• by Ray Schultz , 11 hours ago

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has violated a court order prohibiting it from interfering with journalists covering immigration protests, according to a complaint filed by The Los Angeles Press Club and Status Coup.

The plaintiffs demand that the city be held in contempt.

The complaint filed last week charges that the police violated a temporary restraining order that barred them from “’intentionally assaulting, interfering with, or obstructing any journalist’ who is reporting at a protest; and from “citing, detaining, or arresting a journalist who is in a closed area for failure to disperse.”

However, “less than one month later, the LAPD attacked a peaceful protest and reporters present and violated each one of these terms,” the complaint continues. 

This event took place on August 8 when “LAPD officers formed a skirmish line and began forcing peaceful protestors away from the immigration detention facility in downtown Los Angeles without declaring an unlawful assembly, giving a dispersal order, or making any provision for journalists,” the complaint states. 

It continues: “The line of LAPD officers advanced on journalists openly displaying press identification and shoved them to the ground and hit them with batons — even as journalists yelled that they were press or held their press identification up for officers to see.”

The initial suit was filed last month.  

“Plaintiffs have amply demonstrated that they are likely to succeed on their First Amendment claims,” wrote U.S. District Judge Hernán D. Vera on July 14. “The Supreme Court has recognized that newsgathering is an activity protected by the First Amendment.”

The case is on file with the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.