In a rare public rebuke, the Los Angeles City Council pressed the city\u2019s top lawyer to abandon her attempt to halt a federal judge\u2019s order prohibiting LAPD officers from targeting journalists with crowd control weapons. <\/p>\n
One day before \u201cNo Kings\u201d demonstrations against the Trump administration were set to launch in L.A. and elsewhere, the council voted 12-0 to direct City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto to withdraw her request to lift the order. <\/p>\n
Hours later, Feldstein Soto\u2019s legal team did just that, informing the judge it was pulling back its request \u2014 around the same time the judge rejected it.<\/p>\n
Since June, the city has been hit with dozens of legal claims from protesters and journalists who reported that LAPD officers used excessive force against them during protests over Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit that prompted the judge\u2019s ban<\/a> was brought by the Los Angeles Press Club and the news outlet Status Coup, who pointed to video evidence and testimonials suggesting that LAPD officers violated their own guidelines, as well as state law, by shooting journalists and others in sensitive parts of the body, such as the head, with weapons that launch projectiles the size of a mini soda can at speeds of more than 200 miles per hour.<\/p>\n \u201cJournalism is under attack in this country \u2014 from the Trump Administration\u2019s revocation of press access to the Pentagon to corporate consolidation of local newsrooms,\u201d Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who introduced the motion opposing Feldstein Soto\u2019s legal filing, said in a statement. \u201cThe answer cannot be for Los Angeles to join that assault by undermining court-ordered protections for journalists.\u201d<\/p>\n In a motion filed Wednesday, Feldstein Soto\u2019s legal team sought a temporary stay of the order issued by U.S. District Judge Hern\u00e1n D. Vera. She reiterated her earlier argument that Vera\u2019s ban was overly broad, extending protections to \u201cany journalist covering a protest in [the City of] Los Angeles.\u201d<\/p>\n The city\u2019s lawyers also argued that the ban, which bars the LAPD from using so-called less lethal munitions against journalists and nonviolent protesters, creates \u201cambiguous mandates\u201d that jeopardize \u201cgood-faith conduct\u201d by officers and pose \u201cimmediate and concrete risk to officer and public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to Feldstein Soto\u2019s request for a temporary stay, the city has filed an appeal of Vera\u2019s injunction. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is taking up the appeal, with a hearing tentatively set for mid-November.<\/p>\n Council members have become increasingly vocal about their frustrations with the city attorney\u2019s office. Two months ago, they voiced alarm<\/a> that an outside law firm billed the city $1.8 million in just two weeks \u2014 double the amount authorized by the council. They have also grown exasperated over the rising cost of legal payouts<\/a>, which have consumed a steadily larger portion of the city budget.<\/p>\n