first_published_at,last_published_at,title,slug,latest_revision_created_at,charges,legal_orders,updates,categories,links,equipment_seized,equipment_broken,targeted_journalists,authors,date,exact_date_unknown,city,state,latitude,longitude,body,introduction,teaser,teaser_image,primary_video,image_caption,arrest_status,arresting_authority,release_date,detention_date,unnecessary_use_of_force,case_number,case_statuses,case_type,status_of_seized_equipment,is_search_warrant_obtained,actor,border_point,target_us_citizenship_status,denial_of_entry,stopped_previously,did_authorities_ask_for_device_access,did_authorities_ask_about_work,assailant,was_journalist_targeted,charged_under_espionage_act,subpoena_type,subpoena_statuses,name_of_business,third_party_business,legal_order_target,legal_order_type,legal_order_venue,status_of_prior_restraint,mistakenly_released_materials,type_of_denial,targeted_institutions,tags,target_nationality,workers_whose_communications_were_obtained,politicians_or_public_figures_involved 2022-06-27 20:51:37.047452+00:00,2022-08-05 19:14:05.125927+00:00,Independent videographer detained while documenting LA reproductive rights protests,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-videographer-detained-while-documenting-la-reproductive-rights-protests/,2022-08-05 19:14:05.057664+00:00,,,,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault",,,,Sean Beckner-Carmitchel (Independent),,2022-06-24,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"
Independent videographer Sean Beckner-Carmitchel was repeatedly shoved and detained in a kettle alongside other journalists while documenting reproductive rights protests in Los Angeles, California, on June 24, 2022.
Protests broke out across the country following the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial ruling overturning Roe v. Wade that morning, which established that the right to abortion is guaranteed under the right to privacy.
The first protests in LA began outside a federal courthouse around noon, the Los Angeles Times reported, and continued into the night. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented the assaults of at least eight journalists in the city that night.
Beckner-Carmitchel told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he arrived at Pershing Square in downtown LA at around 2 p.m., and that the first hours of the protest were energetic but not destructive.
After a group of protesters were able to block the highway, disrupting traffic, Beckner-Carmitchel said the atmosphere shifted and the Los Angeles Police Department officers became more aggressive with the demonstrators and press. He told the Tracker that he was shoved by officers multiple times that evening, and that at one point an officer shoved a protester who then fell into him.
Shortly after 9 p.m., Beckner-Carmitchel posted on Twitter that police had detained him alongside protesters and other journalists using a technique known as kettling, in which police box in a crowd before typically conducting mass arrests.
Kettled. One member of press currently detained. Lots of violence.
— Sean Beckner-Carmitchel (@ACatWithNews) June 25, 2022
The Tracker has documented all of the journalists detained in the kettle that night here.
Beckner-Carmitchel told the Tracker he was released at exactly 9:30 p.m., and that he believed they were detained for 30 to 45 minutes.
“A lot of what I saw was a flagrant violation of the spirit of [Senate Bill 98], if not the letter of the law,” Beckner-Carmitchel said.
In October 2021, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 98, which was written in order to ensure the rights of journalists while covering protests or other civic actions, according to Spectrum News 1. The law states that “law enforcement shall not intentionally assault, interfere with, or obstruct journalists” and explicitly exempts members of the press from dispersal orders.
LAPD did not respond to a request for comment as of press time.
Find press freedom violations documented by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker at reproductive rights demonstrations across the U.S. here.
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include comment from Sean Beckner-Carmitchel.
Anthony Cabassa, a field correspondent for the conservative bilingual outlet El American, was detained in a kettle alongside at least one other journalist while documenting reproductive rights protests in Los Angeles, California, on June 24, 2022.
Protests broke out across the country following the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial ruling overturning Roe v. Wade that morning, which established that the right to abortion is guaranteed under the right to privacy.
The first protests in LA began outside a federal courthouse around noon, the Los Angeles Times reported, and continued into the night. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented the assaults of at least eight journalists in the city that night.
In a Twitter post at 9:45 p.m., Cabassa wrote that police had detained him alongside protesters and other journalists using a technique known as kettling, in which police box in a crowd before typically conducting mass arrests.
In my reporting this evening, I (alongside protestors and other journalists) are being detained. This after the group I was following assaulted police and were vandalizing downtown shops.
— Anthony Cabassa (@AnthonyCabassa_) June 25, 2022
I showed police my journalist credentials, they said we cannot leave, as arrests are made. pic.twitter.com/KrIkzR8ukp
“When we approach the police line, we are told that we are not allowed to leave. We showed them our media credentials,” Cabassa said in a video posted with the tweet. “I guess we’re being detained. I believe we are awaiting further instructions on what’s to happen, but as of now we cannot leave, we cannot leave at all.”
Cabassa did not respond to a request for additional comment.
Independent videographer Sean Beckner-Carmitchel, confirmed to the Tracker that he was detained in the kettle alongside Cabassa that night, and that they were released at 9:30 p.m. The Tracker has documented Beckner-Carmitchel’s detainment here.
At around 10:30 p.m., Cabassa posted on Twitter that he had been released without being charged.
The Los Angeles Police Department did not respond to a request for comment as of press time.
Find press freedom violations documented by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker at reproductive rights demonstrations across the U.S. here.
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include details from independent videographer Sean Beckner-Carmitchel.
In his Twitter livestream, El American correspondent Anthony Cabassa details his detainment while covering a reproductive rights demonstration in Los Angeles on June 24, 2022.
",detained and released without being processed,Los Angeles Police Department,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"court verdict, kettle, protest, reproductive rights",,, 2022-06-28 20:29:02.718160+00:00,2022-12-13 21:04:34.651119+00:00,"Videographer assaulted, detained while covering reproductive rights protests in LA",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-videographer-assaulted-detained-while-covering-reproductive-rights-protests-in-la/,2022-12-13 21:04:34.469497+00:00,,,,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault",,,,Vishal Singh (Independent),,2022-06-24,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"Independent videographer Vishal Singh was assaulted by law enforcement officers and detained in a kettle while documenting reproductive rights protests in Los Angeles, California, on June 24, 2022.
Protests broke out across the country following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning the landmark case of Roe v. Wade, which had previously protected the right to abortion under the right to privacy.
Singh told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that when he arrived at Los Angeles City Hall shortly after 6 p.m. to cover the demonstrations, the crowds seemed relatively calm, despite hundreds of people already gathered.
As the crowds started marching in different directions, Singh said Los Angeles Police Department officers stopped him and two other reporters behind the protesters.
“I asked them if there was a media viewing area,” Singh said, “and we were eventually let go, but I get frustrated with even these momentary restrictions to access because things happen so quickly during protests.”
Journalists temporarily denied entry as officers assault pro-abortion/pro-choice protesters. We asked about the media viewing zone but were met with no actual reply. pic.twitter.com/8EBkk00IRI
— Vishal P. Singh (they/he) 🏳️⚧️ (@VPS_Reports) June 25, 2022
Singh told the Tracker that after officers allowed the journalists to continue following the crowd, he immediately saw a clash between protesters and police. He started filming the encounter when an officer approached him.
“He walked toward me, grabbed me by the shoulders, and shoved me,” Singh said.
LAPD threatens to hit pro-abortion/pro-choice protesters with their vehicle. As folks move out of the way, impatient riot police start shoving people aside, myself included. pic.twitter.com/aCJkyBnUwz
— Vishal P. Singh (they/he) 🏳️⚧️ (@VPS_Reports) June 25, 2022
Singh said he followed protesters for most of the night and saw police becoming increasingly aggressive. At one point, an officer pointed a crowd-control weapon at him.
“I started filming some b-roll from the sidewalk, focusing my frame when I heard yelling coming from the left,” Singh said, “and when I looked over, I’m staring down the barrel of a riot launcher pointed at my head.”
While I'm filming a police vehicle, I look to my left and stare down the barrel of a 40mm riot gun. This is how LAPD responded tonight. With violence. Soon after this clip they opened fire. pic.twitter.com/6V775G64AR
— Vishal P. Singh (they/he) 🏳️⚧️ (@VPS_Reports) June 25, 2022
Singh said as he backed away from the area an officer noticed him filming and shoved him toward a crowd of people. Afterward, he noticed the press pass he was wearing on a lanyard around his neck had fallen off and was lost.
As LAPD opens fire with riot munitions at point blank range on pro-choice and pro-abortion protesters, I try and get a shot of an officer with a 40mm riot gun and another officer shoves me nearly to the ground. pic.twitter.com/P4s9VDc7PZ
— Vishal P. Singh (they/he) 🏳️⚧️ (@VPS_Reports) June 25, 2022
“I got up, and obviously, I was shaken, and at that point, all hell broke loose,” Singh said.
Singh said he saw police officers assault other journalists, including Tina Desiree-Berg and Samuel Braslow. Soon after, he realized officers were forming a kettle around him and other journalists and protesters.
Journalists kettled. pic.twitter.com/VngJUNwtGw
— Vishal P. Singh (they/he) 🏳️⚧️ (@VPS_Reports) June 25, 2022
“I continually asked the officers if an unlawful assembly had been officially issued or if there was a dispersal order,” Singh said, but to no response. According to Singh, he was allowed to leave after an officer read a dispersal order.
Singh was among several journalists assaulted or detained by LAPD officers while covering the protests. The Los Angeles Times reported that police officers repeatedly ignored a law signed in October 2021 that protected journalists from interference by law enforcement and expanded the rights of journalists covering protests during the civil protests:
“According to Times reporters, witnesses' videos and interviews with other media members on the ground, journalists were pushed, struck with batons, forced out of areas where they had a right to observe police activity and blocked from entering other areas where police and protesters were clashing and arrests were being made.”
LAPD Chief Michel Moore told the Times that the department would be investigating the complaints made by members of the press. The LAPD did not return emailed requests for comment.
Find press freedom violations documented by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker at reproductive rights demonstrations across the U.S. here.
Freelance photojournalist Julianna Lacoste was detained in a kettle alongside other journalists while documenting reproductive rights protests in Los Angeles, California, on June 24, 2022.
Protests broke out across the country following the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial ruling overturning Roe v. Wade that morning, which established that the right to abortion is guaranteed under the right to privacy.
The first protests in LA began outside a federal courthouse around noon, the Los Angeles Times reported, and continued into the night. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented the assaults of at least eight journalists in the city that night.
Lacoste told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she arrived in downtown LA at around 6 p.m., after the protests had already gotten underway. She said she saw a crowd gathered near City Hall and walked with others and they made their way to a highway entrance nearby. When officers with the Los Angeles Police Department and U.S. Department of Homeland Security barred individuals from entering, Lacoste said she thought the protest had more or less ended.
“I walked around downtown with some other press people that I knew trying to find the protesters for about an hour,” Lacoste said.
She had gotten in a car with a couple of other journalists to head home when she spotted lines of police cars driving by and got out to document what was happening.
“I just put myself in front of the protest line in between the protesters and the police, so I was just filming the police at that point,” Lacoste said. “There were at least 100 protesters at that point, it was a big group, and there were just not enough officers.”
Lacoste told the Tracker the situation became increasingly tense as officers tried to give the crowd orders and after someone launched a firework that landed behind the police line.
In a matter of moments, Lacoste said she saw a second firework explode, and officers aggressively shove a legal observer, arrest an individual who had made a makeshift incendiary device and assault independent journalist Tina-Desiree Berg.
Lacoste said she moved along the police skirmish line until she was detained alongside protesters and other journalists using a technique known as kettling, in which police box in a crowd before typically conducting mass arrests. When she identified herself as press and asked if she could leave, Lacoste said the officer told her she’d have to wait as they cleared the area in waves.
