{"id":223353,"date":"2025-09-13T10:48:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T10:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/223353\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T10:48:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T10:48:15","slug":"press-freedoms-protected-from-ice-assaults-in-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/223353\/","title":{"rendered":"Press Freedoms Protected From ICE Assaults in Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article is published in partnership with the Center for Media and Democracy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, a federal district court judge in Los Angeles issued<\/a> a sweeping preliminary injunction barring Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers from \u201cdispersing, threatening, or assaulting\u201d journalists or legal observers, or using crowd control weapons on or shooting projectiles at anyone who doesn\u2019t \u201cpose a threat of imminent harm.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles area has been rocked by protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids since June 6, when the Trump administration first targeted it for a crackdown on undocumented immigrants.<\/p>\n

DHS officers have \u201cunleashed crowd control weapons indiscriminately and with surprising savagery\u201d in \u201cretaliation\u201d for those \u201cconstitutionally protected\u201d protests and the related activities of journalists and observers, Judge Hern\u00e1n Vera, a Biden appointee, stated in his ruling.<\/p>\n

DHS does not have \u201ccarte blanche to unleash near-lethal force on crowds of third parties in the vicinity. Indeed, under the guise of protecting the public, federal agents have endangered large numbers of peaceful protestors, legal observers, and journalists\u2014as well as the public that relies on them to hold their government accountable,\u201d Judge Vera wrote. \u201cThe First Amendment demands better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge concluded that \u201cfederal agents\u2019 indiscriminate use of force \u2026 will undoubtedly chill the media\u2019s efforts to cover these public events and protestors seeking to express peacefully their views on national policies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related:\u00a0<\/strong>DHS Claims Videotaping ICE Raids Is \u2018Violence\u2019<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

As the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) reported<\/a> in August, journalists in Los Angeles have been repeatedly and severely injured by the actions of DHS, the Los Angeles Sheriff\u2019s Department (LASD), and the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) while covering protests against ICE raids and the Trump administration\u2019s deployment of Marines and the National Guard to the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the federal government began its violent, chaotic invasion of Southern California, our communities have risen together to bear witness and to speak out for their neighbors and loved ones,\u201d said Adrienna Wong, senior staff attorney at the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, in a statement<\/a>. \u201cThis ruling affirms their constitutional rights to do just that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBy granting this relief, the court has affirmed the journalistic duty to our communities and the essential role of a free press,\u201d said Ryanne Mena, a journalist and one of the plaintiffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve spent countless hours compiling evidence of police misconduct toward journalists in Los Angeles. The attacks this summer have been relentless,\u201d said Adam Rose, press rights chair of the Los Angeles Press Club, the lead plaintiff in the case. \u201cIt was a relief to hear Judge Vera acknowledge a \u2018mountain of evidence\u2019 as we sat in his courtroom last month. This decision affirms our right to be free from violence while doing our jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The court\u2019s disturbing factual findings about the violence committed by DHS officers include specifically targeting members of the press with \u201cless lethal\u201d rounds even when they were far from protesters; firing on the media even after most protesters had left; and shooting tear gas canisters and pepper balls directly at reporters and others who posed no threat.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a disturbing number of cases,\u201d DHS officers shot people in the head, Judge Vera wrote, noting that \u201cless lethal\u201d projectiles are meant to be aimed at the ground and \u201ccan\u2014and have\u2014caused severe trauma and death\u201d when \u201caimed at the head.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge Vera rejected DHS\u2019s \u201cbaseless accusations that Plaintiffs themselves participated in violent riots,\u201d saying the agency had failed to produce \u201ca shred of evidence\u201d to support that claim.<\/p>\n

The court found that the injunction was necessary because of \u201cstrong and persuasive evidence of retaliatory intent\u201d and the likelihood that DHS would continue to violate the First Amendment rights of journalists, legal observers, and peaceful protesters. DHS officers \u201chave injured three members of LA Press Club and NewsGuild\u201d since the denial of a temporary restraining order by a different judge on June 20, Vera noted.<\/p>\n

Still, real questions remain as to whether or not DHS will comply with the order. In May, a federal judge in Boston found that DHS had violated a court order by deporting<\/a> eight men to South Sudan. Members of the LAPD brutalized<\/a> journalists even after being enjoined against doing so. Nick Stern, who was attacked by officers from both the LAPD and the LASD, said that he is not optimistic that DHS will comply with the preliminary injunction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese rulings come down, but when you\u2019re on the ground, they are ignored much of the time,\u201d Stern told CMD. \u201cIt seems to make very little difference in behavior. It\u2019s a good administrative success, but whether or not it makes a difference on the streets remains to be seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

No one from DHS has responded to CMD\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article is published in partnership with the Center for Media and Democracy. On Wednesday, a federal district…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":223354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[121170,1582,276,121169,121167,5412,69,5410,409,2961,1224,224,5337,121168,398,60439,7237],"class_list":{"0":"post-223353","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-arn-pearson","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-center-for-media-and-democracy","12":"tag-civil-rights-in-america","13":"tag-dhs","14":"tag-donald-trump","15":"tag-ice","16":"tag-immigration","17":"tag-la","18":"tag-law-justice","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-losangeles","21":"tag-matthew-cunningham-cook","22":"tag-media","23":"tag-policing","24":"tag-protests"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115196599269137282","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}