Incident details
- Date of incident
- June 8, 2025
- Location
- Los Angeles, California
- Targets
- J.W. Hendricks (CalMatters)
- Assailant
- Law enforcement
- Was the journalist targeted?
- Yes
Assault
Police hold projectile launchers during an immigration protest in Los Angeles, California, on June 8, 2025. Some officers aimed their weapons directly at photojournalist J.W. Hendricks while he was covering the protest.
Photojournalist J.W. Hendricks, on assignment for CalMatters, was caught between two police lines when officers aimed projectile launchers at him as he covered an immigration protest in downtown Los Angeles, California, on June 8, 2025.
The protests began June 6 in response to federal raids in and around LA of workplaces and areas where immigrant day laborers gathered, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. After demonstrators clashed with LA law enforcement officers and federal agents, President Donald Trump called in the California National Guard and then the U.S. Marines over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass.
Hendricks told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he and two other journalists found themselves caught between two Los Angeles Police Department skirmish lines as officers tried to push back protesters. Hendricks said he and his colleagues identified themselves as press, but officers repeatedly refused to lower their projectile launchers and warned them not to cross certain areas, even when they went the direction they were told to go.
“They wouldn’t lower their weapon,” Hendricks said. “I was screaming, ‘Do not shoot us. We are press.’”
In response to a request for comment about the multiple journalists assaulted while documenting protests that day, the LAPD directed the Tracker to the department’s social media accounts.
In a June 9 statement posted to its social media platform X, the department said officers were responding to “significant acts of violence, vandalism, and looting.”
“Multiple deployments of less-lethal munitions were necessary to manage the crowds and prevent further harm to people or property,” the department said, adding that its professional standards bureau would be reviewing allegations of excessive force.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogs press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