Independent videographer Sean Beckner-Carmitchel, who was also detained that night, told the Tracker they were released at 9:30 p.m. after being held for 30 minutes to an hour. The Tracker has documented all of the journalists detained in the kettle that night here.
“I just didn’t think that the protests would escalate to that magnitude,” Lacoste said. “It was worse than I have seen in a long time.”
Lacoste told the Tracker she tried to play it safe that night in order to avoid injuries like those she sustained while covering protests in the city in 2020, which caused her to be hospitalized. After the night’s events, she decided not to cover any of the other protests that weekend.
In October 2021, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 98, which was written in order to ensure the rights of journalists while covering protests or other civic actions, according to NPR. The law states that “law enforcement shall not intentionally assault, interfere with, or obstruct journalists” and explicitly exempts members of the press from dispersal orders.
LAPD did not respond to a request for comment.
Find press freedom violations documented by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker at reproductive rights demonstrations across the U.S. here.
Photojournalist Julianna Lacoste documented reproductive rights protests in Los Angeles, California, on June 24, 2022. That night, she was detained in a police kettle alongside other journalists.
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Protests broke out across the country following the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial ruling overturning Roe v. Wade that morning, which established that the right to abortion is guaranteed under the right to privacy.
The first protests in LA began outside a federal courthouse around noon, the Los Angeles Times reported, and continued into the night. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented the assaults of at least eight journalists in the city that night.
Jean, who asked to only be identified by her first name out of fear of retaliation, told the Tracker she arrived in downtown LA to document the protests taking place near City Hall. She said she filmed from an overpass as some members of the crowd made their way to a highway entrance nearby, and then followed as members of the crowd made their way back into downtown.
“That was when protesting started happening a little differently — people started going against traffic and so on and so forth,” Jean said. “There came a point though where the protesting was stopped by the police, and this was when the first firework went off.”
Officer tried to stop the protesters from advancing, Jean said, but because of their small numbers they were unable to do so. She said that officers resorted to pushing and shoving her and many protesters while running past.
The group of protesters continued marching to another intersection, where Jean said police assaulted multiple members of the press, including independent journalist Tina-Desiree Berg.
“There was a major dash by poIice to the site of the crowd, and so many others rushed in to see what was happening,” Jean said. “In a video that I documented I was telling an officer that I am trying to see what is happening beyond him and while I am telling him this there is Tina — who’s also trying to do the same — except what I see is another officer with a riot gun strikes her across the face and stuns her.”
Jean said that before Berg was able to react, a second officer shoved her to the ground near Jean’s feet, and she helped Berg stand back up.
Soon after, Jean said she was corralled alongside the rest of the crowd and multiple journalists by police using a technique known as kettling, in which police box in a crowd before typically conducting mass arrests.
Independent videographer Sean Beckner-Carmitchel, who was also detained that night, told the Tracker they were released at 9:30 p.m. after being held for 30 minutes to an hour. The Tracker has documented all of the journalists detained in the kettle that night here.
“After already getting out of the kettle around the other side to head back to City Hall,” Jean said, “they still advanced on us again and threatened to kettle us for not dispersing quickly enough.”
“In general, what I take away from the night was that the initial response was to be forcefully aggressive and not follow basic protocol procedures,” Jean told the Tracker.
In October 2021, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 98, which was written in order to ensure the rights of journalists while covering protests or other civic actions, according to NPR. The law states that “law enforcement shall not intentionally assault, interfere with, or obstruct journalists” and explicitly exempts members of the press from dispersal orders.
LAPD did not respond to a request for comment.
Find press freedom violations documented by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker at reproductive rights demonstrations across the U.S. here.
Freelance photographer Joey Scott said he and other members of the media were twice corralled and stopped from moving by police as they covered a protest in Los Angeles on July 17, 2021.
Scott said and other journalists were reporting on protests around the Wi Spa when they were held by police using a crowd-control technique called kettling, which corrals and restricts people from dispersing. The spa, located in LA’s Koreatown, became a flashpoint for anti-transgender demonstrators as the result of a viral video which police are now treating as a hoax, Slate reported.
In the first kettle, Scott and other media were told by the Los Angeles Police Department they would be arrested, but were later let go, he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. “They wouldn't let us disperse out of the kettle despite telling them this is where we were told to go.”
In the second kettle they were told by a police officer that they had been there all day and refused to leave, so they were being arrested.
Scott said he was wearing press identification and a helmet with PRESS on it.
“Media was threatened with arrest initially but we were able to convince someone else to let us out with our press credentials,” he told the Tracker.
An LAPD spokesperson said arrests had been made on July 17 around Rampart Boulevard and Wilshire Boulevard after people failed to leave the area following a dispersal order.
“We do not have information specific to Joey Scott or statements being made that media would be arrested, so we are unable to confirm it occurred.”
This article was updated to remove a tweet that referenced a different detainment. The Tracker also documented the kettling and detainment of Scott while he covered a protest around the eviction of a homeless encampment in Los Angeles in March.
At least 13 or more journalists were arrested or detained in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., The Washington Post reported.
Before anyone could exit, according to The Post, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
Los Angeles Times reporter James Queally tweeted that he and Lexis-Olivier Ray, a reporter for the digital site L.A. Taco, were standing next to each other inside the “kettle” as police faced off with protesters. Queally noted that just a week earlier, he had written a story for the Times about the “failure to disperse” charges brought against Ray by the LAPD, months after Ray was covering another incident in downtown LA.
“We [Queally and Ray] were looking at each other, asking, ‘Is it going to happen again?’ and of course, it did,” Queally told The Post of the detainment.
Ray captured the moment around 8:30 p.m. when LAPD officers led Queally out of the kettle and placed him in zip-tie cuffs.
L.A. Times crime reporter @JamesQueallyLAT being taken into custody earlier. We all got boxed in. James and I were trying to stick together. @LATACO pic.twitter.com/l6TWtXRjow
— Lexis-Olivier Ray (@ShotOn35mm) March 26, 2021
“I announced myself as press several times, and credit to the arresting officers, they checked my credential pretty quickly and got a supervisor,” Queally tweeted.
Queally could not immediately be reached by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker for comment, but according to The Post, he was wearing an LAPD-issued press pass around his neck when he was arrested.
In his tweet thread, Queally wrote that the supervisor who was called in by the arresting officers “didn’t care I was press,” and told him, “this is the policy tonight.”
The Post reported that attorneys and a managing editor for the Times contacted Queally and secured his release after approximately 30 minutes, just as he was about to board a transport bus.
Shortly after Queally’s arrest, the LAPD put out a statement on Twitter that reads, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement specifically addressing the detainment of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement reads. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which can “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement says members of the press were directed to identify themselves to police and then move off to a designated media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
About the media area, Queally tweeted, “Media pens are deliberately setup to keep reporters AWAY from news. Tonight was no different. It was nowhere near the protests or action in the park.”
The LAPD statement notes that as individual arrests were made of those inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which only accepts requests for comment via email, did not immediately respond to an emailed request from the Tracker for further comment.
The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all arrests from the protest and subsequent kettle in Echo Park here.
Los Angeles Police Department officers detain protesters demonstrating against the closure of a homeless encampment at Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021. At least a dozen journalists were also arrested or detained.
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As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., The Washington Post reported.
Before anyone could exit, according to The Post, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
Los Angeles Times reporter James Queally tweeted that he and reporter Lexis-Olivier Ray, who writes for the digital news site L.A. Taco, were standing next to each other inside the “kettle” as police faced off with protesters. Queally noted that just a week earlier, he had written a story for the Times about the “failure to disperse” charges brought against Ray by the LAPD months after he was covering another incident in downtown L.A.
Ray tweeted that he and Queally were trying to stick together after the crowd was boxed in, and he posted footage he took as Queally was led away by officers and placed in zip-tie cuffs.
Ray confirmed to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he continued filming as officers arrested more individuals in the kettle — sometimes violently. In the footage, Ray can be heard saying, “Why are you pointing this [weapon] at me? I’m with the media,” as an officer trains his weapon on Ray’s chest and face.
LAPD violently arresting a protestor earlier near Lemoyne and Park Ave. Dozens of protestors and media have been boxed in. Nobody is able to leave. @LATACO pic.twitter.com/3hh6kOLERi
— Lexis-Olivier Ray (@ShotOn35mm) March 26, 2021
Queally tweeted that after his arrest and release 30 minutes later, Ray called him and said that he was still detained in the kettle.
“I managed to get hold of an officer in media relations who rushed to do something about it,” Queally wrote. “I’m still worried he might have gotten arrested otherwise.”
Ray tweeted at around 10:30 p.m. that he had been released, along with other members of the press, without being formally arrested.
LAPD has let me and a group of press go without detaining us. They made us all show our press passes to avoid arrest. I'm safe 🙏🏾 @LATACO pic.twitter.com/z1nuIuyUxI
— Lexis-Olivier Ray (@ShotOn35mm) March 26, 2021
“They held us there for more than an hour and then let people go if they had a press pass,” Ray told the Tracker. “Last year they said press could self-ID but I think they only let people go [that night] if they approved their press pass.”
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that reads, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement reads. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which can “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement says members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area 350 feet away from the crowd.
About the media area, Queally tweeted, “Media pens are deliberately setup to keep reporters AWAY from news. Tonight was no different. It was nowhere near the protests or action in the park.”
The LAPD statement notes that as individual arrests were made of those inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which only accepts requests for comment via email, did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all arrests and detainments from the Echo Park Lake protest here.
Los Angeles Police Department officers detain protesters demonstrating against the closure of a homeless encampment at Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021. More than a dozen journalists were also arrested or detained.
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As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., The Washington Post reported.
Before anyone could exit, according to The Post, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
Jonathan Peltz, a reporter for nonprofit community journalism outlet Knock LA, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was covering the protest with his colleague Kate Gallagher. Police made an announcement to disperse at around 7:45 p.m, but the message was inaudible to him and most of those present, Peltz said.
About 15 minutes later, an officer ordered members of the media and legal observers to disperse. The police designated a pen for media that was several blocks away, according to Peltz, but he said he wasn’t concerned because there were other journalists around him.
“From my perspective, you know, I was doing my job,” he said. “This was where the protest was happening.”
Peltz said that protesters began to move up the street away from the police line when law enforcement moved in to “kettle” the group and began arresting people.
Peltz told the Tracker that he repeated to police that he and his colleague were journalists. He said he heard other people nearby say that they were press, too.
Peltz said he continued to record video of the confrontation until 8:35 p.m.; he said he noted the time on his camera just before officers restrained his wrists in zip-tie cuffs. He asked the officer who was recording his personal information what he was being charged with, but the officer did not know.
A tweet from the Knock LA Twitter account posted at 9:45 p.m. said that Peltz and Gallagher were arrested by the LAPD while they were covering the protest.
Two of our reporters have been arrested at #EchoParkRiseUp pic.twitter.com/T1zeBPm7Dw
— Knock LA (@KNOCKdotLA) March 26, 2021
Knock LA called for police to release its journalists immediately, and demanded that any charges be dropped.
“Law enforcement cannot be allowed to jail journalists for doing their job,” the statement reads.
Peltz told the Tracker he again identified himself as a journalist to police as he was loaded onto a bus with other people who had been arrested. They were transported to the LAPD Metropolitan Detention Center, where he was processed. Peltz said his wrists were zip tied so tightly that his hands went numb.
He said he was released at around 12:30 a.m. on March 26 but was ordered to appear in court on July 30 on a charge of failure to disperse.
