Journalist kettled, prevented from leaving LA protest

Journalist Mel Buer was caught in a kettle with journalists and protesters who were threatened with arrest while documenting a demonstration 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.

Buer told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was reporting at the federal detention center when Department of Homeland Security officers indiscriminately fired into the crowd with chemical irritants, which seeped behind her goggles.

“I was kind of blind for a bit there and unable to see,” Buer recalled. Later that night, she noticed pepper ball residue on her shoes but did not recall feeling any impact from a projectile.

Later, the LA Police Department called for a dispersal order and began making arrests. Officers formed a kettle, a tactic used to surround and control a crowd, and instructed credentialed press to leave the kettle and continue documenting from the sidewalk.

“They absolutely prevented us from doing our jobs,” Buer said.

Buer 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.

“I would call the entire situation just confusing,” Buer said. “It seemed like not a single officer knew what the law said, what the protocol was, or how to handle the situation.”

In a video that reporter Lexis-Olivier Ray, who was also in the kettle, posted to the social platform Bluesky, an officer points at him and tells him to leave the area.

“We’re giving you an opportunity for legitimate media to leave, because we’re going to make arrests,” the officer said.

Ray replied, “But you’re not going to arrest media, are you?”

“Yes, we are. We gave you a dispersal order. We asked you to leave.”

The journalists were held in the kettle for at least 30 minutes, said Buer, who was eventually allowed to leave after police negotiated the exit of media with Adam Rose, press rights chair of the LA Press Club. Rose is also deputy director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, of which the Tracker is a project.

“I had a credential; they were checking credentials to let people leave, which again is illegal,” Buer told the Tracker. “You’re not required to have a press pass in order to be a member of the media in California.”

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 arrested for failure to disperse, according to the statement. McDonnell added that any use of force or allegations of mistreatment involving media members would be investigated and addressed.

“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.

While covering another LA immigration protest in August 2025, Buer was kettled, detained and zip-tied by officers.