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{
"title": "Photojournalist shoved by DHS agent while covering LA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-shoved-by-dhs-agent-while-covering-la-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2026-04-21T14:05:05.059354Z",
"last_published_at": "2026-04-21T14:10:56.675866Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2026-04-21T14:10:56.578136Z",
"date": "2026-03-28",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"w-block-rich_text block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ydnn9\">Photojournalist Jill Connelly was forcefully pushed and almost knocked over by a federal agent while taking a photo at a protest in Los Angeles, California, on March 28, 2026.</p><p data-block-key=\"e572\">The protest followed a “No Kings” demonstration held earlier in the day in LA, <a href=\"https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/live/no-kings-protests-recap-more-than-8-million-turned-out-across-all-50-states-organizers-say-135920433.html\">one of thousands</a> across the U.S. that organizers said drew more than 8 million people against Trump administration policies.</p><p data-block-key=\"6bvia\">After the main march, people gathered outside downtown LA’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where immigrants are held, and the Roybal Federal Building, locations where many demonstrations have centered since sweeping immigration enforcement began in the city <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/la-protests-national-guard-trump.html\">in June 2025</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"8qe18\">Connelly, who was on assignment for The Associated Press, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was photographing Department of Homeland Security agents on top of a protester when one agent shoved her and tried to knock her down.</p><p data-block-key=\"fnahf\">“A few of them were saying, ‘Back up, back up.’ But this one guy ran up to me, and with all his weight, tried to knock me down while I was taking pictures,” she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"2jeqb\">She was wearing a helmet that said “press” on the front and back, and a clearly visible LA Police Department press credential around her neck.</p><p data-block-key=\"fuof\">Connelly said that later that evening, she was <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/police-officer-pushes-photojournalist-at-la-protest/\">pushed by an LAPD officer</a> who was moving people away from the protest, and was among a group of press who were forced far back from a group of demonstrators and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2026-03-28&date_upper=2026-03-29&city=los+angeles&arrest_status=DETAINED_NO_PROCESSING&categories=Arrest%2FCriminal+Charge\">journalists</a> that police had kettled in an area near the detention center. </p><p data-block-key=\"4otbe\">DHS did not respond to a request for comment.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Department_of_Homeland_Security_a.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"nxx18\">Department of Homeland Security agents restrain a protester near the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, California, on March 28, 2026. Photojournalist Jill Connelly was shoved by an agent while taking the photo.</p>",
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"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"Department of Homeland Security",
"immigration",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Jill Connelly (The Associated Press)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Journalist kettled, prevented from leaving LA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-kettled-prevented-from-leaving-la-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2026-04-08T18:13:01.132660Z",
"last_published_at": "2026-04-08T20:59:16.568177Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2026-04-08T20:59:16.427130Z",
"date": "2026-03-28",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"w-block-rich_text block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"i320i\">Journalist Mel Buer was caught in a kettle with journalists and threatened with arrest while documenting a protest in Los Angeles, California, on March 28, 2026. </p><p data-block-key=\"a3v8b\">The protest followed a “No Kings” demonstration held earlier in the day in LA, <a href=\"https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/live/no-kings-protests-recap-more-than-8-million-turned-out-across-all-50-states-organizers-say-135920433.html\">one of thousands</a> across the U.S. that organizers said drew more than 8 million people against Trump administration policies.</p><p data-block-key=\"bs0lv\">After the main march, people gathered outside downtown LA’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where immigrants are held, and the Roybal Federal Building, locations where many demonstrations have centered since sweeping immigration enforcement began in the city <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/la-protests-national-guard-trump.html\">in June 2025</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"dgvs5\">Buer told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was reporting at the federal detention center when Department of Homeland Security officers indiscriminately fired into the crowd with chemical irritants, which seeped behind her goggles.</p><p data-block-key=\"f65hh\">“I was kind of blind for a bit there and unable to see,” Buer recalled. Later that night, she noticed pepper ball residue on her shoes but did not recall feeling any impact from a projectile.</p><p data-block-key=\"8fag3\">Later, the LA Police Department called for a dispersal order and began making arrests. Officers formed a kettle, a tactic used to surround and control a crowd, and instructed credentialed press to leave the kettle and continue documenting from the sidewalk.</p><p data-block-key=\"7t3k9\">“They absolutely prevented us from doing our jobs,” Buer said.</p><p data-block-key=\"8pms4\">Buer and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2026-03-28&date_upper=2026-03-28&tags=kettle\">other journalists</a> stayed in the kettle to document the arrests, asserting their rights under California law, which allows members of the press to cover protests and exempts them from dispersal orders. It also protects them from arrest or interference by police while doing so. A <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-struck-with-baton-finger-injured-amid-protests-in-downtown-la/\">federal preliminary injunction</a> against the city is in place to uphold those protections.</p><p data-block-key=\"82g12\">“I would call the entire situation just confusing,” Buer said. “It seemed like not a single officer knew what the law said, what the protocol was, or how to handle the situation.”</p><p data-block-key=\"f6k7c\">In <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/shoton35mm.bsky.social/post/3midf7g74ac2y\">a video</a> that reporter Lexis-Olivier Ray, who was also in the kettle, posted to the social platform Bluesky, an officer points at him and tells him to leave the area.</p><p data-block-key=\"94nl6\">“We’re giving you an opportunity for legitimate media to leave, because we’re going to make arrests,” the officer said.</p><p data-block-key=\"1nfjt\">Ray replied, “But you’re not going to arrest media, are you?”</p><p data-block-key=\"3b1n4\">“Yes, we are. We gave you a dispersal order. We asked you to leave.”</p><p data-block-key=\"1tcfp\">The journalists were held in the kettle for at least 30 minutes, said Buer, who was eventually allowed to leave after police negotiated the exit of media with Adam Rose, press rights chair of the LA Press Club. Rose is also deputy director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, of which the Tracker is a project.</p><p data-block-key=\"6u0kq\">“I had a credential; they were checking credentials to let people leave, which again is illegal,” Buer told the Tracker. “You’re not required to have a press pass in order to be a member of the media in California.”</p><p data-block-key=\"d886c\">In a written <a href=\"https://www.lapdonline.org/newsroom/chief-of-police-statement-no-kings-3-0-protest-in-downtown-los-angeles-nr26067mb/\">statement shared April 2</a>, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said that police were responding to acts of violence and vandalism and eventually issued a dispersal order. Anyone identifying as a “duly authorized” member of the media was contacted, verified and separated from those arrested for failure to disperse, according to the statement. McDonnell added that any use of force or allegations of mistreatment involving media members would be investigated and addressed.</p><p data-block-key=\"59lsp\">“The LAPD recognizes the media’s right to cover events and makes reasonable efforts to accommodate, with those efforts consistent with our primary duty to maintain public safety and order,” the statement said.</p><p data-block-key=\"7dphh\">While covering another LA immigration protest in <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-journalist-shoved-detained-while-covering-la-protest/\">August 2025</a>, Buer was kettled, detained and zip-tied by officers.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Screenshot_2026-04-07_at_4.35.12P.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"s94lo\">Police responding to a protest in Los Angeles, California, on March 28, 2026. Journalist Mel Buer was kettled and prevented from leaving an area while documenting the demonstration.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Los Angeles Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": "2026-03-28",
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
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"name": "California",
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},
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"tags": [
"chemical irritant",
"Department of Homeland Security",
"immigration",
"kettle",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
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"Mel Buer (Independent)"
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},
{
"title": "Student journalist surrounded by police, removed from LA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-journalist-surrounded-by-police-removed-from-la-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2026-04-21T19:56:07.775531Z",
"last_published_at": "2026-04-21T19:56:07.775531Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2026-04-21T19:56:07.660853Z",
"date": "2026-03-28",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"w-block-rich_text block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"n84f4\">Daniela Raymundo, managing editor of Los Angeles Pierce College’s The Bull Magazine, was cornered by police, ordered to show press credentials and escorted away from a protest that she was covering in downtown Los Angeles, California, on March 28, 2026.</p><p data-block-key=\"5ghms\">The protest followed LA’s “No Kings” demonstration, <a href=\"https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/live/no-kings-protests-recap-more-than-8-million-turned-out-across-all-50-states-organizers-say-135920433.html\">one of some 3,300</a> against Trump administration policies that took place that day across the U.S., drawing more than 8 million people nationwide, organizers said.</p><p data-block-key=\"2jes8\">After the main march, people gathered outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, where immigrants are held, and the Roybal Federal Building, locations where many demonstrations have centered since sweeping immigration enforcement began in the city <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/la-protests-national-guard-trump.html\">in June 2025</a>. The LA Police Department said 75 people were <a href=\"https://ktla.com/news/local-news/75-arrested-during-downtown-los-angeles-no-kings-protest/\">arrested</a> after officers issued a dispersal order and declared an unlawful assembly.</p><p data-block-key=\"6mkn0\">Violet Garcia, editor-in-chief of The Bull Magazine, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she arrived to cover the events near the detention center along with Raymundo, photographer Victor Montiel and art director and photographer Abraham Elizalde.</p><p data-block-key=\"b4k2e\">Raymundo, Garcia and Elizalde had press passes issued by Pierce College, while Montiel was carrying a credential issued by the Press Photographers Association of Greater LA. All four were carrying professional camera equipment.</p><p data-block-key=\"cs41k\">Garcia said they entered an area near the intersection of Temple and Alameda streets at around 7 p.m. after showing credentials to an officer, who she described as “collaborative.” The officer told them, however, that they entered at their own risk.</p><p data-block-key=\"6n1mm\">Garcia said the area was heavily barricaded and separate from larger crowds, and that she saw protesters assisting others who had been affected by chemical irritants.</p><p data-block-key=\"98bb1\">“While I was filming a woman questioning officers about their conduct toward her, a group of media members was suddenly confronted by different, visibly armed officers,” Garcia said, adding that the officers “shouted orders for press to show credentials yet again.”</p><p data-block-key=\"a54h8\">The conflict escalated, Garcia said, when some journalists resisted showing passes, citing their First Amendment rights, and the LAPD “would no longer allow any of us to leave prior to showing our credentials again, whether we wanted to leave that instant or not.”</p><p data-block-key=\"dcras\">“They kept us in a circular group, holding guns in their arms in front of their torsos, and were now screaming orders, not at protesters but at the media. Some who tried to walk away were stopped and forced to wait,” Garcia recounted.</p><p data-block-key=\"5bcj3\">Officers then began “escorting” press out two at a time, she said, walking them back to an intersection a block away, Garcia said. The police warned that they were going to begin arresting people and deploying chemical irritants.</p><p data-block-key=\"6o2ko\">Garcia said that she, her staff and other journalists in the group began to feel mild effects of tear gas nearby, but couldn’t see where it was coming from.</p><p data-block-key=\"4sf24\">“Our eyes were stinging, and then it went a little bit past stinging, and they were burning and tearing up, but we were still able to see. Our noses were starting to burn a little bit as well. And then some of my colleagues started to describe a foul taste,” Garcia, who was wearing a KN95 mask, explained.</p><p data-block-key=\"fcump\">“Some further protested being sent out, citing that, as press, we had a right to stay and document. The LAPD reiterated it didn’t matter who; if we were in the way, they would spray,” she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"7l3nk\">Garcia said that she and her staff members were escorted out and then denied reentry to that area, without further explanation.</p><p data-block-key=\"bb8lj\">In a written <a href=\"https://www.lapdonline.org/newsroom/chief-of-police-statement-no-kings-3-0-protest-in-downtown-los-angeles-nr26067mb/\">statement shared April 2</a>, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said that police were responding to acts of violence and vandalism and eventually issued a dispersal order. Anyone identifying as a “duly authorized” member of the media was contacted, verified and separated from those facing arrest for failure to disperse, according to the statement.</p><p data-block-key=\"eu359\">McDonnell added that any use of force or allegations of mistreatment, including those involving media members, would be investigated and addressed.</p><p data-block-key=\"eraaj\">“The LAPD recognizes the media’s right to cover events and makes reasonable efforts to accommodate, with those efforts consistent with our primary duty to maintain public safety and order,” the statement said.</p><p data-block-key=\"7qf9t\">The Tracker has documented <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2026-03-28&date_upper=2026-03-28&city=Los+Angeles\">more than a dozen other instances</a> of journalists being obstructed, detained and assaulted on March 28 in LA.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/A_protester_is_arrested_outside_a.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"clhs0\">A protester is arrested outside an immigration detention center in downtown Los Angeles on March 28, 2026. Daniela Raymundo, managing editor of Los Angeles Pierce College’s The Bull Magazine, was surrounded by police and escorted away from the protest.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Los Angeles Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": "2026-03-28",
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"tags": [
"chemical irritant",
"immigration",
"kettle",
"protest",
"student journalism"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Daniela Raymundo (The [Los Angeles Pierce College] Bull Magazine)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Photographer’s camera pushed into his face by police at LA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographers-camera-pushed-into-his-face-by-police-at-la-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2026-04-27T13:32:48.321937Z",
"last_published_at": "2026-04-27T13:32:48.321937Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2026-04-27T13:32:48.157666Z",
"date": "2026-03-28",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"w-block-rich_text block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"7cvd2\">Independent photographer Steven Berumen had his camera shoved into his face by a police officer while documenting a protest against immigration raids in Los Angeles, California, on March 28, 2026.</p><p data-block-key=\"548ps\">The protest followed a “No Kings” demonstration held earlier in the day in LA, <a href=\"https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/live/no-kings-protests-recap-more-than-8-million-turned-out-across-all-50-states-organizers-say-135920433.html\">one of thousands</a> across the U.S. that organizers said drew more than 8 million people against Trump administration policies.</p><p data-block-key=\"2j0m0\">After the main march, people gathered outside downtown LA’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where immigrants are held, and the Roybal Federal Building, locations where many demonstrations have centered since sweeping immigration enforcement began in the city <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/la-protests-national-guard-trump.html\">in June 2025</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"6meu9\">Berumen told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the LA Police Department began pushing people away from the detention center. Some officers were on horseback, while another on foot shoved Berumen’s camera into the photographer’s face, ramming it into his glasses.</p><p data-block-key=\"7c7jk\">“My camera wasn’t damaged, my glasses weren’t damaged, but it was kind of annoying,” Berumen said. “I was following the line. They were telling everyone to move back, including press and protesters; I thought I was a safe distance away.”</p><p data-block-key=\"kuuq\">Earlier in the day, he was also <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-hit-in-the-shoulder-with-projectile-at-la-protest/\">struck with a crowd-control munition</a> fired by federal officers, but he said it was unclear if that assault was targeted against him as a member of the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"6l5sj\">The March 28 rally resulted in <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2026-03-28&date_upper=2026-03-28%E2%80%9D%20with%20%E2%80%9Chttps://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2026-03-28&date_upper=2026-03-28&city=Los+angeles\">at least 19</a> press freedom violations. In a written <a href=\"https://www.lapdonline.org/newsroom/chief-of-police-statement-no-kings-3-0-protest-in-downtown-los-angeles-nr26067mb/\">statement shared April 2</a>, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said that police were responding to acts of violence and vandalism and eventually issued a dispersal order. Anyone identifying as a “duly authorized” member of the media was contacted, verified and separated from those facing arrest for failure to disperse, according to the statement. McDonnell added that any use of force or allegations of mistreatment, including those involving media members, would be investigated and addressed.</p><p data-block-key=\"cmtbo\">“The LAPD recognizes the media’s right to cover events and makes reasonable efforts to accommodate, with those efforts consistent with our primary duty to maintain public safety and order,” the statement said.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Screenshot_2026-04-24_at_1.28.06P.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"qcges\">Law enforcement responds to an immigration protest in Los Angeles, California, on March 28, 2026. Photographer Steven Berumen said an officer shoved his camera into his face while he was documenting the protest.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
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"name": "California",
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},