UPDATE: Jonathan Peltz and Kate Gallagher are free. Thank you to everyone who advocated for their release. pic.twitter.com/wB0eiqiKcF
— Knock LA (@KNOCKdotLA) March 26, 2021
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that reads, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement reads. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which can “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement says members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
The LAPD statement notes that as individual arrests were made of those inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which only accepts requests for comment via email, did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all arrests and detainments from the Echo Park Lake protest here.
Los Angeles Police Department assemble near Echo Park Lake amid evictions of homeless encampments there on March 25, 2021. At least 19 journalists were arrested or detained while covering demonstrations against the evictions.
",arrested and released,Los Angeles Police Department,2021-03-26,None,False,2:22-cv-03106,['ONGOING'],Civil,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"encampment, kettle, protest",,, 2021-03-26 20:33:29.615774+00:00,2022-01-03 14:59:49.327151+00:00,Spectrum News 1 reporter detained while covering protest at LA’s Echo Park,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/spectrum-news-1-reporter-detained-while-covering-protest-at-las-echo-park/,2022-01-03 14:59:49.271436+00:00,,,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Kate Cagle (Spectrum News 1 (Southern California)),,2021-03-25,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"At least 13 journalists, and likely more, were arrested or detained in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., The Washington Post reported.
Before anyone could exit, according to The Post, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
Kate Cagle, an anchor and reporter for Spectrum News 1 SoCal, a local Los Angeles news channel, was among the journalists detained while she was covering the protests.
Cagle posted on Twitter at 8:22 p.m. that she was being held in the kettle at Echo Lake Park. A few minutes later, she posted a video of protesters and police, explaining that the group was being held between two lines of police officers.
At around 9 p.m. Cagle tweeted that an officer announced that everyone was being arrested.
In a video Cagle later posted on Twitter, two officers are leading Cagle away from the camera. She can be heard saying, “Wait, I’m with Spectrum News 1!” and saying that she needs to stay with the members of her crew.
"Wait. I'm with Spectrum News 1."
— Kate Cagle (@KateCagle) March 26, 2021
"I have to stay with my crew."
This is the moment three LAPD officers pulled me from a crowd of protestors and zip tied my hands tonight at Echo Park Lake. @SpecNews1SoCal pic.twitter.com/jwSBFgpsSc
At 10:03 p.m., Cagle posted that she had been released.
She wrote on Twitter that she identified herself as a Spectrum News 1 reporter and showed a press pass issued by Los Angeles County. She said she also texted her location to the LAPD public information officer, and her newsroom called a police supervisor.
“They still handcuffed me,” she wrote.
Just to be crystal clear - I identified myself as a reporter for Spectrum News 1 and showed my LA County press pass.
— Kate Cagle (@KateCagle) March 26, 2021
- I told the officers who corralled us
- texted LAPD’s PIO my location
- my newsroom called their supervisor
They still handcuffed me.
While she was detained in the kettle, Cagle posted on Twitter that she was with two freelance photographers who were live-streaming for Spectrum News 1. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has not been able to identify the two photojournalists, and Cagle did not respond to a request for comment. Efforts to reach newsroom leaders of Spectrum News 1 were not successful, but the channel’s news site confirmed in an article that Cagle had been detained and released.
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that reads, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement reads. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which can “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement says members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
The LAPD statement notes that as individual arrests were made of those inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which only accepts requests for comment via email, did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all arrests and detainments from the Echo Park Lake protest here.
Protesters clash with Los Angeles Police Department officers during an eviction of homeless encampments at Echo Park Lake in California on March 25, 2021. More than a dozen journalists were arrested or detained during the demonstrations.
",detained and released without being processed,Los Angeles Police Department,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"encampment, kettle, protest",,, 2021-03-26 21:06:13.051259+00:00,2022-05-12 19:37:43.395062+00:00,Reporter for Knock LA arrested with colleague while covering Echo Park protest in LA,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/reporter-for-knock-la-arrested-with-colleague-while-covering-echo-park-protest-in-la/,2022-05-12 19:37:43.312768+00:00,rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2021-04-07),,"(2021-04-07 13:11:00+00:00) Charges dropped against Knock LA reporter arrested with colleague while covering Echo Park protest in L.A., (2022-05-09 15:37:00+00:00) Knock LA journalists sue Los Angeles Police Department following arrests in 2021",Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Kate Gallagher (Knock LA),,2021-03-25,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"At least 13 journalists, and likely more, were arrested or detained in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., The Washington Post reported.
Before anyone could exit, according to The Post, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
Kate Gallagher, who was reporting on the protest for the nonprofit community journalism outlet Knock LA, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she was covering the protest with her colleague Jonathan Peltz.
She said police made an announcement directing journalists and legal observers to disperse around 8 p.m., but she said the announcement was difficult to hear and she only learned about it on Twitter.
Gallagher said she was concerned about what police planned next for the protesters, so she decided to stay and continue reporting. Meanwhile, police had set up a pen for media several blocks away, but a number of other journalists also decided to stay at the scene of the protest, according to Peltz, the other Knock LA reporter.
About 20 minutes later, Gallagher said, police started to form a kettle to detain the group. Gallagher and Peltz were standing with about a dozen other journalists at the time, she said.
“No one really seemed very alarmed at first,” she said. According to Gallagher, journalists did not expect that police would arrest them because they were there covering the scene, not as part of the protest.
She said that it became clear that journalists were also going to be arrested when one member of the press tried to leave the police kettle and was not allowed to go.
A tweet from the Knock LA Twitter account posted at 9:45 p.m. said that Peltz and Gallagher were arrested by the LAPD while they were covering the protest.
Two of our reporters have been arrested at #EchoParkRiseUp pic.twitter.com/T1zeBPm7Dw
— Knock LA (@KNOCKdotLA) March 26, 2021
The publication called for police to release the journalists immediately and demanded that any charges be dropped.
“Law enforcement cannot be allowed to jail journalists for doing their job,” the statement reads.
Gallagher said that she identified herself as a journalist several times during her interactions with the police, including when police were forming the kettle, again when she was patted down during her arrest, and as she was loaded onto a bus to be transported to the LAPD Metropolitan Detention Center.
Gallagher and Peltz were released from the detention center at around 12:30 a.m. March 26, she said, and she was ordered to appear in court on July 30 on a charge of failure to disperse.
UPDATE: Jonathan Peltz and Kate Gallagher are free. Thank you to everyone who advocated for their release. pic.twitter.com/wB0eiqiKcF
— Knock LA (@KNOCKdotLA) March 26, 2021
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that reads, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement reads. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which can “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement says members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
The LAPD statement notes that as individual arrests were made of those inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which only accepts requests for comment via email, did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all arrests and detainments from the Echo Park Lake protest here.
Los Angeles Police Department officers arrive at Echo Park Lake to evict homeless encampments. Protests against the eviction on March 25, 2021 resulted in the arrests or detentions of at least 19 journalists while reporting.
",arrested and released,Los Angeles Police Department,2021-03-26,None,False,2:22-cv-03106,['ONGOING'],Civil,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"encampment, kettle, protest",,, 2021-03-26 22:40:31.459897+00:00,2022-05-11 18:50:54.320189+00:00,"While documenting LA’s Echo Park protest, videographer arrested, charged with failure to disperse",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/while-documenting-las-echo-park-protest-videographer-arrested-charged-with-failure-to-disperse/,2022-05-11 18:50:54.245041+00:00,rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2021-04-07),,(2021-04-07 13:21:00+00:00) Charges dropped against videographer arrested while documenting Echo Park Lake protest,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Sean Beckner-Carmitchel (Freelance),,2021-03-25,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"At least 13 journalists, and likely more, were arrested or detained in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., The Washington Post reported.
Before anyone could exit, according to The Post, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
Independent videographer Sean Beckner-Carmitchel told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was one of the journalists covering the demonstrations who became trapped with protesters in the police kettle.
“At that point, my mindset was: I’m going to be arrested. I can either be arrested and do my job or be arrested and not do my job,” Beckner-Carmitchel said.
In footage posted to Instagram, Beckner-Carmitchel narrates that the crowd has been kettled on Lemoyne Street between Sunset Boulevard and Park Avenue. He appears to be on a sidewalk as he films individuals standing in the street, who are arrested, one by one, by police. Approximately 38 minutes into the footage, officers approach Beckner-Carmitchel and ask that he come with them.
As Beckner-Carmitchel agrees and hands his equipment to one of the officers, some who remain inside the kettle can be heard booing and shouting that he is a member of the press. Beckner-Carmitchel can be heard telling officers that he is wearing a press credential from the National Press Photographers Association, which advocates for visual journalists in print, broadcast and digital newsrooms as well as freelancers.
When asked what would happen next, an officer can be heard telling Beckner-Carmitchel that he will be transferred to a police bus that would take him to a “staging” area; once there, the officer says, Beckner-Carmitchel would be cited and released.
Beckner-Carmitchel told the Tracker that before being loaded onto the bus, a public information officer who knows the journalist spoke with one of his arresting officers, but did not intervene to stop the arrest.
Los Angeles Times reporter James Queally — who was also detained that night — tweeted at midnight that Beckner-Carmitchel was still being held in police custody. In a subsequent tweet Queally said that the LAPD informed him that Beckner-Carmitchel was being held because the department “doesn’t recognize” the credentials he was wearing, and because he had not gone to a “media area” set up by police some distance away from the protest.
Only information I could get out is that LAPD doesn't recognize Sean's NPPA credential and another complaint about him not being in the media pen. He's not answering my texts either. Unfortunately, this means he's probably still in custody. https://t.co/D1lQVQMz4p
— James Queally (@JamesQueallyLAT) March 26, 2021
Beckner-Carmitchel told the Tracker that other journalists with NPPA credentials were released from the kettle without being arrested, and that, from the media staging area set up by police, it would have been impossible to see what was happening inside the kettle.
Beckner-Carmitchel later tweeted that he had been released shortly after 1 a.m. on March 26 with a failure to disperse charge, a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months imprisonment and a fine of up to $1,000, according to California’s penal code. Beckner-Carmitchel told the Tracker that he was the last person to be released from the open booking area at the Metropolitan Detention Center where he was processed.
His citation, which he shared with the Committee to Protect Journalists, a founding partner of the Tracker, orders him to appear for a hearing on July 30.
“My frustration right now is I could be cutting together 45 hours of footage and doing a report about the people of Echo Park Lake and the activists involved over the past two days,” Beckner-Carmitchel told the Tracker. “Instead, I’m talking to lawyers and checking my Twitter.”
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that reads, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, as Beckner-Carmitchel was being released, the LAPD posted a statement specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement reads. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which can “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement says members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
The LAPD statement notes that as individual arrests were made of those inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which only accepts requests for comment via email, did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all arrests and detainments from the Echo Park Lake protest here.
Los Angeles Police Department officers arrive at Echo Park Lake to evict homeless encampments on March 25, 2021. More than a dozen journalists were arrested or detained while documenting demonstrations against the evictions.
",arrested and released,Los Angeles Police Department,2021-03-26,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"encampment, kettle, protest",,, 2021-03-30 14:06:34.009849+00:00,2022-01-03 15:00:32.302423+00:00,Independent photojournalist detained while covering Echo Park protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-photojournalist-detained-while-covering-echo-park-protest/,2022-01-03 15:00:32.247585+00:00,,,,"Arrest/Criminal Charge, Assault",,,,Ashley Balderrama (Independent),,2021-03-25,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"At least 17 journalists were arrested or detained in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., the Washington Post reported.
