Tag Archives: Nick Stern

Reason: Police Target Dozens of Reporters During L.A. Anti-ICE Protests

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Dozens of journalists have been assaulted and injured by federal and local law enforcement in Los Angeles during protests earlier this week against Donald Trump’s mass deportation program.

Press freedom groups are demanding that law enforcement stop targeting reporters covering the L.A. protests after on-air news broadcasts and cellphone video showed federal, state, and local police firing indiscriminately on crowds with pepper balls, rubber bullets, and other so-called less-than-lethal ammunition, while in other cases officers are seen firing on clearly identified members of the press.

A coalition of 28 groups including the Los Angeles Press Club, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and the American Civil Liberties Union, sent a letter to Department Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Monday “to express alarm” over the incidents and urge Noem to ensure that federal law enforcement officers uphold the First Amendment.

According to the groups, there were at least 24 documented instances of journalists being targeted by law enforcement while covering Los Angeles protests between June 6 and June 8.

“A number of reports suggest that federal officers have indiscriminately used force or deployed munitions such as tear gas or pepper balls that caused significant injuries to journalists,” the letter said. “In some cases, federal officers appear to have deliberately targeted journalists who were doing nothing more than their job covering the news.”

Police target dozens of reporters during L.A. anti-ICE protests
Dozens of journalists have been assaulted and injured by federal and local law enforcement in Los Angeles during protests earlier this week against Donald

https://reason.com/2025/06/12/police-target-dozens-of-reporters-during-l-a-anti-ice-protests

Mirror: Thousands gather in SF for ‘epic battle’ against ICE amid Calif. raids

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In true Bay Area fashion, Monday night’s protest had its own rhythm.

An estimated 9,000 protesters gathered for a rally and march that started at San Francisco’s 24th & Mission BART Plaza around 6 p.m. to protest the recent raids carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement across California. Tracks like YG’s “FDT” and Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright” rang out on Mission Street, along with chants like “Move ICE, get out the way!” echoing through the crowd in a nod to Ludacris. Protesters rolled through on scooters and skates, some draped in keffiyehs, others wearing face masks and clothing scrawled with anti-fascist messages. Many were waving upside down American flags and cardboard posters bearing anti-ICE slogans, lambasting the agency’s actions as unlawful and illegal.

Galvanized by mounting unrest across California and large-scale demonstrations in Los Angeles — where, after three days of protest, President Donald Trump authorized the deployment of 700 Marines and over 4,000 National Guard troops, bypassing Gov. Gavin Newsom’s authority — Bay Area residents took to the streets in a show of solidarity, advocating for immigrants of all nationalities, ethnicities and creeds.

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“And by epic battle, I mean a battle that is going to have consequences for many years, for a long time to come,” Baker said. “And you know that the Trump regime has a strategy to wear us down, to shock and awe, coming at us from so many different directions. That’s their idea, that we will give up and go home.“

“The people rising up is the only thing that’s going to stop them now,” he concluded.

Thousands gather in SF for ‘epic battle’ against ICE amid Calif. raids

https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/thousands-march-sf-protest-california-ice-raids-20369532.php

Alternet: ‘Can’t you just shoot them?’ Inside Trump’s threat to deal with ‘radical left thugs’ in America

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“You just [expletive] shot the reporter!”

Australian journalist Lauren Tomasi was in the middle of a live cross, covering the protests against the Trump administration’s mass deportation policy in Los Angeles, California. As Tomasi spoke to the camera, microphone in hand, an LAPD officer in the background appeared to target her directly, hitting her in the leg with a rubber bullet.

Earlier, reports emerged that British photojournalist Nick Stern was undergoing emergency surgery after also being hit by the same “non-lethal” ammunition.

The situation in Los Angeles is extremely volatile. After nonviolent protests against raids and arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents began in the suburb of Paramount, US President Donald Trump issued a memo describing them as “a form of rebellion against the authority of the government of the United States”. He then deployed the National Guard.

‘Can’t you just shoot them?’

As much of the coverage has noted, this is not the first time the National Guard has been deployed to quell protests in the US.

In 1970, members of the National Guard shot and killed four students protesting the war in Vietnam at Kent State University. In 1992, the National Guard was deployed during protests in Los Angeles following the acquittal of four police officers (three of whom were white) in the killing of a Black man, Rodney King.

Trump has long speculated about violently deploying the National Guard and even the military against his own people.

During his first administration, at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests, former Secretary of Defence Mark Esper alleged that Trump asked him, “Can’t you just shoot them, just shoot them in the legs or something?”

Trump has also long sought to other those opposed to his radical agenda to reshape the United States and its role in the world. He’s classified them as “un-American” and, therefore, deserving of contempt and, when he deems it necessary, violent oppression.

During last year’s election campaign, he promised to “root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country”. Even the Washington Post characterised this description of Trump’s “political enemies” as “echoing Hitler, Mussolini”.

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The Trump administration’s mass deportation program is deliberately cruel and provocative. It was always only a matter of time before protests broke out.

In a democracy, nonviolent protest by hundreds or perhaps a few thousand people in a city of ten million is not a crisis. But it has always suited Trump and the movement that supports him to manufacture crises.

‘Can’t you just shoot them?’ Inside Trump’s threat to deal with ‘radical left thugs’ in America

https://www.alternet.org/national-guard-la-trump

Mediaite: Reporter Hit by Rubber Bullet While Reporting on LA Riots: ‘You Just F*cking Shot the Reporter!’

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Australian journalist Lauren Tomasi was shot at close range with a rubber bullet by police while reporting live on the immigration protests outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles in a brutal scene that played out on live TV.

In the viral clip, Tomasi, the U.S. correspondent for Australia’s Nine News, was struck as she explained the police response to protests sweeping the city in opposition to immigration raids conducted by federal agents.

“After hours of standing off, this situation has now rapidly deteriorated,” Tomasi said. “The LAPD moving in on horseback, firing rubber bullets at protesters, moving them on through the heart of LA.”

But just then, a police officer behind her can be seen taking aim and firing at her.

Footage shows the reporter crying out and clutching her leg, as a bystander shouted, “You just fucking shot the reporter!”

Nine News later confirmed she was hit but had not sustained serious injury.

“Lauren and her camera operator are safe and will continue their essential work covering these events,” the network said in a statement, describing the attack as “a stark reminder of the inherent dangers journalists can face while reporting from the frontlines of protests.”

Reporter Hit by Rubber Bullet While Reporting on LA Riots: ‘You Just F*cking Shot the Reporter!’
Tomasi was shot at close range with a non-lethal round by police while reporting live on the immigration protests in LA.
Reporter Hit by Rubber Bullet While Reporting on LA Riots: ‘You Just F*cking Shot the Reporter!’