Journalist caught in police kettle at LA protest

Independent journalist Dexter Thomas was caught in a kettle and threatened with arrest while documenting a protest in Los Angeles, California, on March 28, 2026.

The protest followed a “No Kings” demonstration held earlier in the day in LA, one of thousands across the U.S. that organizers said drew more than 8 million people against Trump administration policies.

After the main march, people gathered outside downtown LA’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where immigrants are held, and the Roybal Federal Building, locations where many demonstrations have centered since sweeping immigration enforcement began in the city in June 2025.

Thomas told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was filming the protest at the detention center, where federal officers deployed tear gas that got into his eyes. Later, the LA Police Department began pushing people down the street and eventually declared an unlawful assembly.

As police began making arrests, they formed a kettle — a tactic used to surround and control a crowd — and instructed credentialed press to leave the kettle and continue documenting from the sidewalk.

“They tried to say where press could be, which we were not going to abide by that,” Thomas said. “We don’t need to stand on the sidewalk, that’s not the law.”

Thomas and other journalists stayed in the kettle to document the arrests, asserting their rights under California law, which allows members of the press to cover protests and exempts them from dispersal orders. It also protects them from arrest or interference by police while doing so. A federal preliminary injunction against the city is in place to uphold those protections.

In a video that reporter Lexis-Olivier Ray, who was also in the kettle, posted to the social platform Bluesky, an officer said they were going to arrest media members who did not abide by the dispersal order.

“They were saying, ‘You can’t leave now,’” said Thomas, who recalled being in the kettle, unable to exit, for about a half hour. “You had your opportunity, and that’s no longer available to you.”

Thomas was eventually allowed to leave after police negotiated the exit of media with Adam Rose, press rights chair of the LA Press Club. Rose is also deputy director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, of which the Tracker is a project.

The experience left Thomas frustrated; he said he felt that officers were trying to renegotiate the law in real time.

“What they can do is make your life very difficult by actually arresting you and taking your equipment,” he said. “And if I have filmed something which needs to be seen, and they take my equipment, then I have a problem.”

In a written statement shared April 2, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said that police were responding to acts of violence and vandalism and eventually issued a dispersal order. Anyone identifying as a “duly authorized” member of the media was contacted, verified and separated from those facing arrest for failure to disperse, according to the statement.

McDonnell added that any use of force or allegations of mistreatment, including those involving media members, would be investigated and addressed.

“The LAPD recognizes the media’s right to cover events and makes reasonable efforts to accommodate, with those efforts consistent with our primary duty to maintain public safety and order,” the statement said.

Thomas was similarly kettled and threatened with arrest at another protest in January 2026.