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Washington Post
16-06-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Press club sues Los Angeles, police chief over alleged attacks on journalists
The Los Angeles Press Club sued the city of Los Angeles and its police chief, Jim McDonnell, over alleged police violence toward journalists covering the ongoing protests of immigration raids in L.A. The press club, which advocates for journalists in Southern California, filed its lawsuit Monday in federal district court in Los Angeles, saying that the defendants violated journalists' First Amendment rights by using 'excessive force' against them. 'Being a journalist in Los Angeles is now a dangerous profession,' the group wrote in its complaint. 'LAPD actions during the June 2025 protests in downtown Los Angeles reveal a brazen refusal to abide by the Constitution and state law and repeats the same conduct by the Defendant City repeatedly held to be unconstitutional by the federal courts for the past 25 years.' Law enforcement at the protests have routinely shot less-lethal ammunition at protesters, in some cases hitting and injuring members of the press. Sergio Olmos, a reporter for CalMatters, told The Washington Post last week that out of hundreds of days of protests that he's covered in his career, he's never seen the police use so many less-lethal rounds. Adam Rose, press rights chair of the L.A. Press Club, compiled a spreadsheet of more than 50 alleged incidents of potential police violations of journalists' rights covering this month's protests starting on June 6. This includes the case of Australian television correspondent Lauren Tomasi, named in the complaint, who was hit with a less-lethal round while broadcasting live on air. Olmos' case and The Post's reporting were also cited in the lawsuit. 'The Los Angeles Police Department has a long history of violating the rights of the press and public at protests. And we shouldn't have needed this lawsuit,' said David Loy of the First Amendment Coalition, one of the attorneys for the press club. 'But unfortunately, we see it as unfortunately necessary to go back to courts to protect the rights of the press to cover protests without fear of attack or assault.' The LAPD said it 'does not comment on pending litigation.' McDonnell has defended the department's response to what it has called 'hostile and riotous' protesters. The Los Angeles mayor's office did not respond to a request for comment. In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs allege that the city and the LAPD violated journalists' rights under the First and 14th amendments to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantee the right to a free press and due process, respectively, as well as multiple California state statutes. L.A. Press Club is joined by another plaintiff, Status Coup, an investigative outlet whose reporters say they were hit with less-lethal munitions while covering the protests. Carol Sobel, a former ACLU lawyer acting as lead counsel for the plaintiffs, said that the LAPD hasn't followed the California legislature nor precedent from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which she says has clearly ruled that journalists have a right to access in protests. 'They just don't give a damn,' she said. 'And they act with impunity. So we're hoping that the federal courts will hold them accountable.' LAPD is only one of many law enforcement agencies on the ground in Los Angeles, alongside the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and the California Highway Patrol, as well as federal forces from the California National Guard and the Department of Homeland Security. Sobel said she plans to sue other law enforcement agencies, too, starting with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
Washington Post
09-06-2025
- Washington Post
Journalists come under fire covering L.A. protests
Sergio Olmos has covered hundreds of days of protests in his career as a journalist. He estimates he's been hit dozens of times by what are known as less-lethal rounds — a broad category that includes rubber bullets, plastic bullets and pepper balls. Still, he says he's never seen police so trigger-happy with these munitions.
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Yahoo
Facts versus statement: New findings on January Border Patrol Operation in Kern County show agents didn't go after said ‘targets'
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — It's been months since that Border Patrol operation here in Bakersfield, which led to 78 arrests. Despite the agency repeatedly stating it was an operation targeting criminals, a new investigation shows it wasn't as 'targeted' as advertised. Reporters are saying this operation was unique because agents targeted locations popular to farm workers, not individuals based on criminal records. 'Scared, because a lot of my family works in the fields,' Sandra Sandoval Sanchez of Edison Citrus Ranch, told us back in January. Following one of the first raids, Candy Garcia, employee of Chevron that was raided, recalled, 'If they looked Hispanic or like they worked in the fields or a little dirty, they would ask for their paperwork.' On January 7, 65 agents from the El Centro Sector of U.S. Customs and Border Protection — or CBP — began Operation Return to Sender in Kern County. CBP said it arrested 78 undocumented people with criminal records from Central, South America and China…including sex offenders, drug traffickers and those with DUI convictions. A months-long investigation by CalMatters, Evident and Bellingcat shows it's not that straightforward. 'This is not what that operation was. This was people getting up early to go to work, to do the kind of jobs that personally, I don't want to,'said CalMatters Investigative Reporter, Sergio Olmos. 'We got data from Customs and Border Protection that shows 77 out of the 78 people arrested, Border Patrol had no knowledge of criminal immigration history.' Simply put, prior to contact, agents did not know anything about these individuals. The data shows, only one arrestee had a prior removal order. 17 News spoke with Sergio Olmos of CalMatters, who in February interviewed El Centro's Chief Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino. 'We had a pre-determined list of targets, many of which, as you said, were prior deports, already had immigration history, criminal history,' Bovino told Olmos during the interview. Olmos noted, 'If they had that list, and we've not seen the list like that, if they had it, they didn't go after them.' Olmos said an analysis of videos posted on social media shows CBP targeted specific areas. 'Even if you look at just the map, they didn't go to certain areas to try to target fentanyl dealers. They were going to places where people gas up and get breakfast to go to the fields or they're coming back from the fields,' he detailed. Including, most notably, the Chevron on Seventh Standard Road and Merle Haggard Drive. 'None of the other stores got hit except this one, because this is the bigger one. This is the one where almost everybody comes,' said Garcia, one of the employees. Since the start of the three-day operation, Bovino's narrative has not changed. 'Every single one of the 78 we arrested were criminals. When you cross the border illegally, USC 1325, illegal entry into the United States, they're all criminals. Let's get that one out of the way here,' the chief said. 'The way he's thinking about it is there is no difference between the field worker and the fentanyl dealer, and I asked three times, is there no priority for your agency to go after the fentanyl dealer or the laborer,' Olmos stated. We also asked more specifically about Chief Bovino — the man in the hot seat. Olmos described Bovino as an agent who praises Operation Wetback, the President Eisenhower-led largest deportation in American history. Recently, Olmos said, Bovino has been releasing fictionalized portrayals of migrants committing crime once they cross the border. 'He has five agents, five federal agents, where all they do is make videos. That's all they do. That's according to Border Patrol,' Olmos said. '[During the interview] they pushed back on this and said they're not really fictional.' Olmos also touched on the influence of Bovino. 'There's leaders, and leaders set the tone for the whole organization,' Olmos said. He continued, 'That tone is being set by Chief Agent Bovino. That is the mission that Border Patrol is, by Gregory Bovino.' Citing a specific anecdote from his time visiting the southern Border, Olmos recalled, one of the agents referred to those crossing the border as 'migrants.' However, once Olmos mentioned Bovino calls them 'illegals,' the agent then immediately started calling them 'illegals' as well. Olmos also said Bovino is an agent who praises Operation Wetback, the President Eisenhower-led largest deportation in American history. 'He is a student of that kind of history, he is a fan of that kind of operation,' Olmos added. The ACLU has sued the agency for unlawful practices during the operation, like racial profiling. As part of that lawsuit, the group has asked for a restraining order to stop CBP from conducting similar raids within California while the lawsuit is being heard. Oliver Ma, an attorney on the case, said that request is still pending. Since January, CBP has declined numerous interview requests, including today. The agency said it cannot comment due to the ongoing litigation. To which Olmos responded, 'You must still talk about the public operations you're doing. They're still a public agency.' to watch the full CalMatters investigation. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