According to the Post, before anyone could exit, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest, and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
Independent photojournalist Ashley Balderrama said she was caught in the police kettle while she was live on her Instagram and taking photographs. “I was hit on the back with an officer’s baton,” she told the Tracker in an email. She said she was repeatedly shoved by an officer and asked to leave the area, but “there was literally no where to go” because she was stuck between the officers and the protesters. She said she had her National Press Photographers Association credentials, but the officer kept shoving her until some protesters pulled her away.
“We were first told that we were no longer free to leave and that we would be arrested. After explaining to some officers that we were press, they initially said, ‘It’s too late,’” Balderrama said. “At one point as they went to arrest a protester right next to me, they tackled him and he fell into me, [and] when I looked up, an LAPD officer was pointing a less than lethal weapon directly at my face at point blank range.”
Balderrama tweeted a video of this arrest, in which she can be heard yelling, “We can’t go anywhere. There’s another line of you guys right there.”
Balderrama said that even though her credentials were around her neck, she was told multiple times that she would be arrested. “They then moved us all and made press mix with protesters, which worried me greatly, that they would not even take the time to check my credentials.”
She told the Tracker that after being detained for two hours, she was allowed to leave. “As we walked out, they told us where the press viewing was, which was on the next block over, with absolutely no visibility of [the] incident,” she added.
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that read, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement, specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement said. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which could “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement said members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
The LAPD statement noted that as individuals were being detained inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which accepts requests for comment only via email, did not respond to the Tracker’s request for further comment.
The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all arrests and detainments from the Echo Park Lake protest here.
Los Angeles police arrive on March 24, 2021, to begin the eviction of homeless encampments at Echo Park Lake in Los Angeles. At least 17 journalists were arrested or detained the following day while covering protests against the evictions.
",detained and released without being processed,Los Angeles Police Department,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,unknown,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"encampment, kettle, protest",,, 2021-03-30 15:25:47.717553+00:00,2022-05-11 18:51:20.681970+00:00,Kollection EIC arrested while covering Echo Park protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/kollection-eic-arrested-while-covering-echo-park-protest/,2022-05-11 18:51:20.617687+00:00,rioting: failure to disperse (charges dropped as of 2021-04-07),,(2021-04-07 13:28:00+00:00) Charges dropped against Kollection EIC arrested while covering Echo Park protest,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Sean Edwards (The Kollection),,2021-03-25,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"At least 17 journalists were arrested or detained in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., the Washington Post reported.
According to the Post, before anyone could exit, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest, and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
Sean Edwards, editor-in-chief of The Kollection, an LA-based lifestyle brand with an editorial arm focused on music and youth culture, told the Tracker via email that he was caught in the kettle. “They began to arrest the crowd and press one by one,” he said. “They did not allow me and other members of independent press to identify ourselves.” He said he had his notebook and camera out, as well as photo identification with proof of employment and bylines at the Kollection.
Shortly after 10 p.m., Edwards said LAPD arrested him, detaining him and other journalists at the 77th Street Community Police Station in South Central Los Angeles. He said he was booked for a 409 violation for, according to Edwards, “failure to disperse at the scene of an unlawful assembly” and charged with a misdemeanor. Edwards said officers released him around 1 a.m. on the 26th and returned his belongings to him. He is scheduled to appear in court on July 22.
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that read, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement, specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement read. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which could “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement said members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
The LAPD statement noted that as individuals inside the kettle were detained, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which accepts requests for comment only via email, did not respond to the Tracker’s request for further comment.
The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all documented press freedom violations from the Echo Park Lake protests here.
At least 17 journalists were arrested or detained in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., the Washington Post reported.
According to the Post, before anyone could exit, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
Freelance photojournalist Joey Scott told the Tracker via email that he’d heard police give an order to disperse that night, telling legal observers and members of the press in particular to leave the area, but that he “stayed to do my job and document what was happening.”
Soon, though, he was trapped with protesters in the kettle. “I was shoved by a police officer who was setting up the skirmish line, pushing me back into the kettled group and not allowing me to leave,” he said.
Scott told the Tracker that he and other members of the media identified themselves as press to the police but were told that in order to leave the kettled area officers would need to speak to their supervisor, an effort that, according to Scott, “never happened.”
“We were detained for over two hours as they arrested people one by one,” Scott said. He posted multiple videos on Twitter showing police making arrests. Find all documented press freedom violations, including arrests, from the Echo Park Lake protests here.
“Police used force arresting people and pointed shotguns with bean bag rounds at members of the press and protesters,” he told the Tracker.
After roughly two hours, Scott said the press were told to show their credentials in order to leave the area. “I was told to leave the area and not to return unless I wanted to be arrested,” he said.
After being released from the area, Scott said, members of the press were not able to talk to any police officials and requests for information were ignored.
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that read, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement, specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement read. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which could “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement said members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
The LAPD statement noted that as individual arrests were made of those inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which accepts requests for comment only via email, did not respond to the Tracker’s request for further comment.
At least 17 journalists were arrested or detained in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., The Washington Post reported.
According to The Post, before anyone could exit, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
Independent journalist and documentary producer Steven Gute told the Tracker that at around 7:15 p.m. he’d arrived at the north entrance of the park, where demonstrators had gathered for the second night in a row. LAPD officers had established a perimeter around the park and a crowd had gathered near the intersection of Park Avenue and Lemoyne Street, facing off with a line of police.
In footage Gute posted to Facebook, the crowd can be seen backing away from the officers in sync, chanting, “One! Two! One! Two!” Seconds later, an officer can be heard announcing, “You are all under arrest. You are no longer free to leave.”
Gute told the Tracker that he did not hear officers give a dispersal warning or order members of the press to relocate to a media staging area.
“While we were kettled and sandwiched together, officers started arresting people one by one,” Gute said. The video posted to Gute’s Facebook ends with a clip from another angle showing officers placing him under arrest.
Gute told the Tracker he has credentials from the National Press Photographers Association but was not wearing them that night. He identified himself as press when officers approached him, he said, but they still arrested him.
“After they grabbed me, they put the flex cuffs on and we sat around for at least an hour and a half or two hours on the sidewalk waiting for the buses to come,” Gute said.
Gute said he was transported to the 77th Street Community Police Station in South Los Angeles, where he was processed and charged with failure to disperse, a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months imprisonment and a fine of up to $1,000, according to California’s penal code. Gute said he was released shortly after midnight.
Gute’s citation orders him to appear in court for a hearing on July 22 at 8 a.m.
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that read, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement, specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement read. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which could “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement said members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
The LAPD statement noted that as individual arrests were made of those inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which accepts requests for comment only via email, did not respond to the Tracker’s request for further comment.
The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all documented press freedom violations from the Echo Park Lake protests here.
At least 20 journalists were arrested, detained or assaulted in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., The Washington Post reported.
According to The Post, before anyone could exit, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
An independent journalist, who asked to be identified only by the anonymized Twitter handle of @desertborder, told the Tracker he was among those detained in the kettle for approximately two hours.
It's been awhile since the last time I was kettled. It sucks, in case anyone was wondering
— Mitch O'Farrell Hates Freedom (@desertborder) March 26, 2021
The journalist said that moments before police trapped the crowd in a kettle, the protesters had begun marching backward in unison, in apparent compliance with a police dispersal order given at around 7:30 p.m.
“The crowd was actively retreating when all of a sudden the crowd broke and people started running,” @desertborder said. “I turned around and looked, and another line of riot cops had come up and blocked us in from behind. There was another side street that they were blocking too, so there was no exit at that point,” he said.
@desertborder said that he stood on a sidewalk, to the side of the main body of protesters, as police began making individual arrests. He and other journalists stayed on the sidelines of the kettle, he said, “to avoid getting arrested.”
“I showed an officer my press badge and I said, ‘Hey, I’m press, can I leave?’ And he told me, ‘No. Press was told to leave and you didn’t. You were given a lawful order and you didn’t comply. Now you’re under arrest too,’” the journalist said. “And I thought, ‘Ah hell, alright. I guess I’m going to jail tonight.’”
@desertborder said that while he continued filming the arrests, an officer pointed a crowd-control weapon directly at him and other members of the press. Lexis-Olivier Ray, a reporter for digital news site L.A. Taco, captured the incident on video.
“They came in to make an arrest over by the sidewalk,” the journalist said. “[The officer] was pointing a less-lethal shotgun [used to fire crowd control munitions] a few inches from our faces and was just really angry and really aggressive, screaming ‘Get back!’ But there was nowhere for us to go, because there was a line of riot cops behind us.”
“I really thought he was going to blast us,” @desertborder said.
About an hour later, he said, journalists standing on one edge of the kettle were told to join those on the opposite edge. @desertborder said he took that as a sign that police might be preparing to let them go without arrest.
“An officer told us, ‘If you don’t have press credentials, just get off the sidewalk and get back with the rest of them,’” the journalist said, “obviously implying that you were going to be arrested if you didn’t have credentials.”
They moved all the press over to this corner. An officer told us if we don't have press credentials we "might as well go back over there" with the crowd of protesters getting arrested. LAPD policy, as handed down by Chief Moore himself, is that press does not need credentials
— Mitch O'Farrell Hates Freedom (@desertborder) March 26, 2021
Shortly after 10 p.m., @desertborder said, the LAPD began allowing members of the press who had press passes to leave the kettle; he said he was able to show the officers his credentials, issued by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, and was permitted to leave.
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that read, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement, specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement read. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which could “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement said members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
The LAPD statement noted that as individual arrests were made of those inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which accepts requests for comment only via email, did not respond to the Tracker’s request for further comment.
The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all documented press freedom violations from the Echo Park Lake protests here.
At least 20 journalists were arrested, detained or assaulted in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., The Washington Post reported.
Before anyone could exit, according to The Post, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
Independent journalist Jeremy Lindenfeld, whose website says his work has been published in the Chicago Sun-Times, Knock LA and other platforms, told the Tracker that he was among the many journalists trapped in the police kettle while covering the protest that night.
Lindenfeld said when he initially told the police that he was a member of the National Press Photographers Association, he was told that it was too late to leave and was shoved with a baton.
According to Lindenfeld, he and other members of the press caught inside the “kettle” watched as police arrested protesters.
“Press were again harassed by being told to move to one side of the street then 10 minutes later to the other side of the street for no reason at all, but to scare us,” Lindenfeld told the Tracker.
After some time the police began releasing members of the press with press credentials, according to Lindenfeld. ”I was able to show them my membership to the NPPA and they released me from the kettle,” he said.
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that reads, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement reads. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which can “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement says members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
The LAPD statement notes that as individual arrests were made of those inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which only accepts requests for comment via email, did not respond to a request for further comment.
The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all documented press freedom violations from the Echo Park Lake protests here.
At least 20 journalists were arrested, detained or assaulted in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., The Washington Post reported.
Before anyone could exit, according to The Post, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
Freelance journalist Austin Baffa, who said his videos have been used by CNN, Fox News and the Los Angeles Times, told the Tracker that he was covering the protest that night when police declared the assembly unlawful and gave orders to the protesters and the press to disperse and leave.
“With about a minute left before they started making arrests, the protesters began to move back and leave the area,” he said. “That’s when LAPD kettled them from an alley and declared that everyone was under arrest including press.”
Baffa told the Tracker that over the next hour, the police arrested a number of individuals in the kettle, including some members of the press.
“We all thought that we were going to get arrested and sent to jail,” he said. But eventually police told the media and remaining protesters to move to one side of the street, and members of the press were asked to show their press credentials in order to leave, according to Baffa.
