
Some Journalists Are Injured While Covering L.A. Protests
Several journalists have been injured while covering the protests in Los Angeles, including a television reporter who was struck when a law enforcement officer fired a nonlethal projectile while she was on the air.
The reporter, Lauren Tomasi of 9News Australia, a CNN affiliate, was conducting a live broadcast from the scene of a protest on Sunday afternoon when she was hit.
Video of the broadcast shows Ms. Tomasi standing off to the side of an intersection in downtown Los Angeles. Armed police officers, some on horseback, are seen behind her, squaring off against protesters as booms are heard in the background.
'The situation has now rapidly deteriorated, the L.A.P.D. moving in on horseback, firing rubber bullets,' Ms. Tomasi says in the report, referring to officers from the Los Angeles Police Department.
Then, the video shows a law enforcement officer pointing a weapon toward Ms. Tomasi and firing it. She shrieks and limps away. According to the broadcaster, Ms. Tomasi was hit with a projectile and left sore but not seriously hurt.
According to CNN, Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade issued a statement in support of Ms. Tomasi, saying 'all journalists should be able to do their work safely.'
It was not immediately clear whether the officer had been aiming at Ms. Tomasi, or what law enforcement agency the officer belonged to. The L.A.P.D., the California Highway Patrol and the Department of Homeland Security are among the agencies whose officers were responding to the protests. The L.A.P.D. said it did not have 'any comment or statement on any specific incident pertaining to the protests.'
Rubber bullets and projectiles are billed as nonlethal alternatives to live rounds, but they can cause serious injuries, prompting growing calls to ban their use. They are regularly used by police departments for crowd control during protests or crowd unrest, and were used during the nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd, in 2020.
In another episode, Nick Stern, a British photojournalist based in Southern California, told The Guardian that he had been seriously injured by what appeared to be a nonlethal projectile fired at him while covering a protest on Saturday in Paramount, a city in Los Angeles County. He was left with a wound in his leg and taken in for surgery, according to news media reports.
A New York Times reporter was struck with a rubber bullet by officers late Sunday in downtown Los Angeles. The reporter was treated at a hospital but not seriously injured.

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CNN
14 minutes ago
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Analysis: Trump's top general just undercut his ‘invasion' claims
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18 minutes ago
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Trump White House opens door to historic military deployment on U.S. soil
President Donald Trump is prepared to send National Guard troops into more U.S. cities if protests against immigration raids expand beyond Los Angeles, administration officials said Wednesday, potentially opening the door to the most extensive use of military force on American soil in modern history. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in testimony to Congress that the Pentagon has the capability to surge National Guard troops to more cities 'if there are other riots in places where law enforcement officers are threatened.' Press secretary Karoline Leavitt warned protesters beyond Los Angeles that more 'lawlessness' will only increase Trump's resolve. 'Let this be an unequivocal message to left-wing radicals in other parts of the country who are thinking about copycatting the violence in an effort to stop this administration's mass deportation efforts,' Leavitt said. 'You will not succeed.' 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'Time and again, our enemies have learned that if you dare to threaten the American people, an American soldier will chase you down, crush you and cast you into oblivion,' Trump said. In threatening the use of force against protesters, Trump notably did not distinguish between those committing acts of violence and those peacefully protesting against his policies. Leavitt, at the White House briefing Wednesday, answered a question on the subject by saying that 'of course' the president supports the right to peacefully protest and declared the inquiry a 'stupid question.' The administration's escalating rhetoric has invited comparison to the language used by autocrats in foreign countries, where leaders more frequently deploy their military forces within their own borders. White House officials maintain that the president is showing strength and dominance — and standing up for 'law and order' as Democrats go soft on violent agitators. 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'It is not routine, using our military force to enforce criminal laws in our country,' he said. Earlier in the week, Trump warned that any protests against immigration raids in other cities will be 'met with equal or greater force' than used in Los Angeles. He said those troops would remain in the city 'until there's no danger,' providing only a subjective timeline for the length of their deployment. Trump and California leaders have sparred over whether the troops were ever a necessary response to the protests, which have been confined to several blocks and have included sporadic episodes of violence. He said he 'would certainly' invoke the Insurrection Act, which can be used by presidents to expand the role of the military in responding to domestic incidents, if he viewed it as necessary. The fact that he is even considering it is an ominous sign, several scholars said. 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This moment we have feared has arrived.' Also Tuesday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced he was deploying his state's National Guard ahead of planned protests. An Abbott adviser said the decision did not result from Trump's rhetoric. The governor has previously deployed Guardsmen ahead of protests, such as during George Floyd demonstrations in 2020. 'This is not a frivolous thing. This is not a political thing,' said Dave Carney, a longtime political adviser to Abbott. 'If this was happening four years ago or eight years ago, he would have done the exact same thing. This is instinctively protecting people.' Carney said he suspects Republican governors will call up the National Guard only if they have 'good intelligence of what's being planned.' In other Republican-run states with recent clashes with ICE — either through protests or Democratic-leaning cities pushing back on enforcement — governors have resisted announcing any proactive deployments, despite GOP officials vowing to punish violent agitators. In Atlanta, where authorities used tear gas and made arrests Tuesday as anti-ICE protesters threw fireworks at police, state officials believe local and state law enforcement have been able to manage the demonstrations, according to a person with knowledge of the situation there who was granted anonymity to speak freely about plans. Likewise in Nashville, where Department of Homeland Security officials have clashed with the mayor of the heavily Democratic city, large protests have not materialized, and the Republican governor has not announced any deployment of military personnel. Meryl Kornfield contributed to this report.