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"tags": [
"immigration",
"protest"
],
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{
"title": "Photographer kettled, arrested while covering LA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-kettled-arrested-while-covering-la-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2026-04-24T19:53:36.742803Z",
"last_published_at": "2026-04-24T19:53:36.742803Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2026-04-24T19:53:36.640265Z",
"date": "2026-03-28",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"w-block-rich_text block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"fl32p\">Independent photographer Santiago Restrepo was kettled by police, arrested and cited for failing to disperse while documenting an immigration protest in downtown Los Angeles, California, on March 28, 2026.</p><p data-block-key=\"bgc0a\">The protest followed LA’s “No Kings” demonstration, <a href=\"https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/live/no-kings-protests-recap-more-than-8-million-turned-out-across-all-50-states-organizers-say-135920433.html\">one of some 3,300</a> against Trump administration policies that took place that day across the U.S., drawing more than 8 million people nationwide, organizers said.</p><p data-block-key=\"e2qhr\">After the main march, people gathered outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, where immigrants are held, and the Roybal Federal Building, locations where many demonstrations have centered since sweeping immigration enforcement began in the city <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/la-protests-national-guard-trump.html\">in June 2025</a>. The LA Police Department said 75 people were <a href=\"https://ktla.com/news/local-news/75-arrested-during-downtown-los-angeles-no-kings-protest/\">arrested</a> after officers issued a dispersal order and declared an unlawful assembly.</p><p data-block-key=\"anpr8\">Restrepo, primarily a street and landscape photographer who had covered previous “No Kings” protests, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was documenting the March 28 protest at the detention center with two professional cameras.</p><p data-block-key=\"8qrtq\">As he arrived, he saw a crowd outside the center’s fence, and federal agents on the other side. The agents soon started deploying pepper balls and tear gas canisters.</p><p data-block-key=\"27pb0\">Restrepo retreated, but had to stop photographing because his eyes were tearing up, he was coughing and his skin was burning due to the irritants. He was treated on the street by a medic.</p><p data-block-key=\"c7k2u\">He then went back to the area near the detention center to continue photographing the protest.</p><p data-block-key=\"5dpu\">At that point, LAPD officers arrived in riot gear and on horseback, forming a barricade at the northern end of the block. The federal agents continued to deploy chemical irritants, and Restrepo said he decided it was time to leave — but the LAPD had also blocked off the other end of the street.</p><p data-block-key=\"cr12p\">“We didn’t know what to expect. We just knew that we were being corralled and we weren’t being allowed to leave,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"b0lv2\">Police initially allowed journalists who had credentials or were wearing gear identifying them as press to leave, Restrepo said, so he also alerted the officers that he was there to document.</p><p data-block-key=\"bgq8d\">“So I had my cameras out. I walked up to the front where they were letting people leave, and I said, ‘Hey, I’m here as a journalist. I’m here documenting.’”</p><p data-block-key=\"8m0ne\">One of the officers asked what outlet he was with, to which Restrepo replied that he was freelance.</p><p data-block-key=\"31mn4\">“And he kind of just shook his head and told me to go back to where I was standing,” Restrepo recalled. “After that, I was like, ‘OK, well, I’m not getting out of here.’”</p><p data-block-key=\"2jl07\">However, a September preliminary injunction states that journalists are not required to wear credentials or work for a major media outlet to be considered press, and that carrying professional gear, such as photographic equipment, should be seen as an indicator they are there as journalists. The <a href=\"https://firstamendmentcoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/LAPC-v.-City-of-LA-Order-Granting-PI-9-11-2025.pdf\">order</a> also bars LAPD officers from interfering with journalists covering protests, including by arresting, detaining or citing them solely for failing to disperse.</p><p data-block-key=\"9036o\">Restrepo said that after about an hour, officers pulled him out of the kettle, zip-tied his hands and took his gear, including his cameras. They then took him in a patrol wagon to a nearby police station, where others who had been in the kettle were being held.</p><p data-block-key=\"ebn3l\">At one point, when he was taken to use the restroom, he again told an officer that he was at the protest to document as press, but they continued to hold him for around four hours, with his hands zip-tied behind his back nearly the whole time.</p><p data-block-key=\"b4d49\">Restrepo said he was ultimately released with a citation for failing to disperse, with a hearing on May 1. He said all his equipment was returned to him, and he did not believe it was searched in police custody.</p><p data-block-key=\"6iepn\">In a written <a href=\"https://www.lapdonline.org/newsroom/chief-of-police-statement-no-kings-3-0-protest-in-downtown-los-angeles-nr26067mb/\">statement shared April 2</a>, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said that police were responding to acts of violence and vandalism and eventually issued a dispersal order. Anyone identifying as a “duly authorized” member of the media was contacted, verified and separated from those facing arrest for failure to disperse, according to the statement.</p><p data-block-key=\"481ja\">McDonnell added that any use of force or allegations of mistreatment, including those involving media members, would be investigated and addressed.</p><p data-block-key=\"bsiq5\">At least a dozen journalists were <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2026-03-28&date_upper=2026-03-28&city=Los+Angeles&tags=kettle&categories=Arrest%2FCriminal+Charge\">detained in the kettle</a> that day; some who showed media credentials were allowed to leave, while others who did not have formal credentials were held for longer.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Police_officers_line_up_near_medi.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"5gcc2\">Police officers line up near media during a protest at LA’s immigration detention center on March 28, 2026. Independent photographer Santiago Restrepo was kettled and arrested while documenting the protest, and cited for failing to disperse.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Los Angeles Police Department",
"arrest_status": "arrested and released",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": "2026-03-28",
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"state": {
"name": "California",
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"tags": [
"chemical irritant",
"immigration",
"kettle",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
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"Santiago Restrepo (Independent)"
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},
{
"title": "Reporter pushed by police, threatened with arrest at LA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-pushed-by-police-threatened-with-arrest-at-la-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2026-04-07T16:29:04.041935Z",
"last_published_at": "2026-04-07T20:29:55.568006Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2026-04-07T20:29:55.464418Z",
"date": "2026-03-28",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
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"body": "<div class=\"w-block-rich_text block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"w2sgh\">Lexis-Olivier Ray, a reporter with L.A. Taco, was pushed by police and threatened with arrest while documenting a protest in Los Angeles, California, on March 28, 2026.</p><p data-block-key=\"6sh3k\">The protest followed a “No Kings” demonstration held earlier in the day in LA, <a href=\"https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/live/no-kings-protests-recap-more-than-8-million-turned-out-across-all-50-states-organizers-say-135920433.html\">one of thousands</a> across the U.S. that organizers said drew more than 8 million people against Trump administration policies.</p><p data-block-key=\"avrf6\">After the main march, people gathered outside downtown LA’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where immigrants are held, and the Roybal Federal Building, locations where many demonstrations have centered since sweeping immigration enforcement began in the city <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/la-protests-national-guard-trump.html\">in June 2025</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"61nr6\">Ray told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that shortly after he arrived, people at the protest began kicking and pushing at the gate at the detention center. Federal agents responded by firing pepper balls and tear gas into the crowd, though Ray said he was mostly shielded by his gas mask.</p><p data-block-key=\"6pt8a\">Later in the afternoon, the LA Police Department pushed the crowd away from the detention center and down the street. While walking backward and filming, an officer shoved Ray into a metal gate. At the time, he was among other journalists, clearly marked as press and wearing visible credentials.</p><p data-block-key=\"dm3uo\">Police began making arrests and formed a kettle, a tactic used to surround and control a crowd. Officers instructed credentialed press to leave the kettle and continue documenting from the sidewalk.</p><p data-block-key=\"68v38\">“I wasn’t interested in doing that; I wanted to be able to document arrests from inside the kettle, where I could get a better view,” Ray told the Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"1u17e\">In <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/shoton35mm.bsky.social/post/3midf7g74ac2y\">a video Ray posted</a> to the social platform Bluesky, an officer points at him and tells him to leave the area.</p><p data-block-key=\"ckm87\">“We’re giving you an opportunity for legitimate media to leave, because we’re going to make arrests,” the officer said.</p><p data-block-key=\"djpic\">Ray replied, “But you’re not going to arrest media, are you?”</p><p data-block-key=\"c6muv\">“Yes, we are. We gave you a dispersal order. We asked you to leave.”</p><p data-block-key=\"chted\">The officer ignored Ray’s assertion of his rights as a journalist under California law, which allows members of the press to cover protests and exempts them from dispersal orders. It also protects them from arrest or interference by police while doing so. A <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-struck-with-baton-finger-injured-amid-protests-in-downtown-la/\">federal preliminary injunction</a> against the city is also in place to uphold those protections.</p><p data-block-key=\"c1k7n\">“Either they don’t seem to be clear on the law, or they just ignored it,” Ray told the Tracker. “It didn’t feel like I could move around freely, that I could leave, and I was very clearly told that I was going to be arrested.”</p><p data-block-key=\"fdc74\">Ray was in the kettle for about a half hour. He was eventually allowed to leave after police negotiated the exit of members of the press with Adam Rose, press rights chair of the LA Press Club. Rose is also deputy director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, of which the Tracker is a project.</p><p data-block-key=\"fv6rs\">In a written <a href=\"https://www.lapdonline.org/newsroom/chief-of-police-statement-no-kings-3-0-protest-in-downtown-los-angeles-nr26067mb/\">statement shared April 2</a>, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said that police were responding to acts of violence and vandalism and eventually issued a dispersal order. Anyone identifying as a “duly authorized” member of the media was contacted, verified and separated from those facing arrest for failure to disperse, according to the statement. McDonnell added that any use of force or allegations of mistreatment, including those involving media members, would be investigated and addressed.</p><p data-block-key=\"9ua58\">“The LAPD recognizes the media’s right to cover events and makes reasonable efforts to accommodate, with those efforts consistent with our primary duty to maintain public safety and order,” the statement said. </p><p data-block-key=\"6nphu\">Ray was similarly kettled and threatened with arrest at another protest in <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-pelted-with-projectiles-kettled-at-la-protest/\">January 2026.</a></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Screenshot_2026-04-06_at_5.06.27P.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"0vue6\">Police kettle protesters and members of the media at a demonstration in Los Angeles, California, on March 28, 2026. Reporter Lexis-Olivier Ray was pushed by an officer and threatened with arrest while covering the demonstration.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Los Angeles Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": "2026-03-28",
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
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"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"links": [],
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
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"tags": [
"immigration",
"kettle",
"protest"
],
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"categories": [
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"Assault"
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"targeted_journalists": [
"Lexis-Olivier Ray (L.A. Taco)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Press obstructed, hit with chemical irritants at LA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/press-obstructed-hit-with-chemical-irritants-at-la-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2026-04-10T20:26:09.488688Z",
"last_published_at": "2026-05-12T20:28:05.124720Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2026-05-12T20:28:04.918015Z",
"date": "2026-03-28",
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"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"w-block-rich_text block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"l5znv\"><i>Multiple journalists covering a March 28, 2026, protest in downtown Los Angeles, California, were hit with tear gas and other chemical irritants, corralled by police and, in some cases, blocked from documenting arrests as they unfolded.</i></p><p data-block-key=\"ermeq\"><i>The protest followed a “No Kings” demonstration held earlier in the day in LA,</i> <a href=\"https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/live/no-kings-protests-recap-more-than-8-million-turned-out-across-all-50-states-organizers-say-135920433.html\"><i>one of thousands</i></a> <i>held nationwide against the Trump administration’s policies, drawing over 8 million people, organizers said.</i></p><p data-block-key=\"2k52e\"><i>In downtown LA, at least 75 people were</i> <a href=\"https://ktla.com/news/local-news/75-arrested-during-downtown-los-angeles-no-kings-protest/\"><i>arrested</i></a><i> near the Metropolitan Detention Center, where immigrants are held, according to the LA Police Department. The site has become a focal point for demonstrations since the start of sweeping immigration enforcement actions</i> <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/la-protests-national-guard-trump.html\"><i>in June</i></a><i>.</i></p><p data-block-key=\"21bic\"><i>The obstructions described by reporters on the ground echo incidents documented during protests in</i> <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/at-la-area-protests-in-june-press-denied-access-exposed-to-chemical-irritants-more/\"><i>June 2025</i></a><i> and</i> <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporters-affected-by-chemical-irritants-coverage-impeded-at-la-protests/\"><i>January 2026</i></a><i>.</i></p><p data-block-key=\"bfrb0\"><i>Although these incidents do not meet the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker’s standards for official documentation of press freedom violations, they have been compiled below. This roundup will be updated as additional incidents are verified. And you can see our reporting on the March 28 violations in LA</i> <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2026-03-28&date_upper=2026-03-28&city=los+angeles&state=California\"><i>here</i></a><i>.</i></p><p data-block-key=\"5nr95\"><i>LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell, in a</i> <a href=\"https://www.lapdonline.org/newsroom/chief-of-police-statement-no-kings-3-0-protest-in-downtown-los-angeles-nr26067mb/\"><i>written statement</i></a><i> shared April 2, said that police were responding to acts of violence and vandalism and eventually issued a dispersal order. Anyone identifying as a “duly authorized” member of the media was contacted, verified and separated from those facing arrest for failure to disperse, according to the statement. McDonnell added that any use of force or allegations of mistreatment, including those involving media members, would be investigated and addressed.</i></p><p data-block-key=\"f29vf\"><i>“The LAPD recognizes the media’s right to cover events and makes reasonable efforts to accommodate, with those efforts consistent with our primary duty to maintain public safety and order,” the statement said.</i></p><p data-block-key=\"acjv8\"><i>A September</i> <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-struck-with-baton-finger-injured-amid-protests-in-downtown-la/\"><i>preliminary injunction</i></a><i> barred LAPD officers from interfering with journalists covering protests, including by arresting, detaining or citing them solely for failing to disperse.</i></p><p data-block-key=\"bhma9\"><i>The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment about the cases of journalists who faced press violations on March 28.</i></p><p data-block-key=\"41l5p\"><i>To learn more about how the Tracker documents and categorizes violations of press freedom, visit our</i> <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/frequently-asked-questions/\"><i>FAQ page.</i></a></p><ul><li data-block-key=\"8o8aq\"><b>Sean Beckner-Carmitchel</b>, an independent journalist, said in a <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/acatwithnews.bsky.social/post/3mi5wafuxs22t\">post on Bluesky</a> that a DHS officer “threw a chemical irritant container directly at a press gaggle” standing outside the detention center. He told the Tracker that he was affected briefly by the irritant before he could put on his gas mask. He was also hit in the leg with a nondirectional canister round, and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-caught-in-police-kettle-threatened-with-arrest-at-la-protest/\">caught up in a police kettle</a> and threatened with arrest that day.</li><li data-block-key=\"6kiim\">Status Coup reporter <b>Tina-Desiree Berg</b> told the Tracker that the chemical irritants deployed into the air by federal officers left a rash on her leg. “I had to throw my T-shirt out as well,” she said. “It was so soaked in chemical irritants I removed it while still there. Thank goodness I had double-layered that day. It was absolutely insane.”</li><li data-block-key=\"8i1th\">Independent photographer <b>Steven Berumen</b> told the Tracker that he was affected by chemical irritants when he took his gas mask off a block away from where law enforcement was deploying them. “I wasn’t safe. I started coughing; I was out for about 10 minutes,” he said. “I got treated by some people and then went back to taking photos.” Also that day, an officer deliberately <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographers-camera-pushed-into-his-face-by-police-at-la-protest/\">shoved Berumen’s camera</a> in his face, and he was <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-hit-in-the-shoulder-with-projectile-at-la-protest/\">struck with a crowd-control projectile</a>.</li><li data-block-key=\"c9fh8\"><b>Mel Buer</b>, an independent journalist, told the Tracker that she was inundated with tear gas after DHS officers threw canisters into the crowd of what appeared to be mostly press. “It just enveloped them; a lot of people couldn’t see, a lot of people were throwing up, a lot of people ran into the street, unable to breathe,” she said. “I was kind of blind for a bit.” Also that day, she discovered pepper ball residue on her shoe, and was <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-kettled-prevented-from-leaving-la-protest/\">caught in a kettle with journalists and threatened with arrest</a>.</li><li data-block-key=\"608qr\">Student journalist <b>Delfino Camacho</b> told the Tracker that he was affected by tear gas DHS officers deployed outside the detention center. “It put me out of commission for a few minutes,” he said.