Incident details
- Date of incident
- June 6, 2025
- Location
- Los Angeles, California
- Assailant
- Law enforcement
- Was the journalist targeted?
- No
Assault
Department of Homeland Security police clash with protesters during an anti-ICE protest in downtown Los Angeles, California, on June 6, 2025. Journalist Jeremy Lindenfeld was hit with pepper balls and tear gas while covering the protest that day.
Jeremy Lindenfeld, a journalist reporting for news nonprofit Capital & Main, was struck by multiple pepper balls and exposed to tear gas while covering a protest in downtown Los Angeles, California, on June 6, 2025.
The protest was part of a wave of demonstrations that began that day, following federal immigration raids across the LA area amid a larger immigration crackdown by the Trump administration. After demonstrators clashed with LA law enforcement officers and federal agents, President Donald Trump deployed the California National Guard and U.S. Marines, despite objections from state and local officials.
Lindenfeld, who was wearing press identifiers at the time, said the air was thick with tear gas as Department of Homeland Security police advanced on demonstrators.
“It was an incredibly chaotic scene,” Lindenfeld told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. “The law enforcement agencies that have been out there interfacing with protesters and press have done very little in the way of discerning proper use of force.”
Lindenfeld said he was reporting on the protest near the Metropolitan Detention Center when federal law enforcement deployed the pepper balls indiscriminately into the crowd, striking him and others.
He continued reporting at multiple protests in the days that followed, getting hit by a canister on June 7 and struck in the abdomen by a foam baton round on June 9.
In a statement emailed to the Tracker, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin urged journalists to be cautious while covering what she characterized as “violent riots,” and added, “President Trump and Secretary [Kristi] Noem are committed to restoring law and order in Los Angeles.”
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogues press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