Baffa said that he was released after he showed his press credentials, issued by the National Press Photographers Association, to the police.
The journalist also said that he experienced multiple moments of excessive force by law enforcement, including having less-lethal weapons pointed at his chest and head.
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that reads, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement reads. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which can “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement says members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
The LAPD statement notes that as individual arrests were made of those inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which only accepts requests for comment via email, did not respond to a request for further comment.
The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all documented press freedom violations from the Echo Park Lake protests here.
At least 19 journalists were arrested, detained or assaulted in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., The Washington Post reported.
Before anyone could exit, according to The Post, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
Freelance journalist Gabriel Fuente, whose work has been published by Salon, The Kollection and 48 Hills according to his Twitter bio, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was among the journalists trapped in the kettle with protesters that night.
Fuente said that those inside the kettle tried to leave, “but police said it was too late. We were under arrest.”
He said that as police continued to make arrests, media were asked to come to the front, and members of the press with press credentials were allowed to leave.
“My partner and I showed our author pages, attempting to demonstrate that we were published journalists, but this was not sufficient evidence,” Fuente said. “We needed to have a press badge.”
Fuente told the Tracker that he was arrested along with his colleague, Sean Edwards, editor-in-chief of The Kollection, and transported to the 77th Street Community Police Station in South Central Los Angeles. According to Fuente, he was “handed a ticket with the PC 409 — failure to disperse at the scene of an unlawful assembly.”
Fuente said he was released at 1 a.m. on the 26th and is scheduled to appear in court July 22.
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that reads, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement reads. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which can “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement says members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
The LAPD statement notes that as individual arrests were made of those inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which only accepts requests for comment via email, did not respond to a request for further comment.
The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all documented press freedom violations from the Echo Park Lake protests here.
At least 20 journalists were arrested, detained or assaulted in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., The Washington Post reported.
Before anyone could exit, according to The Post, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
Photojournalist Nick Stern said he was covering the protest that night as part of a documentary film project and was among the journalists detained in the kettle. Stern, whose work has been published by the Daily Mail, the BBC, and other publications, said he was held for approximately two hours before being released without charge.
Stern said police announced a dispersal order at around 8 p.m., but he said that even though he was near the skirmish line, he didn’t hear it and instead learned about the announcement on Twitter. Then, he said, an officer walked through the protest area announcing that all journalists and legal observers must leave the area. He said that set off alarm bells, because he was concerned about what would happen to protesters after observers left.
“Myself, and every other journalist that I was aware of that was there, and the legal representatives, stayed put with the crowd, I think, which was the right thing to do,” Stern said.
Stern said police moved the crowd back about five feet. The protesters then decided to continue to back up further, he said, possibly in an effort to avoid further confrontation with police. As they were retreating, he said, another line of officers came out from an alleyway, forming the kettle to block the group from the other side and preventing them from leaving.
At that point, Stern said, he asked an officer if he could get through the police line. He said he couldn’t recall whether he identified himself as a journalist, but said that he was wearing a press identification card on a lanyard around his neck, which he frequently holds up at protests when interacting with police.
Stern told the Tracker that the officer refused to let him go and said Stern was about to be arrested. He said that he was detained with the group for about two hours.
Police were moving into the crowd to detain individuals, including members of the press, one at a time, Stern said. At one point, he said, four officers came forward and arrested the journalist next to him, who was wearing a National Press Photographers Association card on a lanyard around his neck.
Stern said police never took him into individual custody. While he was held with the larger group, he said that he noticed a senior officer look towards him and say to another officer, “He’s a legit journalist.”
At around 10 p.m., Stern said an officer pointed at him and told him to follow. The officer walked him through the police line and directed him to walk down the street without stopping. Stern said he followed instructions and returned to his car.
Stern said he does not know why he was not taken into custody, when a number of other journalists were, even though they displayed press credentials. He said that he had two press identification cards on a lanyard around his neck, one issued by the National Press Photographers Association and the other by the British Press Photographers’ Association. He said he often displays the British card at protests because it looks different. He said he also had a helmet marked with the word “PRESS” attached to his backpack.
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that reads, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement reads. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which can “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement says members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
The LAPD statement notes that as individual arrests were made of those inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which only accepts requests for comment via email, did not respond to a request for further comment.
The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all documented press freedom violations from the Echo Park Lake protests here.
At least 19 journalists were arrested, detained or assaulted in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., The Washington Post reported.
Before anyone could exit, according to The Post, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
Keliyah “Gigi” Williams, a student journalist for the Los Angeles Collegian, a news site aimed at students throughout Los Angeles County, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was among the journalists trapped in the kettle that night.
“For nearly 2 hours I was kept there until they corralled us into a corner,” she said.
Williams said that when police eventually asked journalists to identify themselves, “I immediately went up and let them know I was affiliated with LACC’s [Los Angeles City College] Collegian.” Williams said she began to pull up her press identification on her phone, but “before it even loaded they let me know they would not be accepting it,” she told the Tracker. They “did not even take the time to check,” she said.
According to Williams, as soon as she moved back to join the crowd, a police officer pointed her out and she was arrested. “Ultimately, I was handcuffed for 2 more hours, transported to the station,” and charged with a 409 violation misdemeanor, for failure to disperse from the place of an unlawful assembly.
Williams said according to her charge ticket, she is scheduled to appear in court on July 22.
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that reads, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement reads. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which can “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement says members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
The LAPD statement notes that as individual arrests were made of those inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which only accepts requests for comment via email, did not respond to a request for further comment.
The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all documented press freedom violations from the Echo Park Lake protests here.
At least 20 journalists were arrested, detained or assaulted in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., The Washington Post reported.
Before anyone could exit, according to The Post, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.
Independent journalist Stephen Oduntan, whose work has been published by Reel Urban News and Dig Mag, said he was on assignment for LA Focus Newspaper the night of the protest when he was detained in the kettle with protesters and other journalists.
In a video posted by Oduntan on Instagram, police officers can be heard announcing, “You are all under arrest, you are no longer free to leave.”
In the description accompanying the video post Oduntan wrote, “Shortly after LAPD’s announcement, they began rounding up peaceful demonstrators as well as multiple reporters.”
Oduntan told the Tracker over email, “At one point, a journalist — I believe with Spectrum — who was standing a few feet from me was arrested. I was sure it was only a matter of time before they'd slash the cuffs on me too.”
“But after standing on a crowded sidewalk for over an hour, LAPD all of a sudden announced that members of the press should raise their hands and credentials,” Oduntan said.
Oduntan said that he and a few other journalists were released, one at a time, after the police verified their press credentials.
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that reads, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement reads. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which can “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement says members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
The LAPD statement notes that as individual arrests were made of those inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which only accepts requests for comment via email, did not respond to a request for further comment.
The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all documented press freedom violations from the Echo Park Lake protests here.
At least 19 journalists, and likely more, were arrested or detained in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., The Washington Post reported.
Before anyone could exit, according to The Post, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
Freelance photographer Vern Evans said he was caught in the police kettle and detained by the police the night of the protest. Evans, a photographer for 40 years, said he sees his job as “documenting history.”
“The police told the whole assembly to leave, but I just continued to take photos,” he said.
Evans said that police handcuffed him for 3 hours and later took him to a police station where he was charged with a 409 pc misdemeanor, for failure to disperse from a place of unlawful assembly.
Evans said that according to his charge ticket, he is scheduled to appear in court on July 22. The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all arrests and detainments from the Echo Park Lake protest here.
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that reads, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement reads. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which can “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement says members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
The LAPD statement notes that as individual arrests were made of those inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
The Los Angeles Police Department, which only accepts requests for comment via email, did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
At least 20 journalists, and likely more, were arrested or detained in Los Angeles, California, while documenting demonstrations near Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, as reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, on social media and in other news outlets.
As crowds demonstrated against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, Los Angeles Police Department officers declared the gathering at the park’s northern entrance unlawful shortly after 8 p.m., The Washington Post reported.
Before anyone could exit, according to The Post, a supervising officer announced that everyone was under arrest and officers surrounded the group using a police tactic called “kettling.”
Orange County-based independent photojournalist Robert “Chip” Sneed told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that as soon as officers declared the unlawful assembly he moved from the street to the sidewalk, in order to avoid possible arrest for standing in the roadway.
Sneed said that protesters had begun moving away from the police line when law enforcement rushed the crowd. Then, he said, a second group of officers came out from a nearby alley to kettle the group.
“As the protesters are moving backward, the police line does a bullrush and I’m toward the front of the crowd at that point, and I get knocked over and banged up a little bit,” Sneed said. “Luckily some people helped me up and carried me back a bit.”
Once the crowd was surrounded by the police kettle, Sneed said, he ran back and forth to photograph arrests as officers detained individuals one by one. Within minutes, however, Sneed said he also was arrested.
“I don’t know whether they were targeting me already,” he said, but as he made his way across a street, “I made eye contact with two officers that were moving forward from behind the skirmish line to make an arrest and they ran toward me and told me I was under arrest.” Sneed said he identified himself to the officers as press and showed them a press badge that he had created himself. He said he was also carrying two professional cameras, a GoPro camera and was filming with his cellphone when he was arrested.
“I kept asking to speak to the supervisor. Eventually I was able to, and I explained that I was press and I was well within my First Amendment rights to be documenting what was going on and he informed me that apparently they had made an announcement that said press and media were also subject to arrest if they didn’t disperse.”
After waiting 45 minutes on the sidewalk and another hour on a police bus, Sneed said he was transported to the LAPD Metropolitan Detention Center. He said he was released after midnight on March 26 and given paperwork ordering him to appear in court on July 30, on a charge of failure to disperse.
Around the time it was making arrests, LAPD issued a statement on Twitter that reads, in part, “As a reminder, members of the media are also to obey the dispersal orders. Members of the media are to use the designated media viewing area.”
At around 1 a.m. on March 26, the LAPD posted another statement specifically addressing the detainments of members of the press.
“An unlawful assembly was declared by the Incident Commander after the unlawful activity of individuals threatened the safety of the officers and all those present,” the statement reads. According to the statement, police declared the gathering unlawful in part because protesters were shining strobe lights at police, which can “cause significant injury to the eyes.”
The statement says members of the press were directed to identify themselves and relocate to a media area about 350 feet away from the crowd.
The LAPD statement notes that as individual arrests were made of those inside the kettle, police officers “learned that several credentialed and non-credentialed members of the media were part of the group. Members from the Department’s Media Relations Division were summoned to assist in identifying these individuals and they were released at scene without being arrested.”
Sneed retweeted the statement, noting that at no time did he hear the order for the media to disperse and that when he identified himself as press he was told it didn’t matter.
At no time was the press specifically ordered to a designated media area. At no point did any officers attempt to identify myself or other media members being arrested. When I was arrested I immediately identified myself as press and was told it didn’t matter. Y’all fucked up. https://t.co/Ie8n3cwefK
— CHIP NOOO (@chip_nooo) March 26, 2021
A Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson, reached by phone, told the Tracker that department policy is not to discuss arrests once paperwork has been filed. The spokesperson did not respond to emailed requests to confirm details about Sneed’s arrest, including confirming whether police had filed paperwork charging him or intended to do so.
On April 29, Rob Wilcox, a spokesman for Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the office had not received cases from police concerning Sneed or the other journalists who had received police citations more than a month earlier, on March 25.
Sneed told the Tracker on May 17 that he had received no notice that the charges were dropped against him, but said that he had expected that they would be.
Despite the lack of communication to the journalists involved, and barring further information, the Tracker is listing the charges against Sneed as “dropped” based on the lack of paperwork filed.
