documenting.”
A New York Post photographer was also hit with a rubber bullet in the head, the outlet reported. Toby Canham was standing just off the 101 freeway in Los Angeles the evening of June 8 “when a California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer suddenly turned his weapon toward him and fired from about 100 yards away,” the Post reported. He went to the hospital for whiplash and neck pain and had a bruise on his forehead.
“It’s a real shame. I completely understand being in the position where you could get injured, but at the same time, there was no justification for even aiming the rifle at me and pulling the trigger, so I’m a bit pissed off about that, to be honest,” Canham said.
Officers also shot Ryanne Mena, a reporter with the Southern California News Group, with pepper ball bullets, which contain a chemical akin to pepper spray, she said in a post on social media.
Police briefly detained CNN correspondent Jason Carroll while he was on the air covering protests on June 9. In-studio anchors briefly lost contact with Carroll, who could be seen being led away by LAPD officers with hands behind his back. An officer can be heard telling Carroll: “We’re letting you go. You can’t come back. If you come back, you will be arrested.”
“You take a lot of risks as press. This is low on that scale of risks, but it is something that I wasn’t expecting, simply because we’ve been out here all day,” Carroll said. “I’ve covered any number of protests, and normally the officers realize that the press is there doing a job.”
What’s happening in LA protests
Protests began on June 6 in response to the Trump administration’s crackdown with immigration raids in Southern California. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is carrying out a directive from Trump to find immigrants living in the United States without legal status. Protests have sprung up against the sweeps the agency is carrying out in various neighborhoods.
The protests began largely peacefully after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sweeps near Los Angeles resulted in more than 40 arrests, but flared up when heavily armed, masked agents raided Los Angeles businesses. For several days, the demonstrations have grown and turned chaotic and sometimes violent, with police and protesters clashing in the streets.
A tense standoff unfolded between the administration and California authorities, who say the use of the National Guard and U.S. Marines is an unlawful subversion of Newsom’s authority.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called Trump’s escalation of military presence a “deliberate attempt to create disorder and chaos in our city.”
On Monday, LAPD said protesters threw objects at officers near the federal courthouse, prompting use of gas canisters and other munitions. Bass said over 100 people were arrested Monday night, blaming “fringe groups” for violence.
Contributing: Thao Nguyen, John Bacon, Greta Cross and Taijuan Moorman, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: LA immigration protests: Multiple journalists injured by police rounds
