Journalist manhandled, his reporting obstructed, by police at LA protest

Connor Sheets, an investigative reporter for the Los Angeles Times, was forcibly removed by a police officer from the scene of a protest he was covering in Los Angeles, California, on March 28, 2026.

The demonstration followed a “No Kings” protest held earlier in the day in LA, one of thousands 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.

Sheets told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he arrived at the detention center as the LA Police Department began making arrests. Officers pushed both protesters and journalists out of the area, blocking off a long stretch of street and preventing them from approaching or observing the arrests as they unfolded.

“There was an arrest operation going on for literally hours, and we could only see what they were allowing us to see, which was certain views and from a significant distance,” Sheets said.

In a video Sheets posted on X, an officer said they were blocking off the area because, “We’re going to do some mass arrests right now, that’s why. Our main thing is your safety.”

Sheets, wearing two press badges and clearly identifiable as media, asked to speak with a police supervisor. A public information officer later escorted him and a group of other journalists, but told them they could not stop to film.

Later, while hanging back to take pictures of the arrests, another officer approached Sheets and told him he could not remain in the area.

“He grabbed me by my collar from the back and roughly escorted me away,” he said.

Sheets added that he was physically — but not painfully — pushed forward to a designated press area, where journalists were trying to assert their rights under California state law to cover protests and be exempted from dispersal orders without threat of arrest or interference by police. A federal preliminary injunction is in place against the city to uphold those protections.

In one video Sheets posted to the social platform X, a police sergeant tells the reporters, “I’m not going to let you walk and film between officers working; the injunction does not require that or allow that.”

In response to a request for comment, LAPD said it is reviewing the claims and would provide a statement at a later date.