</li><li data-block-key=\"dh9qb\">Independent journalist <b>Henry Cherry</b> told the Tracker that he was impacted by tear gas fired by federal officers after the gas seeped through his mask. “I would have to get off the line for a second so I could breathe,” he said. “It’s so permeating, and this was a stronger batch of tear gas than I had ever come across before.” Cherry was also <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-hit-with-munitions-at-la-protest/\">struck with projectiles.</a></li><li data-block-key=\"9iiq7\">Independent photographer <b>Enrique Dominguez</b> told the Tracker he was affected by tear gas while documenting the protest. “It affected my lungs and my eyes; I couldn’t breathe properly for a couple minutes,” he said. “I was able to regain my breath after being carried out by street medics.”</li><li data-block-key=\"1t0s7\"><b>Abraham Elizalde</b>, <b>Violet Garcia</b>, <b>Victor Montiel</b> and <b>Daniela Raymundo</b> — who were covering the protest for Los Angeles Pierce College’s The Bull Magazine — were affected by chemical irritants, Garcia told the Tracker. “Our eyes were stinging, and then it went a little bit past stinging, and they were burning and tearing up, but we were still able to see. Our noses were starting to burn a little bit as well. And then some of my colleagues started to describe a foul taste,” Garcia, who was wearing a KN95 mask, explained. <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?targeted_institutions=The+%5BLos+Angeles+Pierce+College%5D+Bull+Magazine\">All four were also cornered by police</a>, ordered to show press credentials and escorted away from the protest.</li><li data-block-key=\"7tdem\">Independent journalist <b>Luke Harold</b>, who was documenting the protest, told the Tracker that his eyes were badly affected by the chemical irritants fired by DHS officers at one point, when he rushed to put on his goggles and they didn’t seal properly. He was also shoved by a federal agent and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-shoved-detained-while-covering-la-protest/\">detained by LA police</a> that day.</li><li data-block-key=\"7adpt\">Independent photographer <b>Hank Leahy</b> told the Tracker he was <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-photographer-hit-with-pepper-balls-while-covering-la-protest/\">hit in the leg</a> with pepper balls fired by DHS officers from behind the fence of the detention center, adding that the dust from the chemical irritant seeped through a gap in his goggles, “causing severe eye pain” and impacting his directional awareness.</li><li data-block-key=\"2pmaq\"><b>Ryanne Mena</b>, a reporter with the Los Angeles Daily News, told the Tracker that she was affected by tear gas fired by federal agents, which seeped behind her protective goggles. “My eyes were burning, and I was totally debilitated. It was really painful. That day, Mena was also <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-shoved-lunged-at-by-police-at-la-protest/\">pushed by a police officer</a>.</li><li data-block-key=\"deoti\"><b>Mena</b> and Los Angeles Times reporter <b>Connor Sheets</b> told the Tracker they were among about a dozen journalists who were sequestered to a designated area while officers made arrests, and were not allowed to get close enough to document the process. Journalist <b>Kevin Foster</b> posted <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/reels/DWmlbq5kuMB/\">a video on Instagram</a> saying he and other press were prevented from documenting the arrests. “There’s no way that we can effectively document what is happening there,” he said. “They want to do this mass arrest in secret.” Photojournalist <b>Jake Crandall</b> told Freedom of the Press Foundation, of which the Tracker is a project, that he was also part of the group being obstructed. Photojournalist <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?search=jill+connelly&date_lower=2026-03-28&date_upper=2026-03-28&tags=protest&categories=Assault\"><b>Jill Connelly</b></a> told the Tracker that she was also among those who were moved too far away to document, adding that a supervising officer eventually allowed her and other press to get close enough to see people being put into police transport vehicles. <b>Berg</b> <a href=\"https://www.statuscoupsubstack.com/p/cops-attack-gas-no-kings-protesters\">reported for Status Coup</a> that an officer, with her hand stretched out to block reporters, shouted, “Press must stay!” In a video Sheets <a href=\"https://x.com/ConnorASheets/status/2038065047801573766\">posted</a> to the social platform X, an officer said they were blocking off the area because, “We’re going to do some mass arrests right now, that’s why. Our main thing is your safety.”</li></ul></div>\n<div class=\"w-block-tweet block-tweet\"><div class=\"tweet-embed\">\n <div>\n <blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Here’s an LAPD sergeant explaining why they won’t let us closer to the arrests being made outside MDC. <a href=\"https://t.co/2eUwVbeLb8\">pic.twitter.com/2eUwVbeLb8</a></p>— Connor Sheets (@ConnorASheets) <a href=\"https://twitter.com/ConnorASheets/status/2038065047801573766?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 29, 2026</a></blockquote>\n<script async src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n\n</div>\n\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"w-block-rich_text block-rich_text\"><ul><li data-block-key=\"l5znv\">Independent photographer <b>Jonny Morales</b> told the Tracker that police denied him access to cover parts of the demonstration because he did not have a press badge, despite state law not requiring him to wear credentials. “I was unable to document it; I felt like my First Amendment rights were taken away,” Morales said. “If it wasn’t for my buddy, who had a press pass and allowed me to go through, I might have been arrested.”</li><li data-block-key=\"d5qmn\"><b>Jose Ossa</b>, a student filmmaker at California State University, Dominguez Hills, who was documenting the protest, told the Tracker that his eyes and respiratory system were affected by the residue of a chemical irritant in the air when he approached the detention center, even though he was wearing a mask and goggles. He had to retreat from the area twice before the air cleared. <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-journalist-detained-zip-tied-while-documenting-la-protest/\">Later that day</a>, he and fellow student <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-documentarian-detained-zip-tied-while-covering-la-protest/\"><b>Giovanni Cruz</b></a> were detained in a police kettle and zip-tied by LAPD.</li><li data-block-key=\"d3oe9\">Independent photographer <b>Santiago Restrepo</b> was documenting the protest but had to stop because his eyes were tearing up, he was coughing and his skin was burning due to the irritants, he told the Tracker. He was treated on the street by a medic. Restrepo was later detained in a police kettle, <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-kettled-arrested-while-covering-la-protest/\">arrested</a> and cited for failing to disperse.</li><li data-block-key=\"aq2b4\"><b>Nick Stern</b>, an independent photographer, told the Tracker that he was affected by tear gas deployed by federal agents outside the detention center. “I actually got lungs full of tear gas, which pretty much incapacitated me for five to 10 minutes,” he said.</li><li data-block-key=\"avksg\">Independent journalist <b>Dexter Thomas</b> told the Tracker he was affected by tear gas fired by federal agents at the detention center. The chemical irritant got in his eyes, temporarily blinding him. In <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DWfJTkwjlpa/\">a video</a> he posted to Instagram, he can be heard coughing as the gas fills the street. “I’m good; I just got to wait it out,” he said in the clip. Also that day, he was <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-caught-in-police-kettle-at-la-protest/\">caught in a police kettle and threatened with arrest</a>.</li></ul></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/2026-03-29T021423Z_838652794_RC2T.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"9smi4\">Police clear the street near a federal immigration detention center after a “No Kings” protest against Trump administration policies in Los Angeles, California, on March 28, 2026.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
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"targeted_institutions": [
"Media"
],
"tags": [
"chemical irritant",
"Department of Homeland Security",
"immigration",
"protest",
"student journalism"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Other Incident"
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist hit with pepper balls at LA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-hit-with-pepper-balls-at-la-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2026-05-08T17:04:14.250488Z",
"last_published_at": "2026-05-08T17:04:14.250488Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2026-05-08T17:03:17.148480Z",
"date": "2026-03-28",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"w-block-rich_text block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"mfrc2\">Photojournalist Blake Fagan was hit with projectiles while documenting an immigration protest in downtown Los Angeles, California, on March 28, 2026.</p><p data-block-key=\"e1p03\">The demonstration followed a “No Kings” protest held earlier in the day in LA, <a href=\"https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/live/no-kings-protests-recap-more-than-8-million-turned-out-across-all-50-states-organizers-say-135920433.html\">one of thousands</a> across the U.S. that organizers said drew more than 8 million people against Trump administration policies.</p><p data-block-key=\"c5lv7\">After the main march, people gathered outside downtown LA’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where immigrants are held, and the Roybal Federal Building, locations where many demonstrations have centered since sweeping immigration enforcement began in the city <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/la-protests-national-guard-trump.html\">in June 2025</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"9a7m9\">Fagan told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that his helmet, which marked him as press, was struck with multiple pepper balls fired by Department of Homeland Security agents.</p><p data-block-key=\"9gniq\">“I was just kind of in the line of fire and got hit,” he said, adding that he heard the impact. “I didn’t feel it, but the dust got all over my skin and hair.”</p><p data-block-key=\"4dm1h\">DHS did not respond to a request for comment. On the night of the protest, the agency <a href=\"https://x.com/DHSgov/status/2038082883814936848?s=20\">wrote on the social platform X</a> that people at the protest were throwing things at officers, two of whom were receiving medical care after being hit. It did not address the use of munitions against members of the press.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/March_28.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"vvdci\">Federal officers amid tear gas at an immigration protest in Los Angeles, California, on March 28, 2026. Photojournalist Blake Fagan was hit with projectiles while covering the demonstration.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
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"name": "California",
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"tags": [
"chemical irritant",
"Department of Homeland Security",
"immigration",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Blake Fagan (Independent)"
],
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{
"title": "Journalist caught in police kettle at LA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-caught-in-police-kettle-at-la-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2026-04-08T20:55:05.428485Z",
"last_published_at": "2026-04-08T20:55:05.428485Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2026-04-08T20:54:52.275353Z",
"date": "2026-03-28",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"w-block-rich_text block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"y7zlq\">Independent journalist Dexter Thomas was caught in a kettle and threatened with arrest while documenting a protest in Los Angeles, California, on March 28, 2026.</p><p data-block-key=\"1g6n8\">The protest followed a “No Kings” demonstration held earlier in the day in LA, <a href=\"https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/live/no-kings-protests-recap-more-than-8-million-turned-out-across-all-50-states-organizers-say-135920433.html\">one of thousands</a> across the U.S. that organizers said drew more than 8 million people against Trump administration policies.</p><p data-block-key=\"71qq0\">After the main march, people gathered outside downtown LA’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where immigrants are held, and the Roybal Federal Building, locations where many demonstrations have centered since sweeping immigration enforcement began in the city <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/la-protests-national-guard-trump.html\">in June 2025</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"8ltju\">Thomas told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was filming the protest at the detention center, where federal officers deployed tear gas that got into his eyes. Later, the LA Police Department began pushing people down the street and eventually declared an unlawful assembly.</p><p data-block-key=\"cu34u\">As police began making arrests, they formed a kettle — a tactic used to surround and control a crowd — and instructed credentialed press to leave the kettle and continue documenting from the sidewalk.</p><p data-block-key=\"2mrkf\">“They tried to say where press could be, which we were not going to abide by that,” Thomas said. “We don’t need to stand on the sidewalk, that’s not the law.”</p><p data-block-key=\"75l0d\">Thomas and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2026-03-28&date_upper=2026-03-28&tags=kettle\">other journalists</a> stayed in the kettle to document the arrests, asserting their rights under California law, which allows members of the press to cover protests and exempts them from dispersal orders. It also protects them from arrest or interference by police while doing so. A <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-struck-with-baton-finger-injured-amid-protests-in-downtown-la/\">federal preliminary injunction</a> against the city is in place to uphold those protections.</p><p data-block-key=\"8sc42\">In <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/shoton35mm.bsky.social/post/3midf7g74ac2y\">a video</a> that reporter Lexis-Olivier Ray, who was also in the kettle, posted to the social platform Bluesky, an officer said they were going to arrest media members who did not abide by the dispersal order.</p><p data-block-key=\"5c082\">“They were saying, ‘You can’t leave now,’” said Thomas, who recalled being in the kettle, unable to exit, for about a half hour. “You had your opportunity, and that’s no longer available to you.”</p><p data-block-key=\"aoffp\">Thomas was eventually allowed to leave after police negotiated the exit of media with Adam Rose, press rights chair of the LA Press Club. Rose is also deputy director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, of which the Tracker is a project.</p><p data-block-key=\"dspch\">The experience left Thomas frustrated; he said he felt that officers were trying to renegotiate the law in real time.</p><p data-block-key=\"2qu6t\">“What they can do is make your life very difficult by actually arresting you and taking your equipment,” he said. “And if I have filmed something which needs to be seen, and they take my equipment, then I have a problem.”</p><p data-block-key=\"blv36\">In a written <a href=\"https://www.lapdonline.org/newsroom/chief-of-police-statement-no-kings-3-0-protest-in-downtown-los-angeles-nr26067mb/\">statement shared April 2</a>, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said that police were responding to acts of violence and vandalism and eventually issued a dispersal order. Anyone identifying as a “duly authorized” member of the media was contacted, verified and separated from those facing arrest for failure to disperse, according to the statement.</p><p data-block-key=\"f4khh\">McDonnell added that any use of force or allegations of mistreatment, including those involving media members, would be investigated and addressed.</p><p data-block-key=\"2s160\">“The LAPD recognizes the media’s right to cover events and makes reasonable efforts to accommodate, with those efforts consistent with our primary duty to maintain public safety and order,” the statement said.</p><p data-block-key=\"ao3gm\">Thomas was similarly kettled and threatened with arrest at another protest in <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-threatened-with-arrest-at-la-immigration-protest/\">January 2026.</a></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
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"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"hwk1l\">A frame grab from a subtitled video showing law enforcement responding to a protest in Los Angeles, California, on March 28, 2026. Later that day, journalist Dexter Thomas was among press facing arrest as they were kettled by police.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Los Angeles Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": "2026-03-28",
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
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"border_point": null,
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"Department of Homeland Security",
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"protest"
],
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"categories": [
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{
"title": "Photographer cornered by police, escorted from LA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-cornered-by-police-escorted-from-la-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2026-04-21T20:00:49.601403Z",
"last_published_at": "2026-04-21T20:00:49.601403Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2026-04-21T20:00:49.473928Z",
"date": "2026-03-28",
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"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
