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 21:14:56.720504+00:00,2023-11-01 14:12:12.127405+00:00,"Photojournalist shoved, helmet damaged while covering LA protest",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-shoved-helmet-damaged-while-covering-la-protest/,2023-11-01 14:12:12.014429+00:00,,,,"Assault, Equipment Damage",,,protective equipment: count of 1,Joey Scott (Independent),,2022-06-24,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"
Documentary photographer Joey Scott was shoved to the ground by police officers 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 six journalists in the city that night.
L.A. Taco reporter Lexis-Olivier Ray told the Tracker that he and Scott had followed protesters as they attempted to get onto the highway. After demonstrators exited the highway, Los Angeles Police Department officers advanced toward them to clear the area.
In a tweet posted at around 7:45 p.m., Scott wrote that he had just been shoved to the ground by an LAPD officer.
Got shoved before this. LAPD Metro not honoring press passes. pic.twitter.com/BBlbkY1KuN
— Joey Scott (@joeyneverjoe) June 25, 2022
In a video posted in a subsequent tweet, multiple officers can be heard shouting, “Leave the area! Leave the area!” Both Scott and a second journalist — L.A. Taco reporter Lexis-Olivier Ray — can be heard identifying themselves as press in response. Scott was not immediately available to provide comment.
At approximately 0:06 in the clip, an officer steps forward and says, “It doesn’t matter, you guys gotta get going.”
“I’m press, it does matter,” Scott can be heard responding. “I’m on a public sidewalk.”
At that same moment, one of the officers pushed Ray backward. The Tracker has documented that incident here.
In footage posted by photojournalist Josh Pacheco, Scott can be seen stepping back onto the sidewalk and taking two steps before an LAPD officer appears to push him backward with his baton, sending him sprawling into a car a few feet behind him.
LAPD just assaulted a journalist & legal observer on South Broadway. pic.twitter.com/Mc3PUmljy0
— JP (Josh Pacheco) ✨🏳️⚧️They/Them (@JoshMPacheco) June 25, 2022
“What wasn’t captured in the footage was the attitude: the blatant disregard and hostility the officers had to our legal rights to be there,” Scott told the Tracker. “The more that we identified ourselves and pushed back on their unlawful commands, the more hostile and, obviously, more violent they got toward us.”
In footage from the incident, “press” labels are visible on Scott’s backpack and helmet. In a tweet thread two days later, Scott wrote that his body and ribs were still sore and that his helmet was damaged from the fall.
“Going into this weekend, I was like: Cool. We have these new laws and protections, this should be a lot easier than previous experiences,” Scott said. “And it was the complete opposite. Worse than before the laws were enacted and the supposed training and reform that the department has done.”
In October 2021, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 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.
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 comment from Joey Scott.
Documentary photographer Joey Scott, right, with ‘press’ taped on his backpack, is seen moments before a Los Angeles police officer shoves him with a baton while Scott was documenting protests in the city on June 24, 2022.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,law enforcement,None,None,False,False,None,None,law enforcement,yes,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"court verdict, protest, reproductive rights",,, 2021-07-27 17:16:48.758165+00:00,2022-09-21 22:51:02.650262+00:00,Photographer held in multiple kettles by LA police while covering Wi Spa protest,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photographer-held-in-multiple-kettles-by-la-police-while-covering-wi-spa-protest/,2022-09-21 22:51:02.583070+00:00,,,,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Joey Scott (Freelance),,2021-07-17,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"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 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.