LAPD deliberately targeted journalists at protests, press group says in lawsuit
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Police clash with protesters in Los Angeles on June 9. Photo: David McNew/Getty Images
Los Angeles journalists sued the city and head of the police department Monday alleging officers deliberately targeted reporters at recent protests following federal immigration raids.
The big picture: The complaint, filed in federal court, accuses law enforcement officers of responding to the demonstrations with excessive force against both the press and the public.
- The largely peaceful protests in Los Angeles put the city at the center of nationwide unrest around the Trump administration's aggressive deportation agenda.
Driving the news: The Los Angeles Press Club and investigative reporting site Status Coup in their complaint accuse LAPD officers of violating journalists' rights under the Constitution and state law.
- "Being a journalist in Los Angeles is now a dangerous profession," the complaint filed in the Central District of California said.
- "LAPD unlawfully used force and the threat of force against Plaintiffs, their members and other journalists to intimidate them and interfere with their constitutional right to document public events as the press."
- Journalists covering the protests have been shot with "less-lethal munitions," charged by horses and forcibly prevented from filming, the suit said.
Zoom in: The suit lists Australian journalist Lauren Tomasi, who was shot by a rubber bullet during a live broadcast, as one of its examples of LAPD misconduct.
- "The video of the shooting shows the LAPD officer looking directly at her and aiming specifically at her without the slightest justification," the complaint said. "She held a microphone; she was accompanied by a camera crew. None of that mattered to the LAPD officers."
- Tomasi told CNN she had been reporting at the protests in downtown LA for hours when she felt the presence of the LAPD and law enforcement "really ramped up."
- While she has a bruise from the rubber bullet, she said she thinks "it's so important that journalists are out there doing our job."
What they're saying: "With today's lawsuit, the L.A. Press Club is fighting for the rights of all of its nearly 1,000 members to report the news without risking their health and safety," Adam Rose, spokesperson for the nonprofit, said.
- The LAPD said it does not comment on pending litigation.
- Representatives for the city did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.
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