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"body": "<div class=\"w-block-rich_text block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"eo6hy\">Victor Montiel, a photographer for Los Angeles Pierce College’s The Bull Magazine, was cornered by police, ordered to show press credentials and escorted away from a protest that he was covering in downtown Los Angeles, California, on March 28, 2026.</p><p data-block-key=\"9cael\">LA’s “No Kings” protest was one of some 3,300 <a href=\"https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/live/no-kings-protests-recap-more-than-8-million-turned-out-across-all-50-states-organizers-say-135920433.html\">demonstrations</a> against Trump administration policies that took place that day across the U.S., drawing more than 8 million people nationwide, organizers said.</p><p data-block-key=\"dnoqj\">After the main protest march, people gathered outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, where immigrants are held, and the Roybal Federal Building, locations where many demonstrations have centered since sweeping immigration enforcement began in the city <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/la-protests-national-guard-trump.html\">in June 2025</a>. The LA Police Department said 75 people were <a href=\"https://ktla.com/news/local-news/75-arrested-during-downtown-los-angeles-no-kings-protest/\">arrested</a> after officers issued a dispersal order and declared an unlawful assembly.</p><p data-block-key=\"6buc2\">Violet Garcia, editor-in-chief of The Bull Magazine, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she arrived to cover the events near the detention center along with Montiel, managing editor Daniela Raymundo and art director and photographer Abraham Elizalde.</p><p data-block-key=\"5ucbi\">Montiel was carrying a credential issued by the Press Photographers Association of Greater LA, while Garcia, Raymundo and Elizalde had press passes issued by Pierce College. All four were carrying professional camera equipment.</p><p data-block-key=\"6dj8d\">Garcia said they entered an area near the intersection of Temple and Alameda streets at around 7 p.m. after showing credentials to an officer, who she described as “collaborative.” The officer told them, however, that they entered at their own risk.</p><p data-block-key=\"c6ib0\">Garcia said the area was heavily barricaded and separate from larger crowds, and that she saw protesters assisting others who had been affected by chemical irritants.</p><p data-block-key=\"2ks0t\">“While I was filming a woman questioning officers about their conduct toward her, a group of media members was suddenly confronted by different, visibly armed officers,” Garcia said, adding that the officers “shouted orders for press to show credentials yet again.”</p><p data-block-key=\"fs25b\">The conflict escalated, Garcia said, when some journalists resisted showing passes, citing their First Amendment rights, and the LAPD “would no longer allow any of us to leave prior to showing our credentials again, whether we wanted to leave that instant or not.”</p><p data-block-key=\"eltt4\">“They kept us in a circular group, holding guns in their arms in front of their torsos, and were now screaming orders, not at protesters but at the media. Some who tried to walk away were stopped and forced to wait,” Garcia recounted.</p><p data-block-key=\"eec8o\">Officers then began “escorting” press out two at a time, she said, walking them back to an intersection a block away, Garcia said. The police warned that they were going to begin arresting people and deploying chemical irritants.</p><p data-block-key=\"dn1bl\">Garcia said that she, her staff and other journalists in the group began to feel mild effects of tear gas nearby, but couldn’t see where it was coming from.</p><p data-block-key=\"r7lb\">“Our eyes were stinging, and then it went a little bit past stinging, and they were burning and tearing up, but we were still able to see. Our noses were starting to burn a little bit as well. And then some of my colleagues started to describe a foul taste,” Garcia, who was wearing a KN95 mask, explained.</p><p data-block-key=\"6s34l\">“Some further protested being sent out, citing that, as press, we had a right to stay and document. The LAPD reiterated it didn’t matter who; if we were in the way, they would spray,” she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"fg6mi\">Garcia said that she and her staff members were escorted out and then denied reentry to that area, without further explanation.</p><p data-block-key=\"3r22m\">In a written <a href=\"https://www.lapdonline.org/newsroom/chief-of-police-statement-no-kings-3-0-protest-in-downtown-los-angeles-nr26067mb/\">statement shared April 2</a>, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said that police were responding to acts of violence and vandalism and eventually issued a dispersal order. Anyone identifying as a “duly authorized” member of the media was contacted, verified and separated from those facing arrest for failure to disperse, according to the statement.</p><p data-block-key=\"1c8t7\">McDonnell added that any use of force or allegations of mistreatment, including those involving media members, would be investigated and addressed.</p><p data-block-key=\"ena91\">“The LAPD recognizes the media’s right to cover events and makes reasonable efforts to accommodate, with those efforts consistent with our primary duty to maintain public safety and order,” the statement said.</p><p data-block-key=\"2daik\">The Tracker has documented <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2026-03-28&date_upper=2026-03-28&city=Los+Angeles\">more than a dozen other instances</a> of journalists being obstructed, detained and assaulted on March 28 in LA.</p><p data-block-key=\"3a98a\">Montiel was <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?targeted_journalists=Victor%20Montiel\">hit with projectiles</a> fired by law enforcement while covering immigration protests in LA in January and June 2025.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/A_police_officer_grabs_a_proteste.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"niiqe\">A police officer grabs a protester near an immigration detention center in downtown Los Angeles on March 28, 2026. Photographer Victor Montiel of Los Angeles Pierce College’s The Bull Magazine was surrounded by police and escorted away from the protest.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Los Angeles Police Department",
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
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"tags": [
"chemical irritant",
"immigration",
"kettle",
"protest",
"student journalism"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
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"Victor Montiel (The [Los Angeles Pierce College] Bull Magazine)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Student journalist detained, zip-tied while documenting LA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-journalist-detained-zip-tied-while-documenting-la-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2026-04-06T18:12:01.029004Z",
"last_published_at": "2026-04-08T13:29:48.984057Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2026-04-08T13:29:48.778070Z",
"date": "2026-03-28",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
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"body": "<div class=\"w-block-rich_text block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"to186\">Jose Ossa, a student filmmaker, was detained in a police kettle and placed in zip ties while he was documenting a protest outside an immigration detention center in downtown Los Angeles, California, on March 28, 2026.</p><p data-block-key=\"7vtd1\">LA’s “No Kings” protest was one of some 3,300 <a href=\"https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/live/no-kings-protests-recap-more-than-8-million-turned-out-across-all-50-states-organizers-say-135920433.html\">demonstrations</a> against Trump administration policies that took place that day across the U.S., drawing more than 8 million people nationwide, organizers said.</p><p data-block-key=\"9kgh6\">After the main protest march, people gathered outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, where immigrants are held, and the Roybal Federal Building, locations where many demonstrations have centered since sweeping immigration enforcement began in the city <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/la-protests-national-guard-trump.html\">in June 2025</a>. The LA Police Department said 75 people were <a href=\"https://ktla.com/news/local-news/75-arrested-during-downtown-los-angeles-no-kings-protest/\">arrested</a> after officers issued a dispersal order and declared an unlawful assembly.</p><p data-block-key=\"896p\">Ossa, a student in film and TV production at California State University, Dominguez Hills, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he and fellow student <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-documentarian-detained-zip-tied-while-covering-la-protest/\">Giovanni Cruz</a> went to the protest to capture B-roll footage for a documentary about photography as social activism they’re working on for a course.</p><p data-block-key=\"47abd\">Ossa was carrying a cinema camera, and Cruz was carrying a Fujifilm photo camera, clearly indicating that both were there to document the protest.</p><p data-block-key=\"alt0f\">Ossa said they went to the area near the detention center to try to meet up with a photographer they had interviewed as part of their film project. But as they approached the adjacent intersection, Ossa said his eyes and later his respiratory system were affected by the residue of a chemical irritant in the air, even though he was wearing a mask and goggles. They had to retreat from the area twice before the air cleared.</p><p data-block-key=\"89iql\">They eventually were able to approach the gate of the detention center, where protesters had gathered, and saw that police behind the gate had started to come out and were throwing individuals to the ground and detaining them, he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"birh5\">The LAPD then started setting up blockades that penned in the protesters and press who were in front of the detention center, Ossa said. Police began to push inward from both directions, effectively sandwiching the crowd, and then closed off the group in a semicircle to form a kettle.</p><p data-block-key=\"4pv8v\">Ossa said that police allowed some, but not all, members of the press who were in the kettle to leave.</p><p data-block-key=\"b417u\">Ossa, holding his cinema camera and student ID, made his way to the front and informed the same officer twice that he and Cruz were students and were there to film a documentary. He asked if they were allowed to leave, but got little reaction from the officer.</p><p data-block-key=\"dtbos\">Around 15 minutes later, Ossa went to the side of the kettle and relayed the same information to a row of four officers, again asking to leave. The officers did not respond.</p><p data-block-key=\"60kbg\">“There was no effort made to get me and my classmate, Giovanni, out of there, even though we were members of the press. We were clearly there to document.”</p><p data-block-key=\"e5tc1\">Ossa said he and Cruz remained in the kettle as police grabbed and arrested others, further compressing the group. He said he was growing more anxious as the night wore on and the situation remained volatile, and was especially concerned about the implications of an arrest.</p><p data-block-key=\"8442q\">Eventually, the two students were the only people remaining in the kettle. The police called Ossa over and aggressively told him to put down his camera and backpack, and to put his hands behind his back. They continued to repeat the commands even though he was complying, Ossa said.</p><p data-block-key=\"bo99b\">They then roughly put his hands in zip ties, asking him questions about the camera he was carrying — which belonged to his professor — including how much it cost.</p><p data-block-key=\"ac82i\">He said a lead officer questioned him about why they were there. Ossa explained again, in detail, that he and Cruz were students making a documentary.</p><p data-block-key=\"8l5if\">After around five minutes, that officer said the two students could go, indicating that he was doing them a favor, Ossa said. The officer told the student journalist that he could have confiscated the camera and detained them.</p><p data-block-key=\"4pp8l\">In a written <a href=\"https://www.lapdonline.org/newsroom/chief-of-police-statement-no-kings-3-0-protest-in-downtown-los-angeles-nr26067mb/\">statement shared April 2</a>, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said that police were responding to acts of violence and vandalism and eventually issued a dispersal order. Anyone identifying as a “duly authorized” member of the media was contacted, verified and separated from those facing arrest for failure to disperse, according to the statement. </p><p data-block-key=\"4hruj\">McDonnell added that any use of force or allegations of mistreatment, including those involving media members, would be investigated and addressed.</p><p data-block-key=\"famdj\">“The LAPD recognizes the media’s right to cover events and makes reasonable efforts to accommodate, with those efforts consistent with our primary duty to maintain public safety and order,” the statement said. </p><p data-block-key=\"b0eg7\">A September preliminary injunction <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-struck-with-baton-finger-injured-amid-protests-in-downtown-la/\">barred</a> LAPD officers from interfering with journalists covering protests, including by arresting, detaining or citing them solely for failing to disperse.</p><p data-block-key=\"50pgn\">The Tracker has documented <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2026-03-28&date_upper=2026-03-28&city=Los+Angeles\">multiple cases</a> of journalists who faced press violations that day by the LAPD and federal agents.</p><p data-block-key=\"77ptq\"><i>Update: This story was revised to include a comment from the LAPD’s police chief. </i></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/AP26088065481118.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"6n0k2\">Police arrest protesters in downtown Los Angeles, California, after a “No Kings” rally on March 28, 2026. Jose Ossa, a film student documenting the protest, was detained in a police kettle and put in zip ties before being released.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Los Angeles Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": "2026-03-28",
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
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"name": "California",
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},
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"tags": [
"chemical irritant",
"immigration",
"kettle",
"protest",
"student journalism"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
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"Jose Ossa (California State University, Dominguez Hills)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Police officer pushes photojournalist at LA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/police-officer-pushes-photojournalist-at-la-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2026-04-21T14:10:16.789082Z",
"last_published_at": "2026-04-21T14:10:16.789082Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2026-04-21T14:10:16.700796Z",
"date": "2026-03-28",
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"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"w-block-rich_text block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ztx85\">Photojournalist Jill Connelly was pushed by a police officer and later obstructed while documenting a protest in Los Angeles, California, on March 28, 2026.</p><p data-block-key=\"30pg3\">The protest followed a “No Kings” demonstration held earlier in the day in LA, <a href=\"https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/live/no-kings-protests-recap-more-than-8-million-turned-out-across-all-50-states-organizers-say-135920433.html\">one of thousands</a> across the U.S. that organizers said drew more than 8 million people against Trump administration policies.</p><p data-block-key=\"3vkuu\">After the main march, people gathered outside downtown LA’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where immigrants are held, and the Roybal Federal Building, locations where many demonstrations have centered since sweeping immigration enforcement began in the city <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/la-protests-national-guard-trump.html\">in June 2025</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"5s2dt\">Connelly, who was on assignment for The Associated Press, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was pushed by an LA Police Department officer who was moving people back. She was wearing a helmet that said “press” on the front and back, and a clearly visible LAPD press credential around her neck.</p><p data-block-key=\"17irp\">She called the push “unnecessary,” but said it was not the level of targeted violence she experienced earlier that day, when she was <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-shoved-by-dhs-agent-while-covering-la-protest/\">shoved</a> by a Department of Homeland Security agent as she took a photo of an arrest.</p><p data-block-key=\"92a6l\">Connelly also said that she was among a group of press who were forced far back from a group of protesters that police had herded into an area near the detention center.</p><p data-block-key=\"42qtq\">“We were trying to photograph what they were doing to these people, and they moved us really far back, so we couldn’t see what they were doing. And they knew we were press.”</p><p data-block-key=\"82mu2\">She said the police kept driving them back further until one photographer asked for a supervisor, and that officer eventually moved them to where they could see arrests being made.</p><p data-block-key=\"5h0pm\">The press was “still far from the kettle where they were being handcuffed, but where we could see people being processed before they were put in vehicles for transport,” Connelly said.</p><p data-block-key=\"356sn\">In a written <a href=\"https://www.lapdonline.org/newsroom/chief-of-police-statement-no-kings-3-0-protest-in-downtown-los-angeles-nr26067mb/\">statement shared April 2</a>, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said that police were responding to acts of violence and vandalism and eventually issued a dispersal order. Anyone identifying as a “duly authorized” member of the media was contacted, verified and separated from those facing arrest for failure to disperse, according to the statement.</p><p data-block-key=\"enlb0\">McDonnell added that any use of force or allegations of mistreatment, including those involving media members, would be investigated and addressed.</p><p data-block-key=\"ahpmh\">“The LAPD recognizes the media’s right to cover events and makes reasonable efforts to accommodate, with those efforts consistent with our primary duty to maintain public safety and order,” the statement said.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Police_detain_a_protester_in_down.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"sco19\">Police detain a protester in downtown Los Angeles, California, on March 28, 2026. Photojournalist Jill Connelly, who was pushed by an officer during the protest, captured this image once allowed to move from an obstructed area.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "no",
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
"updates": [],
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"tags": [
"immigration",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Jill Connelly (The Associated Press)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Photojournalist hit with munitions at LA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-hit-with-munitions-at-la-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2026-04-01T21:01:10.982441Z",
"last_published_at": "2026-04-07T20:48:20.660177Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2026-04-07T20:48:20.572822Z",
"date": "2026-03-28",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"w-block-rich_text block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"gtyvj\">Independent photojournalist Henry Cherry was struck with multiple projectiles while covering a protest outside an immigration detention center in Los Angeles, California, on March 28, 2026.</p><p data-block-key=\"en2v3\">The protest followed a “No Kings” demonstration held earlier in the day in LA, <a href=\"https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/live/no-kings-protests-recap-more-than-8-million-turned-out-across-all-50-states-organizers-say-135920433.html\">one of thousands</a> across the U.S. that organizers said drew more than 8 million people against Trump administration policies.</p><p data-block-key=\"ab1v1\">After the main march, people gathered outside downtown LA’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where immigrants are held, and the Roybal Federal Building, locations where many demonstrations have centered since sweeping immigration enforcement began in the city <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/la-protests-national-guard-trump.html\">in June 2025</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"ei98g\">Cherry told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that after arriving to cover the protest, he was struck with crowd-control munitions in the feet and helmet, even though he was clearly identified as press, with a press vest, press helmet and credentials.</p><p data-block-key=\"7lb08\">“I was clearly identified as media; they could have not hit me,” he said, adding that he felt targeted as a journalist and didn’t venture further into the fray for fear of getting injured or detained. “They’ve seen me before. I recognized them, and they recognized me.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5ub5h\">He also said that despite having goggles and a respirator mask, he was affected by the chemical irritants, as Department of Homeland Security officers deployed tear gas canisters, then sprayed pepper balls into the crowd as protesters attempted to toss the canisters back.</p><p data-block-key=\"bd3r1\">“I would have to get off the line for a second so I could breathe,” he told the Tracker. “It’s so permeating.”</p><p data-block-key=\"c1792\">DHS did not respond to a request for comment. On the night of the protest, the agency <a href=\"https://x.com/DHSgov/status/2038082883814936848?s=20\">wrote on the social platform X</a> that people at the protest were throwing things at officers, two of whom were receiving medical care after being hit. It did not address the use of munitions against members of the press.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/2026-03-29T021524Z_488433463_RC2T.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"dpo57\">Federal officers at a protest outside a federal building March 28, 2026, in Los Angeles, California. Photojournalist Henry Cherry was struck with projectiles while covering the demonstration.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
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"stopped_previously": false,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
"updates": [],
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"tags": [
"chemical irritant",
"Department of Homeland Security",
"immigration",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
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],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Henry Cherry (Independent)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Student photojournalist blocked by police from leaving LA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-photojournalist-blocked-by-police-from-leaving-la-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2026-05-08T17:16:00.483581Z",
"last_published_at": "2026-05-08T17:16:00.483581Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2026-05-08T17:14:04.474872Z",
