Student photojournalist blocked by police from leaving LA protest

Ethan Cohen, a student photojournalist for California State University’s Long Beach Current, was caught in a police kettle with other media and threatened with arrest while documenting a protest in Los Angeles on March 28, 2026.

The protest followed a “No Kings” demonstration held earlier in the day in LA, one of thousands across the U.S. that organizers said drew more than 8 million people against Trump administration policies.

After the main march, people gathered outside downtown LA’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where immigrants are held, and the Roybal Federal Building, locations where many demonstrations have centered since sweeping immigration enforcement began in the city in June 2025.

Later, the LA Police Department called for a dispersal order and began making arrests. Officers formed a kettle, a tactic used to surround and control a crowd, and instructed credentialed press to leave the kettle and continue documenting from the sidewalk.

“That somewhat affected my coverage, to where I wasn’t able to get out,” Cohen said. “It was one of those things where next thing you know, you were surrounded.”

At first, Cohen and other journalists stayed in the kettle to document the arrests, asserting their rights under California law, which allows members of the press to cover protests and exempts them from dispersal orders. It also protects them from arrest or interference by police while doing so. A federal preliminary injunction against the city is in place to uphold those protections.

In a video that reporter Lexis-Olivier Ray, who was also in the kettle, posted to the social platform Bluesky, an officer points at him and tells him to leave the area.

“We’re giving you an opportunity for legitimate media to leave, because we’re going to make arrests,” the officer said.

Ray replied, “But you’re not going to arrest media, are you?”

“Yes, we are. We gave you a dispersal order. We asked you to leave.”

The journalists were held in the kettle for at least 30 minutes. Cohen and others were eventually allowed to leave after police negotiated the exit of the media with Adam Rose, press rights chair of the LA Press Club. Rose is also deputy director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, of which the Tracker is a project.

In a written statement shared April 2, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said that police were responding to acts of violence and vandalism and eventually issued a dispersal order. Anyone identifying as a “duly authorized” member of the media was contacted, verified and separated from those arrested for failure to disperse, according to the statement. McDonnell added 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,” the statement said.