The Tracker documents all arrests separately. Find all arrests and detainments from the Echo Park Lake protest here.
Independent videographer Sean Beckner-Carmitchel was arrested while filming election-related protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in Los Angeles, California, on Nov. 4, 2020.
Beckner-Carmitchel told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that protesters had planned to march from City Hall downtown to Pershing Square a little less than a mile away. By approximately 7 p.m., most of the crowd had dispersed and Beckner-Carmitchel said he thought he could head out for the night.
A few unmarked police cars moved in on the crowd, and when protesters began taunting them the officers called for backup. Officers then began hemming in the crowd and multiple journalists using a police maneuver called kettling.
“I asked the police where there was a ‘First Amendment Zone,’ as they hadn’t announced one,” Beckner-Carmitchel said, referring to the media staging areas the Los Angeles Police Department have been setting up during protests in recent months.
The officer directed him to the sidewalk and stairs leading up into the square. Beckner-Carmitchel tweeted that while in that press area, officers advanced forward through the intersection and he moved with them to continue his coverage. Officers then directed both him and another videographer, Vishal Singh, toward the middle of the road.
In a video posted by Beckner-Carmitchel of the moments before his arrest shortly after 7:30 p.m., an officer appears to point at the videographer and can be heard saying, “Start with that guy.”
Immediately before my arrest, he can be overheard saying “start with that guy.” Another officer says “Sean?”#1stAmendment #dtla #lapd #blm pic.twitter.com/5fmmMLFFHn
— Sean Carmitchel (@ACatWithNews) November 5, 2020
A video posted by Singh shows Beckner-Carmitchel with zip-tied wrists being led behind the police line just moments before officers move in to arrest Singh as well.
Beckner-Carmitchel told the Tracker that while he was taken into custody an officer threw his helmet onto the ground, damaging it.
Singh said that he believed he and Beckner-Carmitchel were targeted for arrest because they were recording and acting as press.
“They very clearly just looked for the people with the cameras who are there the most and just grabbed me,” Singh said. “As I was live-streaming, I saw multiple officers pointing me out.”
The Tracker has documented Singh’s arrest and the detainment of at least two other journalists here.
In the footage of his arrest, Beckner-Carmitchel doesn’t appear to have any visible identification as a member of the media, but he said both he and Singh told police they were press before they were handcuffed.
Beckner-Carmitchel told the Tracker that both he and Singh were cited with failure to disperse — a misdemeanor — and released approximately two hours later. He added that both of them have been ordered to appear in court on March 9, 2021.
If convicted, Beckner-Carmitchel could face up to six months imprisonment and a fine of up to $1,000, according to California’s penal code.
Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson Capt. Stacy Spell confirmed to the Los Angeles Times that two individuals had been arrested and cited for failure to disperse. She also claimed that LAPD officers have been dealing with large, disruptive crowds that all subsequently claim to be members of the press.
“We are having an ongoing challenge with individuals who are participating in disruptive activities, taking over the street and failing to disperse but subsequently claiming to be media,” Spell told the Times. “Literally the entire crowd claimed to be media.”
Singh told the Times that during his months of covering protests in LA, he hadn’t heard any protesters claiming to be members of the press.
The LAPD didn’t respond to an emailed request for further comment.
Vishal Singh, a videographer who works on Netflix documentaries and has been covering demonstrations in Los Angeles, was arrested in the city on Nov. 4, 2020, while filming election-related protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Singh told the Committee to Protect Journalists that he and fellow videographer Sean Beckner-Carmitchel were covering a relatively small demonstration that was winding down near the intersection of West 5th and South Hill streets along Pershing Square after marching from City Hall. CPJ is a founding partner of the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
At approximately 7:30 p.m., Los Angeles Police officers arrived on motorcycles and declared the gathering an unlawful assembly, according to Twitter posts by Singh and other journalists present.
According to a tweet posted by Singh, officers then hemmed in the crowd and the two videographers using a police maneuver called kettling.
@acatwithnews and I were arrested tonight while documenting a protest. We were kettled and given no escape route. LAPD specifically targeted us for being journalists who were filming what occurred. #election2020 #FreedomOfThePress pic.twitter.com/G7JscEGcVk
— Vishal P Singh (@VPS_Reports) November 5, 2020
At the beginning of the video in Singh’s tweet, officers can be seen placing Beckner-Carmitchel in zip-tie cuffs and leading him behind the police line. Multiple officers then point at Singh moments before they move in to arrest him.
Singh told the Los Angeles Times that he believes he and Beckner-Carmitchel were targeted for arrest because they were recording and acting as press.
“They very clearly just looked for the people with the cameras who are there the most and just grabbed me,” Singh said. “As I was livestreaming, I saw multiple officers pointing me out.”
The Tracker has documented Beckner-Carmitchel’s arrest here. At least two other journalists were detained in the kettle but released without being processed.
Singh described himself to CPJ as a “citizen journalist,” and noted that both the bullet-proof vest and helmet he was wearing were labeled “PRESS.” These markings are visible in another video of his arrest posted by an observer. Singh also said he identified himself to police as a member of the news media before he was handcuffed.
Singh told the Tracker that both he and Beckner-Carmitchel were cited with failure to disperse — a misdemeanor — and released approximately two hours later with orders to appear in court on March 9, 2021.
If convicted, Singh could face up to six months imprisonment and a fine of up to $1,000, according to California’s penal code.
When asked for comment about the arrests, Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson Capt. Stacy Spell confirmed to the Times that two individuals had been arrested and cited for failure to disperse. She also claimed that LAPD officers have been dealing with large, disruptive crowds that all subsequently claim to be members of the press.
“We are having an ongoing challenge with individuals who are participating in disruptive activities, taking over the street and failing to disperse but subsequently claiming to be media,” Spell said. “Literally the entire crowd claimed to be media.”
Singh told the Times that during his months of covering protests in LA, he had not heard any protesters claiming to be members of the press.
The LAPD did not respond to an emailed request for further comment.
An independent journalist, who asked to be identified only by the anonymized Twitter handle of @desertborder, was one of at least four members of the press detained while documenting election-related protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in downtown Los Angeles, California, on Nov. 4, 2020.
The journalist told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that at approximately 7:30 p.m. a small protest was winding down near the intersection of West 5th and South Hill streets near Pershing Square. Only 40 to 50 people remained, the journalist said, including members of the press.
Los Angeles police officers arrived on motorcycles within minutes and announced that the gathering was an unlawful assembly.
The journalist tweeted that once police had hemmed in everyone present using a police tactic called kettling, they were told that all those inside the police circle were under arrest.
Well we're kettled and they told us we're all under arrest pic.twitter.com/bysklbAmzA
— Andy Ngo is a fascist (@desertborder) November 5, 2020
When the journalist attempted to identify as a member of the press to officers a few minutes later, according to a tweet posted at 7:44 p.m., an officer responded by pointing an unidentified weapon at the journalist.
“I have a lawfully issued press card,” @desertborder can be heard saying in the recording of the exchange.
In the video, the officer can be heard saying, “Turn around and go over there, go to the left.”
The journalist eventually returned to stand with other reporters. The Tracker has documented cases of three others detained that night: student journalist Emily Holshouser and videographers Vishal Singh and Sean Beckner-Carmitchel. Both videographers were arrested and charged with failure to disperse.
“Another officer came over and told us that this was now the press area and so long as we stayed there we wouldn’t be arrested,” @desertborder said.
The journalist tweeted at 8:05 p.m. that the LAPD officers had opened the kettle and released the remaining members of the press and demonstrators who had been detained.
When asked for comment about the arrests, Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson Capt. Stacy Spell confirmed to the Los Angeles Times that two individuals had been arrested and cited for failure to disperse. She also told the Times that LAPD officers have been dealing with large, disruptive crowds that all subsequently claim to be members of the press.
“We are having an ongoing challenge with individuals who are participating in disruptive activities, taking over the street and failing to disperse but subsequently claiming to be media,” Spell said. “Literally the entire crowd claimed to be media.”
The LAPD did not respond to an emailed request for further comment.
Student journalist Emily Holshouser was one of at least four journalists detained while covering election-related protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in Los Angeles, California, on Nov. 4, 2020.
Holshouser, who writes for California State University Northridge’s student publication The Daily Sundial, tweeted that she was covering a protest scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. outside City Hall in downtown LA.
When the event dispersed at 6:30 p.m., Holshouser followed a small group of remaining demonstrators as they walked south down Spring Street toward Pershing Square. By 7 p.m., the approximately 40 to 50 people who remained had stopped at the intersection of West 5th and South Hill streets, according to a tweet posted by Holshouser.
Holshouser tweeted just before 7:30 p.m. that Los Angeles police officers had arrived and declared that the gathering was an unlawful assembly.
Multiple journalists present at the protest reported that officers then hemmed in everyone present using a police tactic called kettling, and announced that everyone was under arrest.
Two videographers — Vishal Singh and Sean Beckner-Carmitchel — were placed under arrest for failure to disperse.
After being threatened with arrest, Holshouser tweeted that she and other members of the press were directed to a media staging area approximately 20 minutes later.
Arrests are being made. Media has been given a staging area. They say if we leave the curb, we are subject to arrest. pic.twitter.com/8aqmEKv5dC
— Emily Holshouser (@emilyytayylor) November 5, 2020
The Tracker has documented the detentions of all the journalists confirmed to have been present in the kettle here.
An independent journalist, @desertborder, tweeted at 8:05 p.m. that the LAPD officers had opened the kettle and released the remaining members of the press and demonstrators who had been detained.
By just after 8:30 p.m., Holshouser posted, “It’s all over. Cops have left, reporters have left, I’m headed home.”
When asked for comment about the arrests, Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson Capt. Stacy Spell confirmed to the Los Angeles Times that two individuals had been arrested and cited for failure to disperse. She also claimed that LAPD officers have been dealing with large, disruptive crowds that all subsequently claim to be members of the press.
“We are having an ongoing challenge with individuals who are participating in disruptive activities, taking over the street and failing to disperse but subsequently claiming to be media,” Spell said. “Literally the entire crowd claimed to be media.”
The LAPD did not respond to an emailed request for further comment.
Beverly Hills Courier staff writer Samuel Braslow was one of at least five journalists detained while covering election-related protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in Los Angeles, California, on Nov. 4, 2020.
Braslow confirmed to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was documenting a protest outside City Hall in downtown L.A. that evening. When the event dispersed at 6:30 p.m., a small group of remaining demonstrators walked south down Spring Street toward Pershing Square, according to accounts from other journalists present that night.
By 7:30 p.m., the approximately 40 to 50 people who remained had stopped at the intersection of West 5th and South Hill streets. Los Angeles police officers arrived on motorcycles within minutes and announced that the gathering was an unlawful assembly, journalists reported.
Multiple journalists reported that officers then hemmed in everyone present using a police tactic called kettling, and announced that everyone was under arrest. Braslow confirmed to the Tracker that he was among the journalists caught in the kettle.
Two videographers were placed under arrest for failure to disperse and the remaining members of the press were directed to a media staging area within the kettle.
The Tracker has documented the detentions of all the journalists confirmed to have been present in the kettle here.
According to journalists’ accounts, LAPD officers opened the kettle shortly after 8 p.m. and released the remaining members of the press and demonstrators who had been detained, including Braslow
When asked for comment about the arrests, Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson Capt. Stacy Spell confirmed to the Los Angeles Times that two individuals had been arrested and cited for failure to disperse. She also claimed that LAPD officers have been dealing with large, disruptive crowds that all subsequently claim to be members of the press.