"date": "2026-03-28",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"w-block-rich_text block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"ayi7o\">Ethan Cohen, a student photojournalist for California State University’s Long Beach Current, was caught in a police kettle with other media and threatened with arrest while documenting a protest in Los Angeles on March 28, 2026.</p><p data-block-key=\"bumsf\">The protest followed a “No Kings” demonstration held earlier in the day in LA, <a href=\"https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/live/no-kings-protests-recap-more-than-8-million-turned-out-across-all-50-states-organizers-say-135920433.html\">one of thousands</a> across the U.S. that organizers said drew more than 8 million people against Trump administration policies.</p><p data-block-key=\"dhfnm\">After the main march, people gathered outside downtown LA’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where immigrants are held, and the Roybal Federal Building, locations where many demonstrations have centered since sweeping immigration enforcement began in the city <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/la-protests-national-guard-trump.html\">in June 2025</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"6jch1\">Later, the LA Police Department called for a dispersal order and began making arrests. Officers formed a kettle, a tactic used to surround and control a crowd, and instructed credentialed press to leave the kettle and continue documenting from the sidewalk.</p><p data-block-key=\"9fph8\">“That somewhat affected my coverage, to where I wasn’t able to get out,” Cohen said. “It was one of those things where next thing you know, you were surrounded.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2n3q8\">At first, Cohen and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2026-03-28&date_upper=2026-03-28&tags=kettle\">other journalists</a> stayed in the kettle to document the arrests, asserting their rights under California law, which allows members of the press to cover protests and exempts them from dispersal orders. It also protects them from arrest or interference by police while doing so. A <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-struck-with-baton-finger-injured-amid-protests-in-downtown-la/\">federal preliminary injunction</a> against the city is in place to uphold those protections.</p><p data-block-key=\"av6rs\">In <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/shoton35mm.bsky.social/post/3midf7g74ac2y\">a video</a> that reporter Lexis-Olivier Ray, who was also in the kettle, posted to the social platform Bluesky, an officer points at him and tells him to leave the area.</p><p data-block-key=\"33d63\">“We’re giving you an opportunity for legitimate media to leave, because we’re going to make arrests,” the officer said.</p><p data-block-key=\"d9152\">Ray replied, “But you’re not going to arrest media, are you?”</p><p data-block-key=\"fnk32\">“Yes, we are. We gave you a dispersal order. We asked you to leave.”</p><p data-block-key=\"28rs\">The journalists were held in the kettle for at least 30 minutes. Cohen and others were eventually allowed to leave after police negotiated the exit of the media with Adam Rose, press rights chair of the LA Press Club. Rose is also deputy director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, of which the Tracker is a project.</p><p data-block-key=\"8ah0q\">In a written <a href=\"https://www.lapdonline.org/newsroom/chief-of-police-statement-no-kings-3-0-protest-in-downtown-los-angeles-nr26067mb/\">statement shared April 2</a>, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said that police were responding to acts of violence and vandalism and eventually issued a dispersal order. Anyone identifying as a “duly authorized” member of the media was contacted, verified and separated from those arrested for failure to disperse, according to the statement. McDonnell added that any use of force or allegations of mistreatment involving media members would be investigated and addressed.</p><p data-block-key=\"9u0f1\">“The LAPD recognizes the media’s right to cover events and makes reasonable efforts to accommodate, with those efforts consistent with our primary duty to maintain public safety and order,” the statement said.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/2026-03-29T021159Z_800445453_RC2T.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"x11j6\">Police officers at a protest in Los Angeles, California, on March 28, 2026. Photojournalist Ethan Cohen was kettled by police, unable to leave, while covering the demonstration.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Los Angeles Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": "2026-03-28",
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
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"actor": null,
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"denial_of_entry": false,
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"name": "California",
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},
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"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"immigration",
"kettle",
"protest",
"student journalism"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Ethan Cohen ([California State University] Long Beach Current)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Independent photographer hit with pepper balls while covering LA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-photographer-hit-with-pepper-balls-while-covering-la-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2026-05-04T15:06:08.559843Z",
"last_published_at": "2026-05-04T15:06:08.559843Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2026-05-04T15:06:08.461274Z",
"date": "2026-03-28",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"w-block-rich_text block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"7bvw0\">Independent photographer Hank Leahy was hit in the leg by pepper balls fired by federal agents while documenting an immigration protest in downtown Los Angeles, California, on March 28, 2026.</p><p data-block-key=\"a32v8\">The protest followed LA’s “No Kings” demonstration, <a href=\"https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/live/no-kings-protests-recap-more-than-8-million-turned-out-across-all-50-states-organizers-say-135920433.html\">one of some 3,300</a> against Trump administration policies that took place that day across the U.S., drawing more than 8 million people nationwide, organizers said.</p><p data-block-key=\"936h3\">After the main march, people gathered outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, where immigrants are held, and the Roybal Federal Building, locations where many demonstrations have centered since sweeping immigration enforcement began in the city <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/la-protests-national-guard-trump.html\">in June 2025</a>. The LA Police Department said 75 people were <a href=\"https://ktla.com/news/local-news/75-arrested-during-downtown-los-angeles-no-kings-protest/\">arrested</a> after officers issued a dispersal order and declared an unlawful assembly.</p><p data-block-key=\"5b8pf\">Leahy told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was among a group of photographers standing next to the fence outside the detention center when Department of Homeland Security officers fired chemical irritants from inside the fence.</p><p data-block-key=\"d9g2a\">“I felt a sharp impact on the back of my leg, followed by a cloud of white dust.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9naid\">Leahy, who was wearing a lanyard with his press identification cards, said he did not know whether the officers targeted him as a member of the press, because they “tend to use deterrents on everyone in the area.”</p><p data-block-key=\"aphku\">He added that the dust from the pepper balls seeped through a gap in his goggles, “causing severe eye pain” and impacting his directional awareness.</p><p data-block-key=\"b9geb\">DHS did not respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"dufr7\">The Tracker has documented <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2026-03-28&date_upper=2026-03-28&city=Los+Angeles\">more than 20</a> press freedom violations committed by local and federal law enforcement at the March 28 protest in LA.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Federal_agents_fire_chemical_irri.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"oxxc1\">Federal agents fire chemical irritants into a crowd at a protest at an immigration detention center in Los Angeles, California, on March 28, 2026. Independent photographer Hank Leahy was hit in the leg by pepper balls fired by the agents.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
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"tags": [
"chemical irritant",
"Department of Homeland Security",
"immigration",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Hank Leahy (Independent)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Police surround student journalist, escort him from LA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/police-surround-student-journalist-escort-him-from-la-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2026-04-21T20:05:52.859256Z",
"last_published_at": "2026-04-21T20:05:52.859256Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2026-04-21T20:05:52.747408Z",
"date": "2026-03-28",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
"latitude": 34.05223,
"body": "<div class=\"w-block-rich_text block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"20c5d\">Abraham Elizalde, an art director and photographer for Los Angeles Pierce College’s The Bull Magazine, was cornered by police, ordered to show press credentials and escorted away from a protest that he was covering in downtown Los Angeles, California, on March 28, 2026.</p><p data-block-key=\"7475b\">LA’s “No Kings” protest was one of some 3,300 <a href=\"https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/live/no-kings-protests-recap-more-than-8-million-turned-out-across-all-50-states-organizers-say-135920433.html\">demonstrations</a> against Trump administration policies that took place that day across the U.S., drawing more than 8 million people nationwide, organizers said.</p><p data-block-key=\"f51ln\">After the main protest march, people gathered outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, where immigrants are held, and the Roybal Federal Building, locations where many demonstrations have centered since sweeping immigration enforcement began in the city <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/la-protests-national-guard-trump.html\">in June 2025</a>. The LA Police Department said 75 people were <a href=\"https://ktla.com/news/local-news/75-arrested-during-downtown-los-angeles-no-kings-protest/\">arrested</a> after officers issued a dispersal order and declared an unlawful assembly.</p><p data-block-key=\"6cf9p\">Violet Garcia, editor-in-chief of The Bull Magazine, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she arrived to cover the events near the detention center along with Elizalde, photographer Victor Montiel and managing editor Daniela Raymundo.</p><p data-block-key=\"21g74\">Elizalde, Garcia and Raymundo had press passes issued by Pierce College, while Montiel was carrying a credential issued by the Press Photographers Association of Greater LA. All four were carrying professional camera equipment.</p><p data-block-key=\"2k5ub\">Garcia said they entered an area near the intersection of Temple and Alameda streets at around 7 p.m. after showing credentials to an officer, who she described as “collaborative.” The officer told them, however, that they entered at their own risk.</p><p data-block-key=\"22jj7\">Garcia said the area was heavily barricaded and separate from larger crowds, and that she saw protesters assisting others who had been affected by chemical irritants.</p><p data-block-key=\"6cfm4\">“While I was filming a woman questioning officers about their conduct toward her, a group of media members was suddenly confronted by different, visibly armed officers,” Garcia said, adding that the officers “shouted orders for press to show credentials yet again.”</p><p data-block-key=\"flfan\">The conflict escalated, Garcia said, when some journalists resisted showing passes, citing their First Amendment rights, and the LAPD “would no longer allow any of us to leave prior to showing our credentials again, whether we wanted to leave that instant or not.”</p><p data-block-key=\"45gi1\">“They kept us in a circular group, holding guns in their arms in front of their torsos, and were now screaming orders, not at protesters but at the media. Some who tried to walk away were stopped and forced to wait,” Garcia recounted.</p><p data-block-key=\"e5po6\">Officers then began “escorting” press out two at a time, she said, walking them back to an intersection a block away, Garcia said. The police warned that they were going to begin arresting people and deploying chemical irritants.</p><p data-block-key=\"b4ord\">Garcia said that she, her staff and other journalists in the group began to feel mild effects of tear gas nearby, but couldn’t see where it was coming from.</p><p data-block-key=\"eoset\">“Our eyes were stinging, and then it went a little bit past stinging, and they were burning and tearing up, but we were still able to see. Our noses were starting to burn a little bit as well. And then some of my colleagues started to describe a foul taste,” Garcia, who was wearing a KN95 mask, explained.</p><p data-block-key=\"5ru5b\">“Some further protested being sent out, citing that, as press, we had a right to stay and document. The LAPD reiterated it didn’t matter who; if we were in the way, they would spray,” she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"7vvrp\">Garcia said that she and her staff members were escorted out and then denied reentry to that area, without further explanation.</p><p data-block-key=\"69bjd\">In a written <a href=\"https://www.lapdonline.org/newsroom/chief-of-police-statement-no-kings-3-0-protest-in-downtown-los-angeles-nr26067mb/\">statement shared April 2</a>, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said that police were responding to acts of violence and vandalism and eventually issued a dispersal order. Anyone identifying as a “duly authorized” member of the media was contacted, verified and separated from those facing arrest for failure to disperse, according to the statement.</p><p data-block-key=\"8e52k\">McDonnell added that any use of force or allegations of mistreatment, including those involving media members, would be investigated and addressed.</p><p data-block-key=\"cfp8g\">“The LAPD recognizes the media’s right to cover events and makes reasonable efforts to accommodate, with those efforts consistent with our primary duty to maintain public safety and order,” the statement said.</p><p data-block-key=\"a2q25\">The Tracker has documented <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2026-03-28&date_upper=2026-03-28&city=Los+Angeles\">more than a dozen other instances</a> of journalists being obstructed, detained and assaulted on March 28 in LA.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/A_protester_is_arrested_outside_a.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880_tv0SiaE.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"tvq02\">A protester is arrested outside an immigration detention center in downtown Los Angeles on March 28, 2026. Journalist Abraham Elizalde of Los Angeles Pierce College’s The Bull Magazine was surrounded by police and escorted away from the protest.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Los Angeles Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
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"detention_date": "2026-03-28",
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"name": "California",
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"chemical irritant",
"immigration",
"kettle",
"protest",
"student journalism"
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"categories": [
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],
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},
{
"title": "Reporter pushed, hit with projectiles and obstructed from reporting at LA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-pushed-hit-with-projectiles-and-obstructed-from-reporting-at-la-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2026-04-13T17:51:47.532176Z",
"last_published_at": "2026-04-13T17:51:47.532176Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2026-04-13T17:51:47.380642Z",
"date": "2026-03-28",
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"city": "Los Angeles",
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"body": "<div class=\"w-block-rich_text block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"rok2h\">Kevin Foster, an independent journalist, was shoved by police and struck with crowd-control munitions while covering a protest in Los Angeles, California, on March 28, 2026.</p><p data-block-key=\"7rue6\">The protest followed a “No Kings” demonstration held earlier in the day in LA, <a href=\"https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/live/no-kings-protests-recap-more-than-8-million-turned-out-across-all-50-states-organizers-say-135920433.html\">one of thousands</a> across the U.S. that organizers said drew more than 8 million people against Trump administration policies.</p><p data-block-key=\"9f1tb\">After the main march, people gathered outside downtown LA’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where immigrants are held, and the Roybal Federal Building, locations where many demonstrations have centered since sweeping immigration enforcement began in the city <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/la-protests-national-guard-trump.html\">in June 2025</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"ckv1i\">In <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/reel/1661619764869279\">a video</a> Foster posted to Facebook, he shows clips of himself being shot at with pepper balls fired by Department of Homeland Security officers, one of which he said was aimed at eye level, and another that hit the sleeve of his upper left arm.</p><p data-block-key=\"a764a\">In another video, <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWdfjv3AYxQ/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==\">posted on Instagram</a>, Foster said he was hit in the chest with a pepper ball, leaving chemical irritant on his shirt and the lanyard holding his press badge. He did not respond to a request for comment, and it’s unclear if the pepper ball was fired by DHS or if his badge was damaged.</p><p data-block-key=\"9h7a4\">Foster, who was wearing a helmet clearly marked as press, also showed himself being shoved by an LA Police Department officer.</p><p data-block-key=\"76eq7\">“Their line was disorganized. He could’ve just tapped me,” he wrote in text accompanying the video.</p><p data-block-key=\"a3h4q\">In a separate <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/reels/DWmlbq5kuMB/\">video</a> Foster posted to Instagram, an officer tells him and other reporters to move to the sidewalk. It also shows L.A. Taco reporter <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-pushed-by-police-threatened-with-arrest-at-la-protest/\">Lexis-Olivier Ray</a> being pushed by an officer.</p><p data-block-key=\"2qdsm\">Later, the LAPD called for a dispersal order and began making arrests. Officers formed a kettle, a tactic used to surround and control a crowd, and instructed credentialed press to leave the kettle and continue documenting from the sidewalk.</p><p data-block-key=\"4eu43\">Some journalists <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2026-03-28&date_upper=2026-03-28&tags=kettle\">stayed in the kettle</a> to document the arrests, asserting their rights under California law, which allows members of the press to cover protests and exempts them from dispersal orders. It also protects them from arrest or interference by police while doing so. A <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-struck-with-baton-finger-injured-amid-protests-in-downtown-la/\">federal preliminary injunction</a> against the city is in place to uphold those protections.</p><p data-block-key=\"4gr1u\">In the Facebook video, Foster said he left the arrest area because he assumed he’d be detained otherwise. In the Instagram video, Foster, walking and wearing a gas mask, said, “We’re not allowed to document what’s going on. They want to do this mass arrest in secret?”</p><p data-block-key=\"8i1k7\">In <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/reels/DWcz3K0iFr1/\">another video</a>, Foster said reporters argued with police for about half hour about letting them get closer, and at one point were told that they had good enough lenses to document from a far distance.</p><p data-block-key=\"9qc6d\">“We’re just trying to do our jobs and get down there,” Foster said. “What are we supposed to do if they don’t let us do our jobs?”</p><p data-block-key=\"7jrh0\">DHS did not reply to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"eqk99\">In a written <a href=\"https://www.lapdonline.org/newsroom/chief-of-police-statement-no-kings-3-0-protest-in-downtown-los-angeles-nr26067mb/\">statement shared April 2</a>, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said that police were responding to acts of violence and vandalism and eventually issued a dispersal order. Anyone identifying as a “duly authorized” member of the media was contacted, verified and separated from those arrested for failure to disperse, according to the statement.</p><p data-block-key=\"5c12i\">McDonnell added that any use of force or allegations of mistreatment involving media members would be investigated and addressed.</p><p data-block-key=\"3qisb\">“The LAPD recognizes the media’s right to cover events and makes reasonable efforts to accommodate, with those efforts consistent with our primary duty to maintain public safety and order,” the statement said.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Screenshot_2026-04-07_at_4.34.42P.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"2r1hp\">Police responding to a protest in Los Angeles, California, on March 28, 2026. Journalist Kevin Foster was shoved by police and struck with crowd-control munitions while covering the protest.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
