Photojournalist arrested at LA protest after being prodded with police batons

Independent photojournalist Nick Stern was arrested and jabbed with police batons while covering a workers’ rights and immigration protest in Los Angeles, California, on May 1, 2026.

Thousands rallied in downtown LA for International Workers’ Day as part of nationwide “May Day Strong” demonstrations that also called for an end to the war in Iran and the immigration raids that have swept the city since June 2025. Later, demonstrators gathered outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, where immigrants are being held.

Stern told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the LA Police Department moved in to clear the area outside the adjacent City Hall, pushing the crowd back with batons before issuing a dispersal order that they said applied to everyone in the area, including the press.

Some journalists left, but not Stern. “I felt it was important to stay and document what was going on,” he said, citing the California law that exempts journalists from dispersal orders and protects them from arrest or interference by police, including use of force. A federal preliminary injunction against the city is in place to uphold those protections.

Stern, who was wearing credentials and a shirt identifying himself as press, said that, without warning, officers kettled a group that included mostly journalists, sealing them inside a tightened perimeter.

Stern, fearing he would be arrested, asked multiple times to leave but was blocked. At least two officers pushed him in the chest with batons, and one tried to swing at him. After Stern blocked the blow with his hand, a senior officer ordered Stern to turn around and put his hands behind his back.

In a video posted to Bluesky, Stern backed away from officers, spoke to them briefly, then began to leave.

“Turn around,” an officer said.

“Why are you telling me to turn around now?” Stern responded.

“You’re under arrest,” another officer replies before grabbing him, twisting his arms behind his back and placing his wrists in zip ties.

“It seemed like a selected arrest,” Stern told the Tracker, adding that all other journalists were eventually allowed to leave the kettle. Officers first told Stern he was being arrested for assault on a police officer, then later said it was for failure to disperse.

Stern’s right zip tie was tightened to the point of throbbing pain and numbness. He said officers loosened it after about 10 minutes, only after he shouted for them to. Red marks were still visible on his wrist two days later.

Stern was taken to jail, where he was held for two hours. He was the last of about a dozen people to be processed before being released without charges.

“It was just a process of intimidation,” Stern said.

Stern, whose work has appeared in The Guardian, CNN and The New York Times, among others, is working on a documentary about protests in LA and has been involved in seven cases documented by the Tracker in the city. In one, the city paid him a $150,000 settlement over his treatment by law enforcement while covering a 2020 protest.

In April, he addressed the LAPD’s board of commissioners, asking: “What do I have to do … so I don’t get brutalized by LAPD?”

The LAPD did not immediately return a request for comment from the Tracker, but in a statement posted on May 1, it wrote: “The Los Angeles Police Department fully supports the rights of individuals to peacefully assemble and exercise their First Amendment rights.”

In an earlier statement following the March 28 “No Kings” rally — which resulted in nearly two dozen press freedom violations — Chief Jim McDonnell said 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,” that statement said.