“We are having an ongoing challenge with individuals who are participating in disruptive activities, taking over the street and failing to disperse but subsequently claiming to be media,” Spell said. “Literally the entire crowd claimed to be media.”
The LAPD did not respond to an emailed request for further comment.
Sean Beckner-Carmitchel, a Los Angeles-based independent videographer who has been covering local demonstrations for several months, was detained and issued a citation on Nov. 3, 2020.
On the evening of the U.S. elections, Beckner-Carmitchel told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was documenting an event titled Marathon Party at the Polls, sponsored by Black Lives Matter Los Angeles, at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles. An Instagram post by BLMLA advertised the event as from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., with guest speakers, food, music and giveaways planned.
Beckner-Carmitchel said that when he arrived at around 6 p.m., the gathering was generally peaceful and there was not a large police presence. A bit before 7:30 p.m. Los Angeles Police Department officers advanced on and arrested three individuals whom Beckner-Carmitchel identified as protest medics. Beckner-Carmitchel tweeted that the medics were targeted “because they were in antifa guise.”
“At that point the crowd got a little unruly, and police were sort of antagonizing the crowd,” Beckner-Carmitchel said. In a tweet posted by Beckner-Carmitchel, officers appear to rush the crowd of protesters and grab a fourth individual.
Soon after, officers declared the gathering an unlawful assembly, according to Beckner-Carmitchel, and while most dispersed, a group of approximately 20-30 people left the area to regroup elsewhere. Beckner-Carmitchel decided to stay behind to document the arrests of the four individuals.
“I decided after covering the detainments for about 20 minutes to catch up with the main crowd,” Beckner-Carmitchel said. “Not long after I did catch up with them was the moment when everyone was kettled and I was detained.”
By the way... I was arrested on the sidewalk. For not being on the sidewalk: “pedestrian on the road” citation. Along with a legal observer from @NLG_LosAngeles during what began as a celebration of Black Lives.#dtla #ElectionNight #2020Election #blm #STAPLESCenter pic.twitter.com/gISuAu5PUT
— Sean Carmitchel (@ACatWithNews) November 4, 2020
Kettling is a police maneuver by which officers hem in protesters from all sides to prevent anyone from dispersing and is often followed with arrests or citations.
In a video Beckner-Carmitchel posted on Twitter, a woman can be heard calling out to police a few yards away, “We are press and National Lawyers Guild!” Legal observers from the National Lawyers Guild regularly attend protests across the country — identifiable by their lime green hats — in order to monitor police conduct.
Beckner-Carmitchel told the Tracker that though he identified himself as a member of the press and was standing on the sidewalk, he was cuffed and issued a citation that states his violation was “pedestrian on the road.”
“Everyone was detained one by one, cuffed, cited and then released,” he said.
Beckner-Carmitchel said that once the citations were issued, everyone was allowed to leave the kettle. He estimated that they were detained for an hour and a half and released around 9:30 p.m.
Shortly before midnight, Beckner-Carmitchel posted another video, noting, “They are threatening to arrest me. AGAIN- I was already cited today.”
In a recent internal memo shared by Beverly Hills Courier reporter Samuel Braslow, the LAPD explicitly stated that members of the press — regardless of whether they have media credentials — have a right to document protests.
“The intent of this message is to remind supervisors and line personnel that the Department WILL recognize individuals who self-identify as media representatives and will NOT require specific media credentials,” the memo from Deputy Chief Dominic Choi reads.
“The inability to produce identification does not preclude an individual from acting as a member of the media,” the memo says in boldface type.
The Los Angeles Police Department did not respond to an email requesting comment.
Beckner-Carmitchel was detained by LAPD officers in another law enforcement kettle the following night, Nov. 4, alongside at least three other journalists, and was arrested on charges of failure to disperse. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented those detentions here.
Freelance photojournalist Robert Spangle was arrested while covering protests against police violence in Los Angeles on June 1, 2020, he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. Spangle’s exploration of fashion in the protests was published in British GQ and Achtung Digital.
The protests were held in response to a video showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25. Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have been held across the U.S. since the end of May.
As part of the protests, hundreds of demonstrators marched down Sunset Boulevard on June 1, according to news reports. But after a 6 p.m. curfew, the majority of protesters began to disperse, Spangle said. He decided to head back toward his car.
Along the way, Spangle realized that law enforcement had begun to block streets, trapping protesters and Spangle on Schrader Boulevard near a parking lot just north of Sunset Boulevard. Fear and confusion took over the block, Spangle said.
“This is kettling and we’re getting locked in here,” Spangle recalled thinking. “The thing to do is go out and loudly identify yourself as press.”
Spangle, who was wearing a helmet with the word PRESS on it, stepped into the middle of the street with a badge identifying him as press in one hand and his camera in the other.
“At the top of my voice, I very loudly announced, ‘Hey I’m a journalist,’” Spangle said. “‘What do you want me to do, officer?’”
But he received no response. Six or seven times he said he tried to the same effect. So Spangle turned and approached another line of officers in the same way. Five or six times more he identified as a journalist, he said. But still, there was no response. Spangle was trapped.
Shortly before 9 p.m., two officers approached Spangle and ordered Spangle to get on his knees and put his hands on the back of his head, he told the Tracker. He was then zip-cuffed.
“I let them do their thing,” Spangle said. “I said, ‘Hey sir, please look at my press badge. I’m here as a journalist. I’m covering the event. I’m complying.’” He told the Tracker that he tried to draw on his military experience to respond in a calm, professional manner to resolve what he assumed was a mistake.
Officers brought Spangle to a fence where they were gathering others that had been arrested, he said. Spangle asked a journalist on the other side of the fence, which was outside the police cordon, to contact his editor at GQ about his arrest.
After about thirty minutes, Spangle said he was taken to a transport vehicle along with other people who had been arrested. Officers performed a search of Spangle’s possessions and confiscated a small camera bag. But they left his cameras, press badge, and phone with him, Spangle said.
Spangle said he never heard an officer acknowledge his repeated attempts to identify as a journalist. “I think there were efforts for those kinds of things to not be said out loud,” Spangle said.
As he got on the bus, he asked an officer to inform the supervisor he is a journalist, Spangle told the Tracker. The officer responded, “All I can say to you is you’ll be alright,” Spangle said. Spangle interpreted the answer as evidence that a bad command decision had been made to arrest everyone in the area, journalist or not.
The bus drove around the city for hours, stopping at two other locations, until stopping to process the arrestees shortly before midnight at the parking lot of UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium, Spangle said. He was one of the last on the bus to be released on a charge of violating the Los Angeles County curfew.
The university later issued a statement saying it was "troubled" that the stadium was used as a processing center "without UCLA's knowledge or permission.”
Spangle said he was arrested by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies, who wear a distinct tan and green uniform that contrasts the dark blue worn by officers with the Los Angeles Police Department. Spangle said he was transported in a sheriff’s bus. He received a citation from the LAPD at a processing center in western Los Angeles and said he received his seized camera bag back with the citation.
Spokespeople for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and LAPD told the Tracker that they could not provide specific information on Spangle’s arrest because of the sheer number of arrests made during the protests.
Footage from news helicopters that night shows LAPD officers, assisted by sheriff’s deputies, attempting to contain multiple marches and scattered looting across Hollywood. Arrested individuals were boarded on to sheriff’s buses for transport. The LAPD arrested a record-breaking 585 people in Hollywood alone, NBC reported, citing department officials.
Officer Drake Madison, an LAPD spokesperson, suggested filing a public records request. On June 24, LAPD denied a records request concerning Spangle’s arrest filed by journalist security expert Runa Sandvik with the collaborative reporting website MuckRock. In its response, LAPD said investigatory records are exempt from disclosure.
On June 8, Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey announced that she would not prosecute citations for violating curfew or failing to disperse, while Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer said he would resolve cases involving peaceful protesters in a “restorative approach” outside of the court system.
On June 10, the LAPD said it had assigned 40 investigators to examine “allegations of misconduct, violations of Department policy, and excessive force during the recent civil unrest.”
Spangle said he did not feel any bitterness toward the officers who were following orders. “They were professional; they were courteous,” Spangle said. “They did the wrong thing but they did it professionally and in a courteous way.”
“Somewhere along the line there was a really bad call made,” Spangle said. He described it as, “press or whatever, it doesn’t matter, we’re arresting everyone.”
Rob Wilcox, a spokesperson for Feuer, told the Tracker that the office is in the process of sending thousands of declination letters to those arrested on curfew related charges. The letter says the office will use its prosecutorial discretion to not file criminal charges and invites the recipient to join a series of virtual conversations on law enforcement, bias, and injustice. Wilcox said 2,044 letters had been sent as of July 27 and the remainder will be sent by the end of the week.
Spangle said as of July 27 he had not yet received the letter.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred total incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering Black Lives Matter protests across the country. Find these incidents here.
Freelance photojournalist Robert Spangle captured this image of a Los Angeles processing center seen from the parking lot of UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium shortly after his arrest on June 1, 2020.
",arrested and released,Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter 1 year, Black Lives Matter 2020, kettle, protest",,, 2020-06-30 03:08:37.138059+00:00,2021-11-19 15:48:32.539772+00:00,Journalist detained during downtown Los Angeles protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-detained-during-downtown-los-angeles-protest/,2021-11-19 15:48:32.465145+00:00,,,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Kandist Mallett (Freelance),,2020-05-31,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"Kandist Mallett, a freelance journalist and columnist for Teen Vogue, was detained alongside her reporting partner while attempting to document protests against police violence in Los Angeles on May 31, 2020.
Protests that began in Minneapolis on May 26 have spread across the country, sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, during an arrest the day before. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
Mallett told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she and freelance journalist Aaron Cantú were walking in downtown L.A. around 6:30 p.m., looking for protesters, when they turned onto Figueroa Street from Olympic Boulevard.
“We were just trying to figure out where the crowd was,” Mallett said. “All of a sudden we see all of these cops come from behind them, the cops start running out from their cars and then, as we turn to look, we already see that there are cops behind us and that we’ve been kettled,” she said, referring to a police maneuver used to hem in protesters. Approximately 30 to 40 demonstrators were trapped in the kettle as well.
In a video of the incident Mallett shared with the Tracker, at least 50 police officers can be seen in lines approaching from up the street. Cantú can be heard calling out, “We’re press! We just came around the corner; we got sandwiched in between.”
Mallett told the Tracker, “I have my press pass, so I just hold it up and shout, ‘Press! We’re press!’ And they just ignore us.” Police then ordered everyone in the so-called kettle to sit.
“My partner is worried that I’m going to get shot and tells me to sit down, so I sit,” Mallett said. “And then the supervisor at the scene walks by so I tell him that we’re press, and he says, ‘You’re the least of my priorities right now.’”
The Los Angeles Police Department didn’t respond to emailed requests for comment.
Mallett said that when officers began making arrests, Cantú was the first one they took because the two of them were the closest to the line of officers.
So, this happened yesterday evening. After coming home, taking a breath and sleeping on it, I'm doing a thread on what happened. This is also a thread with some thoughts on US police crushing freedom of the press, which unfortunately I've experienced firsthand in the past. pic.twitter.com/NJ6ShfaIvg
— Aarón Cantú (@aaron_con_choco) May 31, 2020
Cantú told the Tracker that two or three officers lifted him up from the curb, pushed him against a chain link fence and zip-tied him, but that Mallett was able to dissuade them from similarly zip-tying her hands.
Mallett said that she tried to convince the officers that they were journalists, and Googled examples of their published work when asked for evidence.