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"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
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"name_of_business": null,
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"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
"updates": [],
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"tags": [
"chemical irritant",
"Department of Homeland Security",
"immigration",
"protest",
"shot / shot at"
],
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"authors": [],
"categories": [
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],
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"Kevin Foster (Independent)"
],
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},
{
"title": "Photographer hit in the shoulder with projectile at LA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-hit-in-the-shoulder-with-projectile-at-la-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2026-04-27T13:30:15.854679Z",
"last_published_at": "2026-04-27T13:30:15.854679Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2026-04-27T13:30:15.689826Z",
"date": "2026-03-28",
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"city": "Los Angeles",
"longitude": -118.24368,
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"body": "<div class=\"w-block-rich_text block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"cqx5f\">Independent photographer Steven Berumen was struck in the shoulder with a crowd-control munition while documenting a protest against immigration raids in Los Angeles, California, on March 28, 2026.</p><p data-block-key=\"2djdk\">The protest followed a “No Kings” demonstration held earlier in the day in LA, <a href=\"https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/live/no-kings-protests-recap-more-than-8-million-turned-out-across-all-50-states-organizers-say-135920433.html\">one of thousands</a> across the U.S. that organizers said drew more than 8 million people against Trump administration policies.</p><p data-block-key=\"ab70d\">After the main march, people gathered outside downtown LA’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where immigrants are held, and the Roybal Federal Building, locations where many demonstrations have centered since sweeping immigration enforcement began in the city <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/la-protests-national-guard-trump.html\">in June 2025</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"7iuqe\">Berumen told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was outside the detention center, in front of a fence, when he was hit with the projectile, which he said was fired by a federal officer and left a small bruise on his shoulder.</p><p data-block-key=\"415f1\">Although he was wearing a press vest and photographing, Berumun added that he couldn’t tell if he was singled out, due to the limited visibility from the amount of tear gas being deployed, which later caused him to choke.</p><p data-block-key=\"9crq\">Later in the day, though, he was targeted by a police officer who shoved his camera in his face.</p><p data-block-key=\"67ldu\">The March 28 rally resulted in <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2026-03-28&date_upper=2026-03-28%E2%80%9D%20with%20%E2%80%9Chttps://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2026-03-28&date_upper=2026-03-28&city=Los+angeles\">at least 19</a> press freedom violations that involved both the Department of Homeland Security and the LA Police Department. DHS did not respond to a request for comment. On the night of the protest, the agency wrote <a href=\"https://x.com/DHSgov/status/2038082883814936848?s=20\">on the social platform X</a> that people at the protest were throwing things at officers, two of whom were receiving medical care after being hit. It did not address the use of munitions against members of the press.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Screenshot_2026-04-24_at_1.59.15P.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.png",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"wvdrv\">Federal agents outside the Metropolitan Detention Center during a protest in Los Angeles, California, on March 28, 2026. Photographer Steven Berumen was struck by a projectile while documenting the demonstration.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
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"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
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"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
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"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
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"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "unknown",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
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"legal_order_venue": null,
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"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
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"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
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"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"chemical irritant",
"Department of Homeland Security",
"immigration",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Steven Berumen (Independent)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Student journalist cornered by LAPD, escorted from protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-journalist-cornered-by-lapd-escorted-from-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2026-04-14T20:52:26.199261Z",
"last_published_at": "2026-04-14T20:52:26.199261Z",
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"body": "<div class=\"w-block-rich_text block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"2s404\">Violet Garcia, editor-in-chief of The Bull Magazine at Los Angeles Pierce College, was blocked by police, ordered to show press credentials and led from a protest that she was covering in downtown Los Angeles, California, on March 28, 2026.</p><p data-block-key=\"65sns\">The protest followed LA’s “No Kings” demonstration, <a href=\"https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/live/no-kings-protests-recap-more-than-8-million-turned-out-across-all-50-states-organizers-say-135920433.html\">one of some 3,300</a> against Trump administration policies that took place that day across the U.S., drawing more than 8 million people nationwide, organizers said.</p><p data-block-key=\"4hsu4\">After the main march, people gathered outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, where immigrants are held, and the Roybal Federal Building, locations where many demonstrations have centered since sweeping immigration enforcement began in the city <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/la-protests-national-guard-trump.html\">in June 2025</a>. The LA Police Department said 75 people were <a href=\"https://ktla.com/news/local-news/75-arrested-during-downtown-los-angeles-no-kings-protest/\">arrested</a> after officers issued a dispersal order and declared an unlawful assembly.</p><p data-block-key=\"dt0du\">Garcia told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she arrived to cover the events near the detention center, along with three other student journalists and photographers from the magazine. She was carrying a press pass issued by Pierce College and professional camera equipment.</p><p data-block-key=\"e0k40\">Garcia said they entered an area near the intersection of Temple and Alameda streets at around 7 p.m. after showing credentials to an officer, whom she described as “collaborative.” The officer told them, however, that they entered at their own risk.</p><p data-block-key=\"4p5p9\">The journalist said the area was heavily barricaded and separate from larger crowds, and that she saw protesters assisting others who had been affected by chemical irritants.</p><p data-block-key=\"cdls5\">“While I was filming a woman questioning officers about their conduct toward her, a group of media members was suddenly confronted by different, visibly armed officers,” Garcia said, adding that the officers “shouted orders for press to show credentials yet again.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bbns\">The conflict escalated, Garcia said, when some journalists resisted showing passes, citing their First Amendment rights, and the LAPD “would no longer allow any of us to leave prior to showing our credentials again, whether we wanted to leave that instant or not.”</p><p data-block-key=\"cn8gl\">“They kept us in a circular group, holding guns in their arms in front of their torsos, and were now screaming orders, not at protesters but at the media. Some who tried to walk away were stopped and forced to wait,” the journalist recounted.</p><p data-block-key=\"2mrdq\">Officers then began “escorting” press out two at a time, she said, walking them back to an intersection a block away. The police warned that they were going to begin arresting people and deploying chemical irritants.</p><p data-block-key=\"86l45\">Garcia said that she, her staff and other journalists in the group began to mildly feel the effects of tear gas nearby, but couldn’t see where it was coming from. “Our eyes were stinging, and then it went a little bit past stinging, and they were burning and tearing up, but we were still able to see. Our noses were starting to burn a little bit as well. And then some of my colleagues started to describe a foul taste,” Garcia, who was wearing a KN95 mask, explained.</p><p data-block-key=\"1ogil\">“Some further protested being sent out, citing that, as press, we had a right to stay and document. The LAPD reiterated it didn’t matter who; if we were in the way, they would spray,” she said.</p><p data-block-key=\"2tsvh\">“Although I was not officially detained, I felt I had no other option. I was physically blocked and stuck in the area. My choices were to move myself or let them move me, regardless of my rights.”</p><p data-block-key=\"9fqk2\">She and her fellow student journalists were ultimately escorted out and then denied reentry to that area, without further explanation.</p><p data-block-key=\"8n5g3\">In a written <a href=\"https://www.lapdonline.org/newsroom/chief-of-police-statement-no-kings-3-0-protest-in-downtown-los-angeles-nr26067mb/\">statement shared April 2</a>, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said that police were responding to acts of violence and vandalism and eventually issued a dispersal order. Anyone identifying as a “duly authorized” member of the media was contacted, verified and separated from those facing arrest for failure to disperse, according to the statement.</p><p data-block-key=\"8ua2l\">McDonnell added that any use of force or allegations of mistreatment, including those involving media members, would be investigated and addressed.</p><p data-block-key=\"7e23h\">“The LAPD recognizes the media’s right to cover events and makes reasonable efforts to accommodate, with those efforts consistent with our primary duty to maintain public safety and order,” the statement said.</p><p data-block-key=\"8ijhp\">The Tracker has documented <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2026-03-28&date_upper=2026-03-28&city=Los+Angeles\">numerous other instances</a> of journalists being obstructed, detained and assaulted while covering the March 28 protest in LA.</p></div>",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"nn7yw\">Police arrest a protester outside an immigration detention center in downtown Los Angeles on March 28, 2026. Violet Garcia, editor-in-chief of Los Angeles Pierce College’s The Bull Magazine, was surrounded by police and escorted away from the protest.</p>",
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{
"title": "Reporter shoved, lunged at by police at LA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-shoved-lunged-at-by-police-at-la-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2026-04-01T17:06:27.347262Z",
"last_published_at": "2026-04-07T20:31:37.384321Z",
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"body": "<div class=\"w-block-rich_text block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"6xxmy\">Ryanne Mena, a reporter for the Los Angeles Daily News, was pushed by one police officer and lunged at by another while covering a protest in Los Angeles, California, on March 28, 2026.</p><p data-block-key=\"ec5c\">The protest followed a “No Kings” demonstration held earlier in the day in LA, <a href=\"https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/live/no-kings-protests-recap-more-than-8-million-turned-out-across-all-50-states-organizers-say-135920433.html\">one of thousands</a> across the U.S. that organizers said drew more than 8 million people against Trump administration policies.</p><p data-block-key=\"b76u3\">After the main march, people gathered outside downtown LA’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where immigrants are held, and the Roybal Federal Building, locations where many demonstrations have centered since sweeping immigration enforcement began in the city <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/la-protests-national-guard-trump.html\">in June 2025</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"9ci8c\">Mena, who was wearing a press badge, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she was near the detention center when federal agents began deploying tear gas and chemical irritants. By the time she put on her safety goggles, the irritant had already seeped into her eyes.</p><p data-block-key=\"eh3fc\">“I was totally debilitated; it was really painful,” Mena said.</p><p data-block-key=\"1dsu8\">Later on, the LA Police Department started pushing protesters away. In one video Mena shared with the Tracker, officers are seen telling her to move.</p><p data-block-key=\"e4loe\">“I’m a journalist; I don’t have to go,” Mena said.</p><p data-block-key=\"99r8f\">“No, you’ve got to go,” an officer responded before pushing her.</p><p data-block-key=\"87a5c\">“Don’t push me,” Mena said. “It’s literally the law. I can be here. I’m a journalist.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2gbgl\">Shortly after, as she moved toward the sidewalk to film from a different vantage point, another officer lunged at her with a baton. Video of the encounter was <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWdfzNPgtgo/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==\">later posted to Instagram.</a> In a separate video Mena shared with the Tracker, the same officer can be heard warning her not to follow too closely behind him.</p><p data-block-key=\"40med\">Also that day, Mena and about a dozen other journalists were sequestered to a designated area while <a href=\"https://ktla.com/news/local-news/75-arrested-during-downtown-los-angeles-no-kings-protest/\">officers made arrests</a>. News media were not allowed to get close enough to document the process.</p><p data-block-key=\"fhduk\">“I couldn’t report an accurate number of arrests that evening. I couldn’t document how those arrests were taking place,” Mena said. “And that’s a pretty important part of the story.”</p><p data-block-key=\"cvak1\">In a written <a href=\"https://www.lapdonline.org/newsroom/chief-of-police-statement-no-kings-3-0-protest-in-downtown-los-angeles-nr26067mb/\">statement shared April 2</a>, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said that police were responding to acts of violence and vandalism and eventually issued a dispersal order. Anyone identifying as a “duly authorized” member of the media was contacted, verified and separated from those facing arrest for failure to disperse, according to the statement. McDonnell added that any use of force or allegations of mistreatment, including those involving media members, would be investigated and addressed.</p><p data-block-key=\"2148b\">“The LAPD recognizes the media’s right to cover events and makes reasonable efforts to accommodate, with those efforts consistent with our primary duty to maintain public safety and order,” the statement said. </p><p data-block-key=\"b8qpn\"><i>Update: This story was revised to include a comment from the LAPD’s police chief. </i></p></div>",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"ptu7l\">A police line at a “No Kings” protest against Trump administration policies on March 28, 2026, in Los Angeles, California. Reporter Ryanne Mena was pushed by an officer while covering the demonstration.</p>",
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"Ryanne Mena ([Los Angeles] Daily News)"
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{
"title": "Student documentarian detained, zip-tied while covering LA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-documentarian-detained-zip-tied-while-covering-la-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2026-04-06T18:21:11.932195Z",
"last_published_at": "2026-04-08T13:31:24.912532Z",
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"body": "<div class=\"w-block-rich_text block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"jff78\">Film student Giovanni Cruz was detained in a police kettle and placed in zip ties while he was documenting a protest outside an immigration detention center in downtown Los Angeles, California, on March 28, 2026.</p><p data-block-key=\"eibhf\">LA’s “No Kings” protest was one of some 3,300 <a href=\"https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/live/no-kings-protests-recap-more-than-8-million-turned-out-across-all-50-states-organizers-say-135920433.html\">demonstrations</a> against Trump administration policies that took place that day across the U.S., drawing more than 8 million people nationwide, organizers said.</p><p data-block-key=\"bnnrk\">After the main protest march, people gathered outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, where immigrants are held, and the Roybal Federal Building, locations where many demonstrations have centered since sweeping immigration enforcement began in the city <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/la-protests-national-guard-trump.html\">in June 2025</a>. The LA Police Department said 75 people were <a href=\"https://ktla.com/news/local-news/75-arrested-during-downtown-los-angeles-no-kings-protest/\">arrested</a> after officers issued a dispersal order and declared an unlawful assembly.</p><p data-block-key=\"8jtev\">Cruz and <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-journalist-detained-zip-tied-while-documenting-la-protest/\">Jose Ossa</a>, students in film and TV production at California State University, Dominguez Hills, went to the protest to capture B-roll footage for a documentary about photography as social activism they’re working on for a course, Ossa told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.</p><p data-block-key=\"7e33q\">Cruz was carrying a Fujifilm photo camera, and Ossa was carrying a cinema camera, clearly indicating that both were there to document the protest.</p><p data-block-key=\"5lr4i\">Ossa said they went to the area near the detention center to try to meet up with a photographer they had interviewed as part of their film project. But as they approached the adjacent intersection near the detention center, his eyes and later his respiratory system were affected by the residue of a chemical irritant in the air, even though he was wearing a mask and goggles. They had to retreat from the area twice before the air cleared.</p><p data-block-key=\"fofmu\">Cruz told the Tracker that he was briefly affected by the irritant, but was protected by his mask and goggles.</p><p data-block-key=\"19jfp\">They eventually were able to approach the gate of the detention center, where protesters had gathered, and saw that police behind the gate had started to come out and were throwing individuals to the ground and detaining them, Ossa said.</p><p data-block-key=\"5r675\">The LAPD then started setting up blockades that penned in the protesters and press who were in front of the detention center, Ossa said. Police began to push inward from both directions, effectively sandwiching the crowd, and then closed off the group in a semicircle to form a kettle.</p><p data-block-key=\"8iuqm\">Ossa said that police allowed some, but not all, members of the press who were in the kettle to leave.</p><p data-block-key=\"2vsfq\">Ossa, holding his cinema camera and student ID, made his way to the front and informed the same officer twice that he and Cruz were students and were there to film a documentary. He asked if they were allowed to leave, but got little reaction from the officer.</p><p data-block-key=\"cu2cm\">Around 15 minutes later, Ossa went to the side of the kettle and relayed the same information to a row of four officers, again asking to leave. The officers did not respond.</p><p data-block-key=\"a52gg\">“There was no effort made to get me and my classmate, Giovanni, out of there, even though we were members of the press. We were clearly there to document.”</p><p data-block-key=\"bvrki\">Ossa said he and Cruz remained in the kettle as police grabbed and arrested others, further compressing the group.</p><p data-block-key=\"39kp4\">Eventually, the two students were the only people remaining in the kettle, Ossa said. The police put Cruz and Ossa in zip ties.</p><p data-block-key=\"c52jp\">Ossa said a lead officer questioned him about why they were there. Ossa explained again, in detail, that he and Cruz were students making a documentary.</p><p data-block-key=\"embiu\">After around five minutes, that officer said the two students could go, indicating that he was doing them a favor, Ossa said. The officer told the student journalist that he could have confiscated the camera and detained them.</p><p data-block-key=\"1dm88\">In a written <a href=\"https://www.lapdonline.org/newsroom/chief-of-police-statement-no-kings-3-0-protest-in-downtown-los-angeles-nr26067mb/\">statement shared April 2</a>, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said that police were responding to acts of violence and vandalism and eventually issued a dispersal order. Anyone identifying as a “duly authorized” member of the media was contacted, verified and separated from those facing arrest for failure to disperse, according to the statement. </p><p data-block-key=\"bllf9\">McDonnell added that any use of force or allegations of mistreatment, including those involving media members, would be investigated and addressed.</p><p data-block-key=\"dimh\">“The LAPD recognizes the media’s right to cover events and makes reasonable efforts to accommodate, with those efforts consistent with our primary duty to maintain public safety and order,” the statement said. </p><p data-block-key=\"5kitq\">A September preliminary injunction <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-struck-with-baton-finger-injured-amid-protests-in-downtown-la/\">barred</a> LAPD officers from interfering with journalists covering protests, including by arresting, detaining or citing them solely for failing to disperse.</p><p data-block-key=\"4ahbr\">The Tracker has documented <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2026-03-28&date_upper=2026-03-28&city=Los+Angeles\">multiple cases</a> of journalists who faced press violations that day by the LAPD and federal agents.</p><p data-block-key=\"98skt\"><i>Update: This story was revised to include a comment from the LAPD’s police chief. </i></p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"3u8ih\">Police detain protesters and members of the press in a police kettle in Los Angeles, California, after a “No Kings” rally on March 28, 2026. Giovanni Cruz, a film student documenting the protest, was detained and put in zip ties before being released.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Los Angeles Police Department",
