Photojournalist detained in police kettle amid LA immigration protests

Independent photojournalist John Rudoff was detained in a kettle by police while covering an anti-deportation protest in downtown Los Angeles, California, on June 9, 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 local 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.

Rudoff told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was documenting protests throughout the night of June 9. The protests were centered around the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown LA’s Little Tokyo neighborhood.

After the Los Angeles Police Department declared the protests an unlawful assembly, Rudoff said he followed as 50 to 100 demonstrators were pushed back by “a wall of cops” on South Alameda Street, a major thoroughfare. He added that the officers were heavily armed, carrying 40 mm crowd-control munitions, pepper balls and shields.

Officers herded the crowd and by approximately 8:30 p.m. had surrounded them using a technique called kettling.

“The usual tactic is to have a wall of cops — mostly armored with helmets and face shields and batons — advancing toward a group of protesters,” Rudoff said. “They would advance 10 or 20 feet and stop and form up their line again and then yell ‘Move!’ or ‘Move back!’ and push forward another distance.”

Rudoff told the Tracker he was among the journalists and demonstrators caught in the kettle and told they were under arrest for failure to disperse.

“I basically sat down and made a few pictures and twiddled my thumbs for an hour as several of the protesters, one by one, were lined up and taken away by the cops,” he said. “About 45 minutes to an hour later, a sergeant pointed his finger at me and beckoned me toward him.”

The photojournalist said he complied and was told to put his hands behind his back. The officer asked Rudoff if he was with the press and noticed the National Press Photographers Association credential around his neck.

“He said, ‘Let me take a look at that,’ and I think he photographed it with a cellphone, but I’m not sure,” Rudoff said. “And then he said, ‘I’m going to walk you out of here with your hands behind your back. I don’t want the activists to see that we’re letting you go.’”

Rudoff told the Tracker he was able to then reconnect with a colleague who had avoided the kettle and leave.

“I was not physically injured and I’ve got psychological skin like an alligator,” he said. “But I was out of business for an hour, and I know perfectly well that the California Penal Code says that police are not allowed to disperse, detain, beat or arrest journalists doing their jobs, and that is precisely what they did.”

When reached for comment, the LAPD directed the Tracker to the department’s social media accounts. But in a June 10 news release posted on social platform X about the previous evening’s arrests, the LAPD did not address the detainments and removal of journalists caught in the kettle.