Incident details
- Date of incident
- January 28, 2023
- Location
- Los Angeles, California
- Targets
- KTLA
- Equipment broken
- Actor
- Private individual
Equipment Damage
A protest in downtown Los Angeles on Jan. 28, 2023, following the release of video footage showing police officers fatally beating motorist Tyre Nichols. A KTLA TV news van was vandalized during the protest.
A KTLA TV news van was vandalized during a protest against police brutality in downtown Los Angeles, California, in the early morning hours of Jan. 28, 2023, according to video journalism company Traffic News Los Angeles.
Protests began across the U.S. the night before, after the city of Memphis, Tennessee, released graphic police body camera footage showing five officers fatally beating motorist Tyre Nichols during a traffic stop.
According to the Los Angeles Times, roughly 100 people gathered outside LA Police Department headquarters for a candlelight vigil that night honoring Nichols. The Times reported that tension escalated as officers in riot gear moved in on a small group who knocked over metal barricades and marched into a plaza outside the police headquarters lobby. The scene grew more chaotic as smoke filled the air and protesters banged on a police car while an officer remained inside, the newspaper wrote.
Later that night, amid the unrest, a photo posted on social platform X by Traffic News LA shows the KTLA van was spray-painted along one side with the words, “Fuck 640 KFI,” a reference to an LA-area AM radio station whose ownership is separate from that of KTLA.
KTLA did not respond to requests for comment.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogues press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
