• by Ray Schultz , Yesterday

Journalists are being injured by so-called “less lethal” rounds — rubber and plastic bullets — while covering the protests in Los Angeles. 

Nick Stern, a British news photographer, was hit by a non-lethal plastic bullet while covering the protests, BBC reports. His thigh was injured, and he required emergency surgery. 

Lauren Tomasi, a correspondent for Australia’s 9News, was injured when an officer fired a rubber bullet at her at close range, an episode captured on video. She cried out in pain and clutched her lower leg, but then told her crew, “I’m good, I’m good,” CBS News writes. 

Sergio Olmos put his camera down after a Los Angeles police officer shot him in the chest with what Olmos says was a 40mm sponge grenade, The Washington Post reports.  

Olmos told the Post, “It was the most amount of less-lethals I’ve seen used in a single day protest.”

The Trump administration has deployed 4,000 National Guard troops in two waves and mobilized 700 U.S. Marines to support them — moves condemned by California Governor Gavin Newsom (D), who has also filed a lawsuit against the administration.  

Newsom wrote on X that Trump “is trying to provoke chaos." However, the administration points to the burning cars and other destruction that has occurred during the protests. 

The demonstrators are protesting raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel and the arrests of immigrants.