Incident details
- Date of incident
- June 10, 2025
- Location
- Los Angeles, California
- Assailant
- Law enforcement
- Was the journalist targeted?
- Yes
Assault
Images showing photographer Benjamin Hanson being pushed by a California Highway Patrol officer while documenting a protest in Los Angeles on June 10, 2025.
Freelance photojournalist Benjamin Hanson was shoved by a California Highway Patrol officer while covering an immigration protest in Los Angeles on June 10, 2025.
It was one of many protests that 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. Trump’s deployment of federal troops to LA was ruled illegal by a federal judge Sept. 2.
Hanson told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was shooting photos for Middle East Images and video for Royol News when protesters briefly took over a nearby freeway and CHP officers began pushing the crowd back. Hanson was wearing press credentials and facing both the protesters and the officers while photographing the interaction.
“I was actively looking through my viewfinder. I didn’t see that man,” he said, describing the moment an officer he hadn’t noticed suddenly shoved him.
Hanson said the shove did not knock him to the ground, but caused him to momentarily lose his balance. Hanson said he believed the officer’s act was targeted against him as a member of the media.
“It was pretty obvious what I was doing,” he said.
The impact also caused him to lose the photo he was taking and to continue documenting the protest from further away.
“I wasn’t able to be as close as I wanted to be,” he told the Tracker.
CHP did not respond to a request for comment.
On other days while covering the protests, an officer knocked Hanson’s phone out of his hand and a Department of Homeland Security officer pepper-sprayed him.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogs press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
