Days into L.A. immigration raid protests, it seems journalists are bearing the brunt of accidents

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday continued to defend his decision to call upon National Guard troops and marines to quell demonstrations in Los Angeles, following up on earlier claims the city would have been “obliterated” if he hadn’t done so.

It’s an unprovable claim, and one that has received pushback from local officials including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass. Newsom and Bass among others have stressed that the protests that began on Friday have mostly been in a small section downtown. (A curfew enacted Tuesday covered a 2.5-square-kilometre section of a city that encompasses roughly 1,295 square kilometres.)

There has undoubtedly been a wave of violence since word spread late last week that federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were conducting raids to find undocumented city residents, with people setting vehicles afire, vandalizing buildings and looting businesses. 

But as the protests near the one-week mark, there have fortunately been no fatalities or known life-threatening injuries as a result of the violence or clashes with police.

Dozens of reporters struck: advocacy group

On a nightly basis, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell has documented injuries to deployed officers, who have been confronted by a number of projectiles including, at least on one occasion, a Molotov cocktail. In some cases, officers have needed to get treatment in hospital for hours, while others have been treated on the scene.

Journalists, with less protective gear than police, appear to have been the profession to sustain the most injuries thus far.

At least two of the more serious incidents involving journalists have occurred away from the downtown scene.

U.S.-based British photojournalist Nick Stern was standing near some people waving a Mexican flags 32 kilometres from the city centre, at a protest site in Paramount, Calif., when he was shot on Saturday. He felt “excruciating pain,” he told CBC News on Tuesday night from Long Beach Memorial Medical Centre, where he was recuperating from emergency surgery to remove a rubber bullet from his thigh.

Stern was unable to make a judgment on whether he was intentionally struck, but the advocacy group Reporters Without Borders/Reporters Sans Frontières has condemned “an indiscriminate wave of violence” against journalists who it says are exercising their First Amendment right for the press to cover the raids, and the response.

The group said there have been at least 31 attacks on journalists — 27 from law enforcement — since the demonstrations started.

New York Post photographer Toby Canham was overlooking the 101 Freeway when he was hit by a rubber bullet. He spent Monday in the hospital with whiplash and neck pain and left with a red mark on his forehead.  

“I completely understand being in the position where you could get injured,” Canham said. “But at the same time, there was no justification for even aiming the rifle at me and pulling the trigger, so I’m a bit pissed off about that, to be honest.”

Widely circulated video on Sunday showed Australian journalist Lauren Tomasi shot in the leg by a rubber bullet while reporting from downtown. She later told her employer 9News that she was safe and unharmed.

Ben Camacho, a reporter at the local news website The Southlander, reported being shot twice.

“Unsure of what hit me both times, but they hit like a sledgehammer and without immediate warning,” he wrote online. “Elbow is wrapped with gauze and knee is weak.”

Not all of the incidents involved law enforcement. Associated Press photographer Jae Hong was kicked and hit with sticks by protesters on Monday, his protective gear enabling him to escape injury. 

Calmer scene on 1st night with curfew

Requests for the National Guard usually come from state governors, but Newsom did not do so.

There are now more than 4,000 National Guard members and 700 marines deployed to the city, though by law they are not supposed to take part in civilian law enforcement, and instead support those who are.

The commander in charge said Wednesday that National Guard troops already have temporarily detained civilians in the protests, but then turned them over to law enforcement.

Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman, speaking in an interview with The Associated Press and one other media outlet, said even though things have calmed down in Los Angeles, he expects the situation will escalate.

Sherman is commander of Task Force 51, which is overseeing the guard troops and marines. 

He said those temporary detentions were in the past few days, and there haven’t been many recently.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has said the deployment is to last 60 days, and a Pentagon official said in Capitol Hill testimony on Tuesday the cost estimated cost sits at $134 million US.

History of protests in L.A.

Los Angeles has been the site of some of the most significant violent protests in the U.S. since the Second World War. An arrest of a Black motorist in Watts in 1965 by white police officers spiralled out of control, and in riots that ensued, some 34 people were killed, more than 1,000 injured and damage estimated at $40 million US.

In 1992, then-president George H.W. Bush employed the Insurrection Act to ensure a military response to the uprising that occurred in Los Angeles and surrounding areas after four white police officers were acquitted of beating Black motorist Rodney King. It’s been reported that 64 people died, with more than 2,300 people injured and $1 billion US in estimated damage.

So far, the current situation in L.A. is more comparable to the protests that emerged after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer in late May 2020. That deadly interaction was caught on video and sparked a national response over the following months.

While scenes of violence played out in Minneapolis, Portland and Seattle, and killings in Wisconsin and Texas, the Los Angeles-area protests in 2020 were muted by comparison, according to multiple reports.

Ongoing situation

McDonnell, according to the Los Angeles Times, told city council on Tuesday that 114 people were arrested the previous night, a total greater than in each of the previous three nights.

Bass said she felt she had to respond to a “tipping point” for vandalism on Monday night, saying 23 businesses had been looted. She has said the 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew will last for several days.

The initial reports from the first night with a curfew, Tuesday, seem to point to a calmer scene. Members of the National Guard stood watch behind plastic shields, but did not appear to participate in any arrests, AP reported.

Many of the arrests on Tuesday occurred at the freeway protest scene, not downtown, while others were cited for violating curfew. There were no reports of serious injuries.

There are no guarantees of what will happen next, but city officials undoubtedly hope it will mark a turning point in the intensity of the protests.