Incident details
- Date of incident
- August 12, 2025
- Location
- Los Angeles, California
- Assailant
- Law enforcement
- Was the journalist targeted?
- Yes
Assault
A police officer turns toward freelancer Sean Beckner-Carmitchel moments before shoving the journalist, who was reporting on a pro-immigrant car caravan in downtown Los Angeles, California, on Aug. 12, 2025.
Freelance journalist Sean Beckner-Carmitchel was shoved by a police officer while covering a pro-immigrant car caravan in downtown Los Angeles, California, on Aug. 12, 2025.
Protests in LA began in early June in response to federal raids of workplaces and areas in and around the city where immigrant day laborers gather, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. Raids at Home Depots in early August took place seemingly in defiance of a July 11 court order temporarily prohibiting federal agents from using discriminatory profiling.
Beckner-Carmitchel reported that the caravan, organized by several unions and immigrant rights groups, made its way from MacArthur Park toward the Metropolitan Detention Center downtown.
“As the car caravan arrived on Alameda and Temple, they were met by an LAPD blockade,” Beckner-Carmitchel wrote. “A union representative attempted to negotiate with an officer, who repeatedly is saying ‘we don’t want any conflict’ on this street.”
Beckner-Carmitchel was following as Los Angeles Police Department officers then approached the driver of the lead vehicle — a semitruck pulling a band in an unwalled trailer — when another officer suddenly turned and shoved him, the journalist reported.
He was able to continue covering protests as they continued into the night.
Two days later, Beckner-Carmitchel wrote that he had been diagnosed with a rib fracture, likely as a result of being struck with a baton on Aug. 8.
“It hurts a *lot* and I pride myself on being a pretty tough soldier in the journalism industry. But I’ll likely be out of commission for at least a few days,” he wrote. “Extremely frustrating that there are things I could be writing about, photographing or filming and instead I’ll be sitting on my couch.”
The LAPD did not respond to a request for comment.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogues press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