“I started filming, and as soon as I did the supervisor changed his tone,” Mallett said. “It was like, ‘We’re not going to hold you guys, we’re not going to arrest you,’ and to me, ‘I’m not going to put you in zip-ties.’ But we were detained and not able to leave.”
After about 20 minutes, officers took down both Cantú and Mallett’s information and removed the zip ties from Cantú’s wrists.
“They asked us if we wanted to stay, but both of us were pretty shaken up and we just wanted to get out of there,” Mallett said. In total, she said they were gone from the apartment they share for only an hour.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country related to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Find all of these cases here.
Freelance journalist Aaron Cantú was detained alongside his reporting partner while attempting to document protests against police violence in Los Angeles, California, on May 31, 2020.
Protests that began in Minneapolis on May 26 have spread across the country, sparked by a video showing a police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, during an arrest the day before. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
Cantú — who has written for The Nation, the Santa Fe Report, The Intercept and others — told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he and Teen Vogue columnist Kandist Mallett were walking in downtown LA at around 6:30 p.m., looking for protesters when they turned onto Figueroa Street from Olympic Boulevard.
“We saw a group of young protesters running down the street towards us and that’s when we kind of walked over toward them because that seemed to be where some action was happening,” Cantú said. A group of Los Angeles police officers were behind the protesters, which he said wasn’t unusual.
“But then we noticed that police behind us on the other side of the street had started to close in,” he added.
The officers encircled Cantú, Mallett and 30 to 40 protesters in a tactic called “kettling,” and ordered all of them to sit down.
“Kandist was very vocal about her press pass, about both of us being members of the press,” Cantú said. He added that while he had his camera on his shoulder, he wasn’t wearing a press pass.
In a tweet about the incident, Cantú wrote, “I’ve found that having [a press pass] makes functionally little difference in how cops target journalists, though now it appears it might actually make it worse.”
The Los Angeles Police Department didn’t respond to emailed requests for comment.
In a video of the incident Mallett shared with the Tracker, at least 50 police officers can be seen in lines approaching from up the street. Cantú can be heard calling out, “We’re press! We just came around the corner; we got sandwiched in between.”
An officer responds, ordering them to sit down. Cantú complies, and says, “OK. We’re trying to leave though. We haven’t done anything illegal.”
Cantú said that when police began making arrests he was the first zip-tied because he and Mallett were the closest to the line of officers.
So, this happened yesterday evening. After coming home, taking a breath and sleeping on it, I'm doing a thread on what happened. This is also a thread with some thoughts on US police crushing freedom of the press, which unfortunately I've experienced firsthand in the past. pic.twitter.com/NJ6ShfaIvg
— Aarón Cantú (@aaron_con_choco) May 31, 2020
“Two or three of them grabbed me, lifted me up — I was sitting on the curb — and basically pushed me against a chain link fence and tied my zip ties,” he said. Cantú added that Mallett was able to dissuade the officers from zip-tying her while she continued to tell them that they were journalists and pulled up their bylines and information on her phone.
After taking down both Cantú and Mallett’s information, an officer cut off Cantú’s zip ties and a supervisor told the pair that they could stay or leave.
“And we decided to leave,” Cantú said. “It was probably within an hour of the curfew starting, and one of the officers who arrested me said that we had to be inside. I didn’t know if that was true or not, as we’re members of the media, but obviously they didn’t really seem to care.”
A curfew was in place that night beginning at 8 p.m., and while the order didn’t explicitly exempt journalists, city and county officials had confirmed with outlets that they’d be able to cover the protests.
He added that they were detained for about 20 minutes, and were gone from the apartment they share for approximately an hour.
Cantú was arrested while covering protests at the inauguration of President Trump in Washington, D.C., in January 2017, and was indicted on eight separate felony counts. The charges, which could have brought up to 75 years in prison if Cantú had been convicted, were dropped in July 2018. Cantú and freelance journalist Alexei Wood, who was also arrested during the inauguration protests, have filed a lawsuit against seeking damages against Washington, D.C. and its police department.
“My aversion to risk is greater now than it was then, and I still ended up in a similar kettling situation, which I found very strange,” he said.
The day after his detention, Cantú tweeted: “My J20 [Jan. 20] prosecution ‘[told] reporters to stay home & avoid the risk of prosecution rather than to go to newsworthy events.’ That’s what I did last night. After being outside less than an hour, I was arrested. I went home after release. It felt cowardly.”
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country related to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Find all of these cases here.
Jonathan Mayorca, a journalist and co-owner of video news outlet The Convo Couch, was arrested by Los Angeles police while filming a demonstration on May 30, 2020.
The protest was part of Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality demonstrations across the country. The protests were sparked by the release of a video showing a white Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest. Floyd was later pronounced dead in a hospital.
Mayorca told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he arrived at the protest in the Fairfax area of Beverly Boulevard at around 3:30 p.m. along with two crew members, including his sister, Fiorella. Mayorca immediately began to livestream the demonstration. Video shows protesters gathering, holding signs, facing off with a line of police officers and then walking with their hands up and chanting.
The protesters moved west down Beverly Boulevard, and Mayorca and his crew followed. At around 4 p.m the protesters went down an alley near Beverly Boulevard and North Fairfax Avenue because the police had blocked off all other streets, Mayorca said. Officers with the Los Angeles Police Department then blocked all exits, or kettled the protesters in the alley. Mayorca and his crew were prevented from leaving.
Mayorca said he told the police he was a member of the press, but they ignored him. Mayorca was wearing a press badge on a lanyard hanging from his neck.
“We told them multiple times, ‘we’re press, we’re press’,” he said.
Protesters and Mayorca and his crew knelt on the ground in the alley as police officers watched them from a “line in front and behind us,” he said.
“One protester was crying hysterically,” Mayorca told the Tracker. “She threw up.”
Soon after being kettled, LAPD officers moved into the alley. Mayorca did not hear a dispersal order and was not given an opportunity to leave before he was arrested, according to a class-action lawsuit Mayorca joined against the LAPD for alleged federal and state constitutional rights violations. Mayorca’s video of the incident does not appear to pick up an audible warning from police.
Officers grabbed Mayorca, pushed him to the ground, and arrested him, he said. The officers’ actions broke the microphone attachment for his camera.
“It was the height of aggressiveness,” Mayorca said.
According to Mayorca, an officer said his camera equipment was broken before his interaction with police.
The police used zip-tie handcuffs to detain him.
Here’s the quick clip of us getting arrested as the cops lied and kettled the people into an alley. People were asking where to go & the cops led them to more cops. They refused to let us go even though we had badges and told them. pic.twitter.com/nfYvTl561J
— Fiorella Isabel🌹🔥 (@Fiorella_im) June 1, 2020
“The police put me against a wall and searched me,” Mayorca said.
The police brought Mayorca to the Van Nuys police station, where he was held for about two hours and then released, he said. Mayorca said he repeatedly complained about the tightness of his zip-tie handcuffs, but the police ignored him.
“It cut off my circulation a bit,” Mayorca said. “It was uncomfortably tight.”
He was issued a citation for failure to obey a lawful order, a misdemeanor.
Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer said in June that he would use a “non-punitive approach” to resolve the cases of peaceful protesters outside the court system.
Jorge Gonzalez, a civil rights lawyer who's part of the team representing protesters, said the city has tentatively agreed to dismiss the charges if protesters complete an online course on the First Amendment. Gonzalez told the Tracker Aug. 3 that he is rejecting the city’s condition and awaiting the city’s response.
However, Rob Wilcox, a spokesman for City Attorney Feuer, said protesters will be invited to a voluntary, virtual conversation about policing, bias, and inequity organized with the help of local cultural, academic and criminal justice institutions.
Mayorca is a plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit against the LAPD for allegedly violating protesters’ constitutional rights to peacefully assemble and protest, using excessive force, and holding protesters in unlawful conditions of confinement. When reached for comment, LAPD spokesperson Officer Norma Eisenman said the “department does not comment on pending complaints.”
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country related to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Find all of these cases here.
Journalist Fiorella Isabel Mayorca, co-owner of video news outlet The Convo Couch, was kettled and arrested by police on May 30, 2020, while covering a Black Lives Matter protest in Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles protest was part of Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality demonstrations around the country. The protests kicked off after the release of a video showing a white Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, during an arrest. Floyd was later pronounced dead in a hospital.
Mayorca arrived at the protest at Beverly Boulevard in the Fairfax neighborhood of Los Angeles around 3:30 p.m. with two crew members, including her brother Jonathan. She and Jonathan began to film the demonstrations. Mayorca’s footage shows demonstrators on the boulevard chanting, holding signs, facing off with a line of police officers and then walking with their hands up.
When the demonstrators started to move west on Beverly Boulevard, Mayorca followed and continued filming. At about 4 p.m., protesters headed down an alleyway near Beverly Boulevard and North Fairfax Avenue. The Los Angeles Police Department had blocked off all other streets and directed protesters in the direction of the alleyway verbally and with their hands, Mayorca said. The police then kettled the demonstrators in the alley, blocking off exits and trapping protesters.
“They started to kettle people and we thought we should be OK because we’re press,” Mayorca said.
Mayorca wore a press badge that hung from a lanyard around her neck. She and her brother told police officers they were press, but they were ignored, she said.
Soon, Los Angeles police rushed in. Video of the police entering the alleyway reviewed by the Tracker does not appear to pick up an audible warning from police. Officers began arresting protesters and journalists, including Mayorca and her brother.
Mayorca was put in handcuffs and then pushed up against a wall by a police officer, she said.
“[A woman officer was] seriously groping me. She went in my underwear. They were acting like we were hiding drugs,” she told the Tracker.
Officers placed zip-tie handcuffs on Mayorca. She said they felt extremely tight.
“The worst part of it was the wrists,” Mayorca said. “The way they placed it, it was like our wrists were going in different directions, not a normal position. It hurt.”
After spending about an hour in a police wagon, she and her brother were taken to the Van Nuys police station in Los Angeles, where she said she was held for about two hours and then released.
Mayorca was given a citation for failure to obey a lawful order, a misdemeanor charge.
The Tracker asked the LAPD to comment on Mayorca’s arrest, including allegations that she was groped while detained by police.
In response, the department referred the Tracker to a statement published in June.
“The Los Angeles Police Department continues to investigate allegations of misconduct, violations of Department policy, and excessive force during the recent civil unrest,” the statement reads. “The Department has assigned 40 investigators to this effort and we will look into every complaint thoroughly and hold every officer accountable for their actions.”
In June, Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer said his office would be resolving the cases of peaceful protesters arrested during recent Black Lives Matter protests in a “non-punitive” way.
Jorge Gonzalez, a civil rights attorney who’s part of a team representing protesters arrested during the recent demonstrations, said the Los Angeles City Attorney has tentatively agreed to dismiss the charges, on the condition that protesters complete an online course on the First Amendment. Gonzalez said Aug. 3 that the team is rejecting the city’s condition and awaiting the city’s response.
Rob Wilcox, a spokesman for City Attorney Feuer, told the Tracker protesters will be invited to a voluntary, virtual conversation about policing, bias, and inequity organized with the help of local cultural, academic and criminal justice institutions.
Mayorca’s brother Jonathan is a named plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit against the LAPD for allegedly violating protesters’ constitutional rights to peacefully assemble and protest, using excessive force, and holding protesters in unlawful conditions of confinement. When reached for comment, LAPD spokesperson Officer Norma Eisenman said the “department does not comment on pending complaints.”
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is documenting several hundred incidents of journalists assaulted, arrested, struck by crowd control ammunition or tear gas or had their equipment damaged while covering protests across the country related to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Find all of these cases here.