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{
"title": "Journalist shoved, detained while covering LA protest",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-shoved-detained-while-covering-la-protest/",
"first_published_at": "2026-04-23T21:16:53.488619Z",
"last_published_at": "2026-04-23T21:16:53.488619Z",
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"body": "<div class=\"w-block-rich_text block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"7jhz5\">Independent journalist Luke Harold was shoved by a federal agent while documenting an immigration protest in downtown Los Angeles, California, on March 28, 2026, and was later kettled by police and taken to the police station, before being released without charge.</p><p data-block-key=\"bp8r9\">The protest followed LA’s “No Kings” demonstration, <a href=\"https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/live/no-kings-protests-recap-more-than-8-million-turned-out-across-all-50-states-organizers-say-135920433.html\">one of some 3,300</a> against Trump administration policies that took place that day across the U.S., drawing more than 8 million people nationwide, organizers said.</p><p data-block-key=\"16ep7\">After the main march, people gathered outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, where immigrants are held, and the Roybal Federal Building, locations where many demonstrations have centered since sweeping immigration enforcement began in the city <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/la-protests-national-guard-trump.html\">in June 2025</a>. The LA Police Department said 75 people were <a href=\"https://ktla.com/news/local-news/75-arrested-during-downtown-los-angeles-no-kings-protest/\">arrested</a> after officers issued a dispersal order and declared an unlawful assembly.</p><p data-block-key=\"1gl3o\">Harold told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he went to take photos and videos of the protest independently, although he is also a reporter for The San Diego Union-Tribune and member of the journalism faculty at the University of Southern California Annenberg.</p><p data-block-key=\"9hcmi\">He said he was standing in front of the federal building when a few people started kicking the fence and throwing objects over it toward Department of Homeland Security officers on the other side. In response, DHS officers started firing tear gas canisters and pepper balls at the crowd, and most people retreated.</p><p data-block-key=\"8kdup\">He said he was mostly protected by a gas mask and goggles, but that his eyes were badly affected by the chemical irritants at one point, when he rushed to put on the goggles and they didn’t seal properly.</p><p data-block-key=\"clmbn\">Shortly after, he was shoved by one of the DHS officers. Harold and other members of the press were documenting officers piled on top of a protester and pinning him to the ground, as other officers formed a perimeter and issued warnings to stay back.</p><p data-block-key=\"3rv68\">“Those of us who were there trying to document it were not in the way at all, and we were responsive to verbal warnings to stay out of the way as they walked the protester into the building. But that one DHS officer still aggressively walked up to us to shove us backward anyway,” Harold said.</p><p data-block-key=\"79rc7\">The journalist captured the incident in a <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DWcublvj0nI/\">video</a> posted on Instagram.</p><p data-block-key=\"1mquj\">Around the same time, LAPD officers blocked off both ends of the block, effectively penning in the group of protesters and press. Harold said he received a dispersal order <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DWdSPdBjmVb/\">on his phone</a> at that point.</p><p data-block-key=\"6m35n\">“Many others inside the kettle agreed that the phone notification was the first we heard of a dispersal order, but we were not free to leave at that point,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"2g2g4\">The police instructed members of the press to go to the sidewalk, and one officer said that press could leave. Harold, who was carrying his digital camera, explained to multiple officers that he was press, was working independently that day and was also employed by the Union-Tribune and USC. However, he was told repeatedly to wait — even when he was sent by an officer to speak to a supervisor.</p><p data-block-key=\"bpoe3\">“I know from dealing with LAPD in my previous job and from this last year covering these protests that if you’re not legacy media or on assignment for an outlet they’re familiar with, the officers on the ground will not consider you a journalist, even though that’s not a legally viable position for them to take,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"82u7b\">A September preliminary injunction <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-struck-with-baton-finger-injured-amid-protests-in-downtown-la/\">barred</a> LAPD officers from interfering with journalists covering protests, including by arresting, detaining or citing them solely for failing to disperse. The <a href=\"https://firstamendmentcoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/LAPC-v.-City-of-LA-Order-Granting-PI-9-11-2025.pdf\">order</a> also states that journalists are not required to wear credentials or work for a major media outlet to be considered press, and that carrying professional gear, such as photographic equipment, should be seen as an indicator they are there as journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"eiode\">After about an hour in the kettle, Harold was zip-tied and taken to the booking area of LAPD headquarters. As they were processing his citation for failure to disperse, he asked why he wasn’t allowed to leave the kettle when he identified himself as a member of the press.</p><p data-block-key=\"6mj4a\">He was then pulled aside and eventually spoke to an officer later identified as Lt. Bruce Coss, a media liaison. Harold again explained that he was a journalist, there to document the protest independently, and described his professional affiliations.</p><p data-block-key=\"9j8qf\">“He’s telling me that I was out there as a journalist, but I wasn’t on assignment for anyone, so he said something to the effect that that puts me in a gray area, as far as they’re concerned. He asked if I understood that. I told him no, I don’t understand that. My full-time living for the last 11 years has been as a journalist in Southern California, and that includes my freelance and independent work,” Harold said.</p><p data-block-key=\"a702l\">“It kind of defeats the purpose of journalism if LAPD gets to regulate who gets to hold them accountable in those situations,” he added.</p><p data-block-key=\"2heo9\">The officers eventually acknowledged that Harold was a member of the press and let him go without a citation for failure to disperse. He said his belongings, including his digital camera and phone, which were confiscated when he was arrested, were returned to him.</p><p data-block-key=\"4sodd\">However, the journalist said that Coss and another officer separately gave him warnings that if he went back out to the federal building, he could get arrested again, and then they would give him a citation.</p><p data-block-key=\"5kloh\">“So on one hand, they’re acknowledging that I’m a journalist and letting me go without a citation, but on the other, they’re saying I won’t have the protections I’m supposed to be entitled to if I go back out there and continue to act as a journalist, which perfectly sums up the arbitrary standards, if not outright disregard, they have for the terms of the federal injunction,” he said.</p><p data-block-key=\"b4hs3\">In a written <a href=\"https://www.lapdonline.org/newsroom/chief-of-police-statement-no-kings-3-0-protest-in-downtown-los-angeles-nr26067mb/\">statement shared April 2</a>, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said that police were responding to acts of violence and vandalism and eventually issued a dispersal order. Anyone identifying as a “duly authorized” member of the media was contacted, verified and separated from those facing arrest for failure to disperse, according to the statement.</p><p data-block-key=\"ve3l\">McDonnell added that any use of force or allegations of mistreatment, including those involving media members, would be investigated and addressed.</p><p data-block-key=\"8nd45\">DHS did not respond to a request for comment.</p><p data-block-key=\"bo911\">Several journalists were <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/?date_lower=2026-03-28&date_upper=2026-03-28&city=Los+Angeles&categories=Arrest%2FCriminal+Charge\">detained</a> in the kettle that day; some who showed media credentials were allowed to leave, while others who did not have formal credentials were held for longer.</p><p data-block-key=\"9rav\">“It is frustrating that LAPD lacks any coherent policies or procedures to deal with press at these protests,” Harold said. “You pretty much can’t get an LAPD-issued press card unless you’re legacy media who covers them regularly, which means they have no system in place to deal with the much wider array of journalists who come out to cover something as big as a No Kings Day.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Journalists_document_a_protest_ne.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"h98wn\">Journalists document a protest near a federal building in Los Angeles on March 28, 2026. The photographer, independent journalist Luke Harold, was shoved by a federal agent and detained by LA police that day.</p>",
"arresting_authority": "Los Angeles Police Department",
"arrest_status": "detained and released without being processed",
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": "2026-03-28",
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": null,
"case_type": null,
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": "law enforcement",
"was_journalist_targeted": "yes",
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "California",
"abbreviation": "CA"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [],
"tags": [
"chemical irritant",
"Department of Homeland Security",
"immigration",
"kettle",
"protest"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Arrest/Criminal Charge",
"Assault"
],
"targeted_journalists": [
"Luke Harold (Independent)"
],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
"type_of_denial": []
},
{
"title": "Pentagon responds to court ruling with new press access restrictions",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/pentagon-responds-to-court-ruling-with-new-press-access-restrictions/",
"first_published_at": "2026-05-27T17:09:35.803553Z",
"last_published_at": "2026-05-27T17:09:35.803553Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2026-05-27T17:08:05.302616Z",
"date": "2026-03-23",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Arlington",
"longitude": -77.10428,
"latitude": 38.88101,
"body": "<div class=\"w-block-rich_text block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"41kov\">Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell announced March 23, 2026, that the Defense Department would move journalists from their designated offices in the building into a separate annex and mandate escorts for journalists at the Arlington, Virginia, complex.</p><p data-block-key=\"4ntke\">Parnell, in a statement, <a href=\"https://www.war.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/4441831/statement-by-chief-pentagon-spokesman-sean-parnell-on-implementation-of-revised/\">framed</a> the rules as necessary security measures in response to a March 20 court order that declared portions of the department’s press guidelines, implemented last fall, to be unconstitutional.</p><p data-block-key=\"423hc\">The New York Times, in response, sued the department in federal court on May 18, calling the revised rules unconstitutional.</p><p data-block-key=\"6r16q\">In September 2025, the Pentagon <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/pete-hegseth-restricts-journalists-access-inside-pentagon/\">distributed new restrictions</a> mandating that journalists pledge to obtain approval for releasing information gathered there, even if unclassified, and warning that press credentials could be revoked or denied if a journalist “is reasonably determined to pose a security or safety risk.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5p9fd\">Dozens of Defense Department correspondents refused to sign on to the <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/10/15/business/media/pentagon-press-rules.html\">new guidelines</a> and were then forced to surrender their press badges.</p><p data-block-key=\"2e1vd\">In December, The New York Times sued the Defense Department, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Parnell over the guidelines.</p><p data-block-key=\"f4ppe\">In March 2026, U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71992017/34/new-york-times-company-v-department-of-defense/\">ruled</a> that portions of the September guidelines under which press credentials could be revoked violated the First and Fifth amendments and could not be enforced. He also mandated that the Pentagon restore press credentials to seven Times journalists.</p><p data-block-key=\"47aho\">Three days after the ruling, Parnell announced that the Defense Department would move journalists from their designated offices in the building into a separate annex and mandate escorts for journalists at the Pentagon, <a href=\"https://www.war.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/4441831/statement-by-chief-pentagon-spokesman-sean-parnell-on-implementation-of-revised/\">framing</a> those changes as necessary security measures.</p><p data-block-key=\"5mkip\">Parnell also issued a <a href=\"https://media.defense.gov/2026/Mar/23/2003902148/-1/-1/1/IMPLEMENTATION-OF-REVISED-MEDIA-IN-BRIEF.PDF\">memo</a> to senior Pentagon leadership announcing changes to the wording of the original policy, including a change from prohibiting “solicitation” of information by reporters to “intentional inducement of unauthorized disclosure” of confidential information.</p><p data-block-key=\"1ebd7\">The next day, the Times filed a <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71992017/37/new-york-times-company-v-department-of-defense/\">motion</a> to compel the department to comply with the March 20 order, calling the new policy “an attempted end-run around this Court’s ruling” and the Pentagon’s actions “disrespectful to the Court, the Constitution, and the American public.”</p><p data-block-key=\"a6dob\">Friedman agreed, <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71992017/54/new-york-times-company-v-department-of-defense/\">granting</a> the motion and ruling that the prohibitions on “intentional inducement of unauthorized disclosure,” the escort requirements and the access restrictions on journalists violated his March 20 order and could not be enforced.</p><p data-block-key=\"79p5d\">The Pentagon immediately <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71992017/56/new-york-times-company-v-department-of-defense/\">appealed</a> the ruling and filed an <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73177534/01208840070/new-york-times-company-v-dod/\">emergency request</a> with the appeals court to put the portion of the order reinstating journalists’ unescorted access to the Pentagon’s main building on hold.</p><p data-block-key=\"e503b\">On April 27, two members of a three-judge appellate panel <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73177534/01208844811/new-york-times-company-v-dod/\">allowed</a> the request. They wrote that the escort requirement hadn’t been included in the original guidelines at the core of the Times’ lawsuit, and therefore, the district court’s March order didn’t address it. Also, they wrote, “the district court did not hold that the escort requirement independently violates the First or Fifth Amendment.”</p><p data-block-key=\"6njq6\">In a dissent, Circuit Judge J. Michelle Childs argued that the revised policy had clearly violated the March order and had “imposed a new access regime.”</p><p data-block-key=\"nmvn\">Rather than reinstate the Times reporters’ credentials as the March order intended, Childs wrote, the revisions had substantially reduced access for all credential holders. “Reporters can hardly verify sources, gather information, or speak candidly with Department personnel with an escort looming over their shoulders,” she wrote.</p><p data-block-key=\"8gv41\">Parnell applauded the majority’s ruling, writing on social media, “Despite what many in the media have told you, the Department’s policy has never been about limiting journalism — it is about safeguarding classified information that protects American lives.”</p><p data-block-key=\"921tj\">The Times then filed <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73355736/1/new-york-times-company-v-department-of-defense/\">a new suit</a> in federal court against the Department of Defense, Hegseth, Parnell and department advisor Timothy Parlatore. The outlet’s complaint argued that the revised policy violated both the First and Fifth amendments and asked the court to vacate it.</p><p data-block-key=\"5d19p\">The filing called the revised policy “retaliatory, utterly unreasonable, and manifestly arbitrary and capricious,” and alleged the Pentagon issued it “as a means to thwart a district court order and to punish The Times both for its editorial viewpoint and its successful suit vindicating its constitutional rights.”</p><p data-block-key=\"88ju7\">The Times also requested a <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73355736/6/1/new-york-times-company-v-department-of-defense/\">preliminary injunction</a> preventing the Pentagon from enforcing the escort requirement, pointing out that to ask one question of a Pentagon official, credentialed journalists “must obtain an appointment, get an escort, ask their question, and return to the library located in a separate building—only to repeat the process for the next official.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8sn8k\">The Department has thus made sure, the filing argues, “that certain newsworthy information—obtained through unplanned interactions between credentialed journalists and Department officials on Pentagon grounds, or through conversations with multiple press officials in different press offices—will be simply unavailable to The Times and, accordingly, the public.”</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/Defense_Secretary_Pete_Hegseth_at.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
"primary_video": null,
"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"eo01i\">Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at an April 8, 2026, press briefing at the Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia. The Defense Department instituted new policy guidelines on March 23, 2026, severely curtailing journalists’ access to the building.</p>",
"arresting_authority": null,
"arrest_status": null,
"release_date": null,
"detention_date": null,
"unnecessary_use_of_force": false,
"case_number": "1:26-cv-01690",
"case_type": "CIVIL",
"status_of_seized_equipment": null,
"is_search_warrant_obtained": false,
"actor": null,
"border_point": null,
"target_us_citizenship_status": null,
"denial_of_entry": false,
"stopped_previously": false,
"did_authorities_ask_for_device_access": null,
"did_authorities_ask_about_work": null,
"assailant": null,
"was_journalist_targeted": null,
"charged_under_espionage_act": false,
"subpoena_type": null,
"name_of_business": null,
"third_party_business": null,
"legal_order_venue": null,
"status_of_prior_restraint": null,
"mistakenly_released_materials": false,
"links": [],
"equipment_seized": [],
"equipment_broken": [],
"state": {
"name": "Virginia",
"abbreviation": "VA"
},
"updates": [],
"case_statuses": [
"ongoing"
],
"workers_whose_communications_were_obtained": [],
"target_nationality": [],
"targeted_institutions": [
"Media"
],
"tags": [
"Department of Defense"
],
"politicians_or_public_figures_involved": [
"Federal government: Agency"
],
"authors": [],
"categories": [
"Denial of Access"
],
"targeted_journalists": [],
"subpoena_statuses": null,
"type_of_denial": [
"Change in policy or practice"
]
},
{
"title": "Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth targets news outlets, leakers",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/defense-secretary-pete-hegseth-targets-news-outlets-leakers/",
"first_published_at": "2026-02-17T18:03:13.887855Z",
"last_published_at": "2026-05-07T20:44:01.239114Z",
"latest_revision_created_at": "2026-05-07T20:44:01.136696Z",
"date": "2026-03-09",
"exact_date_unknown": false,
"city": "Washington",
"longitude": -77.03637,
"latitude": 38.89511,
"body": "<div class=\"w-block-rich_text block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"9b0q7\">As the second year of President Donald Trump’s second term began, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth continued taking steps to intimidate leakers and news outlets that have covered Trump and his administration unfavorably. We’re documenting Hegseth’s efforts in 2026 in this regularly updated report.</p><p data-block-key=\"thla\">Read about Hegseth’s efforts in 2025 to chill coverage <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/pete-hegseth-targets-news-outlets-leakers-as-defense-secretary/\">here</a>, and how Trump’s other appointees and allies in Congress are striving to intimidate reporters, revoke funding, censor critical coverage and more <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/blog/trump-allies-pursue-multipronged-campaign-against-the-press/\">here</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"4outl\"><i>This article was first published on Feb. 17, 2026.</i></p></div>\n<div class=\"w-block-raw_html block-raw_html\"><p><a id=\"top\" name=\"top\"></a></p></div>\n<div class=\"w-block-rich_text block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"9b0q7\"></p><hr/><p data-block-key=\"8jq7u\"></p></div>\n<div class=\"w-block-raw_html block-raw_html\"><div class=\"article-content__block rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"258po\">\r\n<p><a href=\"#March 9\">March 9, 2026 | Pentagon sets increased oversight, content limits for military newspaper <i>(updated April 2026)</i></a>\r\n<p><a href=\"#Jan 15\">Jan. 15, 2026 | Defense Department announces overhaul of military newspaper, calling it ‘woke’</a>\r\n</p></div>\n<div class=\"w-block-rich_text block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"9b0q7\"></p><hr/><p data-block-key=\"bm868\"></p></div>\n<div class=\"w-block-raw_html block-raw_html\"><a id=\"March 9\" name=\"March 9\"></a></div>\n<div class=\"w-block-rich_text block-rich_text\"><h4 data-block-key=\"moywj\">March 9, 2026 | Pentagon sets increased oversight, content limits for military newspaper <i>(updated April 2026)</i></h4><p data-block-key=\"7q35q\">The Department of Defense laid out plans to expand oversight of military newspaper Stars and Stripes in a March 9, 2026, memo, as part of a “modernization” of the outlet that left some press freedom observers alarmed over the potential loss of independence.</p><p data-block-key=\"3bvdp\">The memo, sent by Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg and first <a href=\"https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2026-03-13/pentagon-modernization-plan-stars-and-stripes-21051529.html\">reported</a> by Stars and Stripes, outlines an “interim policy” governing the outlet that takes effect immediately.</p><p data-block-key=\"8s0f0\">The memo states that Stars and Stripes will continue to “operate with editorial independence.” But it prohibits the outlet’s use of wire service stories, comic strips and editorial cartoons due to the “digital availability of such content globally,” unless an exception is granted by the assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs.</p><p data-block-key=\"a88r0\">According to the memo, the “primary justification for Stripes’ continued existence is to deliver content, specifically relevant to Service members and their families, that is not usually covered by commercial media.”</p><p data-block-key=\"1o8nu\">It continued, “Accordingly, there is no operational need to serve as a reprint vehicle for commercial news publications that are otherwise readily accessible.”</p><p data-block-key=\"8o3io\">Jacqueline Smith, Stars and Stripes’ ombudsman who is charged by Congress with defending the outlet’s editorial independence, told the outlet that without access to wire service content, the paper would lose the ability to provide reporting on topics such as national sports and entertainment, which “contribute to the morale of troops.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5ifde\">Among other changes, the memo states that the outlet “should” republish Defense Department public affairs materials — clearly labeled as such — as deemed necessary by the publisher, and requires the outlet’s ombudsman to send information previously sent directly to Congress through the department’s Legislative Affairs Office first.</p><p data-block-key=\"81tc\">It also bans reporters from making Freedom of Information Act requests in an official capacity, though it does allow for them to make submissions “in their individual capacities” when not acting on behalf of the outlet.</p><p data-block-key=\"1a5rr\">The policy changes came in the wake of a <a href=\"https://x.com/seanparnellasw/status/2011802849903009991?s=46\">January social media post</a> by Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell, in which he announced plans to overhaul Stars and Stripes and “refocus its content away from woke distractions.”</p><p data-block-key=\"3grph\">Stars and Stripes reported that its leadership and staff were not informed of the changes directly, but instead learned of them when the memo was found in a search of the Defense Department website.</p><p data-block-key=\"e4g8l\">Erik Slavin, Stars and Stripes’ editor-in-chief, said in a statement published by the outlet, “It is unlikely that the Pentagon was aware of the extensive modernization that Stars and Stripes had already begun.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5atj0\">He added, “Over the past year, the changes to our digitally produced news and information have resulted in significant increases in pageviews, engagement and subscribers.”</p><p data-block-key=\"c98k\">The Pentagon memo also states that all content must be consistent with “good order and discipline,” a phrase used in the Uniform Code of Military Justice.</p><p data-block-key=\"6t5m8\">In an <a href=\"https://www.npr.org/2026/03/14/nx-s1-5748020/pentagon-tightens-controls-over-stars-and-stripes-after-calling-it-woke\">interview with NPR</a>, Slavin expressed concern about that aspect of the policy as it applied to staff who are members of the military. “If they were to complete a story that the Defense Department did not like, and did not find ‘consistent with good order and discipline,’ would they be in legal jeopardy?” Slavin said. “We don’t know the answer to that.”</p><p data-block-key=\"1ihho\">Smith, the ombudsman, told <a href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/03/13/pentagon-memo-stars-stripes/\">The Washington Post</a> in an interview that the memo “threatens Stars and Stripes’ continued editorial independence, and it does so at the detriment of the troops who rely on the newspaper for complete coverage and continued accurate coverage that is not propaganda.”</p><p data-block-key=\"aulgt\">Smith was <a href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/04/23/stars-stripes-ombudsman-fired-pentagon/\">later terminated without explanation,</a> according to the Post — she told the paper’s staff she believed she was fired for publicly opposing the changes at the paper.</p><p data-block-key=\"6gq1f\">Tim Richardson, journalism and disinformation program director at PEN America, <a href=\"https://pen.org/press-release/alarm-over-pentagon-move-to-impose-restrictions-on-stars-and-stripes-editorial-independence/\">said</a>, “We are alarmed that a Pentagon memo claims to preserve the independence of Stars and Stripes while simultaneously imposing new restrictions that undermine it.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7dc4r\">He called on Congress to “reaffirm First Amendment protections for Stars and Stripes’ editorial independence and ensure the decades-long firewall between the Pentagon and the newsroom remains firmly intact.”</p><p data-block-key=\"d8fi6\">Parnell, in a March 13 statement reported by Stars and Stripes, said that the Defense Department is returning the outlet to “its original mission: an independent news source for service members stationed overseas that is by the warfighter and for the warfighter.”</p></div>\n<div class=\"w-block-raw_html block-raw_html\"><div class=\"article-content__block rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"258po\">\r\n<p><a href=\"#top\">\r\n<i>Back to Top</i></a></p></div>\r\n<a id=\"Jan 15\" name=\"Jan 15\"></a></div>\n<div class=\"w-block-rich_text block-rich_text\"><h4 data-block-key=\"9b0q7\">Jan. 15, 2026 | Defense Department announces overhaul of military newspaper, calling it ‘woke’</h4><p data-block-key=\"5vfqn\">The Department of Defense announced plans on Jan. 15, 2026, to take over editorial decision-making for the military newspaper Stars and Stripes, in a move that jeopardizes its long-held editorial independence.</p><p data-block-key=\"idmh\">In a <a href=\"https://x.com/seanparnellasw/status/2011802849903009991?s=46\">statement</a> posted to social media, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell defended the move as “returning Stars & Stripes to its original mission: reporting for our warfighters.”</p><p data-block-key=\"140gb\">“We will modernize its operations, refocus its content away from woke distractions that syphon morale, and adapt it to serve a new generation of service members,” he continued. “It will focus on warfighting, weapons systems, fitness, lethality, survivability, and ALL THINGS MILITARY. No more repurposed DC gossip columns; no more Associated Press reprints.”</p><p data-block-key=\"2q9uv\">While the newspaper is partially funded by the Pentagon and its staffers are department employees, the outlet <a href=\"https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2026-01-15/pentagon-refocus-stars-and-stripes-content-20415816.html\">reported</a> that it is directed to emulate the best practices of commercial news organizations and provide a free flow of “news and information to its readership without news management or censorship.”</p><p data-block-key=\"b3d3r\">Stars and Stripes Editor-in-Chief Erik Slavin wrote in a Jan. 15 note to staff that the military deserves independent news.</p><p data-block-key=\"8ih8b\">“The people who risk their lives in defense of the Constitution have earned the right to the press freedoms of the First Amendment,” Slavin wrote. “We will not compromise on serving them with accurate and balanced coverage, holding military officials to account when called for.”</p><p data-block-key=\"1prks\">The Daily Wire <a href=\"https://www.dailywire.com/news/pentagon-refocuses-stars-stripes-on-reporting-for-our-warfighters\">reported</a> that department officials told the outlet that Stars and Stripes’ content will no longer be written by its civilian staff but by active-duty service members. Half the newspaper’s content will be generated by the Pentagon, including materials written by the department and images captured by combat cameras.</p><p data-block-key=\"a8srp\">Stars and Stripes reported that its ombudsman, Jacqueline Smith, said the changes would amount to “unnecessary control and the perception of propaganda.” The ombudsman is a congressionally mandated position tasked with ensuring the outlet’s editorial independence.</p><p data-block-key=\"9q4s1\">“That is public relations, not independent journalism,” she said. “The other ‘fifty percent’ of the content would hold no credibility.”</p><p data-block-key=\"5gce4\">The news came the day after The Washington Post <a href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/01/14/stars-and-stripes-trump-loyalty-test/\">reported</a> that applicants for positions at the newspaper were being asked, “How would you advance the President’s Executive Orders and policy priorities in this role? Identify one or two relevant Executive Orders or policy initiatives that are significant to you, and explain how you would help implement them if hired.”</p><p data-block-key=\"7ttls\">Leadership at Stars and Stripes wasn’t aware of the questions until asked about them, Smith told the Post, later confirming that they had been added by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management without notifying them.</p><p data-block-key=\"ci8hr\">“Asking prospective employees how they would support the administration’s policies is antithetical to Stripes’ journalistic and federally mandated mission,” Smith told the Post. “Journalistically, it’s against ethics, because reporters or any staff member — editors, photographers — should be impartial.”</p><p data-block-key=\"boqov\">Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee told Stars and Stripes that any efforts to infringe on the newspaper’s editorial independence amounted to an attack on the First Amendment, with several voicing support for the newspaper. None of the Republican lawmakers contacted by Stars and Stripes responded to requests for comment.</p></div>\n<div class=\"w-block-raw_html block-raw_html\"><div class=\"article-content__block rich-text\"><p data-block-key=\"258po\">\r\n<p><a href=\"#top\">\r\n<i>Back to Top</i></a></p></div></div>",
"introduction": "",
"teaser": "",
"teaser_image": "https://media.pressfreedomtracker.us/media/images/2026-01-07T171026Z_1872362065_RC2.2e16d0ba.fill-1330x880.jpg",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"mi657\">Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks to the media in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 7, 2026.</p>",
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{
"title": "Spanish-language journalist arrested by ICE in Tennessee",
"url": "https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/spanish-language-journalist-arrested-by-ice-in-tennessee/",
"first_published_at": "2026-03-10T20:59:13.419612Z",
"last_published_at": "2026-05-07T17:26:26.755602Z",
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"date": "2026-03-04",
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"body": "<div class=\"w-block-rich_text block-rich_text\"><p data-block-key=\"2vrcj\">Spanish-language reporter Estefany Rodríguez was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 4, 2026 — one day after reporting on ICE arrests in the area.</p><p data-block-key=\"q3f1\">Rodríguez has worked for the Hispanic news outlet Nashville Noticias since 2022 and began regularly covering immigration arrests for the outlet in November 2025, <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72364939/14/florez-v-ladwig/\">federal court records show</a>.</p><p data-block-key=\"4ork5\">On the morning of March 4, immigration agents followed Rodríguez and her husband as they drove to the gym in her work car, which bore the Nashville Noticias logo, <a href=\"https://nashvillenoticias.com/comunicado-oficial-de-nashville-noticias-sobre-la-detencion-de-nuestra-colega-reportera-estefany-rodriguez-por-agentes-de-ice/\">the station reported</a>. When they parked, several men surrounded the car and demanded Rodríguez be taken into custody.</p><p data-block-key=\"flao8\">During the encounter, Rodríguez noted that one ICE agent had a photograph of her work car on his cellphone, her attorney wrote in a court filing.</p><p data-block-key=\"b7j2i\">After her arrest, Rodríguez filed a complaint against the Department of Homeland Security, ICE and other federal officials, arguing that her detention violated her constitutional rights. Her attorneys wrote that she was illegally detained, without a warrant or due process, and in retaliation for her reporting on ICE operations.</p><p data-block-key=\"fqs4j\">Rodríguez’s attorneys filed an emergency petition in federal court seeking a writ of habeas corpus, asking a judge to review whether her detention was lawful and to order her immediate release. According to court documents, Rodriguez was most recently being held in Alabama.</p><p data-block-key=\"dqosf\">The federal government <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72364939/9/florez-v-ladwig/\">disputed Rodríguez’s claims in court filings</a>, asserting she was arrested under a valid warrant issued two days earlier and that her visa had expired in September 2021, leaving her in the country without legal status.</p><p data-block-key=\"3t9au\">Rodríguez had entered the United States legally in 2021 on a tourist visa, but later applied for political asylum, fearing persecution for her reporting on armed militia groups if she returned to her native Colombia. While her asylum case was pending, she received a work permit in 2022 and applied for a green card after marrying a U.S. citizen in January 2026.</p><p data-block-key=\"7v5fv\">That same month, ICE asked her to appear at its field office, but the appointment was canceled and later rescheduled due to a winter storm. In February, agents said they could not find a record of her appointment and issued a new reporting date for March 17, according to court records.</p><p data-block-key=\"4hnd5\">Rodríguez’s case comes amid broader concerns about journalists covering immigration enforcement. In a <a href=\"https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/spanish-language-reporter-arrested-at-atlanta-area-protest-faces-deportation/\">separate case</a>, Salvadoran journalist Mario Guevara was deported in October after being arrested four months earlier while covering a “No Kings” protest in Atlanta, Georgia.</p><p data-block-key=\"7fd3l\">After Rodríguez was arrested, <a href=\"https://www.freepress.net/news/coalition-41-press-freedom-groups-calls-immediate-release-nashville-based-journalist-arrested\">a coalition of 41 press freedom groups</a> called for her immediate release.</p><p data-block-key=\"dgmus\">“Rodriguez’s detention is part of a broader erosion of democratic norms and human rights in the United States in which immigration authorities are increasingly being used to chill free expression and First Amendment rights,” the coalition wrote in a statement.</p><p data-block-key=\"biruh\">The <a href=\"https://nahj.org/nahj-denounces-ice-detainment-of-nashville-reporter/\">National Association of Hispanic Journalists</a> said it “denounces immigration tactics that detain journalists and any efforts to interfere with news coverage of immigration enforcement.”</p><p data-block-key=\"67e4c\">In a statement, Nashville Noticias wrote it respects the laws of the U.S. and “hopes that this situation will be resolved favorably for our colleague so that she can be released soon, as she needs to reunite with her young daughter and husband.”</p><p data-block-key=\"b3q7t\">District Judge Eli Richardson will decide whether to grant Rodríguez’s emergency request for release. He has ordered the government to file a response justifying her arrest and detention. A hearing is set for March 17.</p></div>",
"introduction": "",
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"image_caption": "<p data-block-key=\"mxmvx\">Reporter Estefany Rodríguez, who was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 4, 2026, is seen in an earlier reporting assignment.</p>",
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"name": "Tennessee",
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"(2026-03-19 14:02:00+00:00) Spanish-language reporter freed from ICE facility after Tennessee arrest"
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]
