- - Press groups accuse LAPD of violating judge's ban on targeting journalists covering protests

BrieAnna J. Frank, USA TODAYAugust 16, 2025 at 5:57 AM

Press groups are accusing Los Angeles and its police department of violating a court order by striking journalists with batons and arresting them as they reported on an Aug. 8 protest.

The Aug. 13 complaint, filed by the First Amendment Coalition and attorneys representing the Los Angeles Press Club and the independent media outlet Status Coup, said the department’s actions on Aug. 8 showed a “blatant disregard for the First Amendment” and a restraining order the court issued in July.

USA TODAY reached out to the city and the police department for comment and had not yet received a response by publication.

The groups are suing the city and the LAPD over the treatment of journalists covering protests surrounding federal immigration enforcement.

The restraining order, which was initially set for two weeks but later extended, said the department couldn’t use less-lethal munitions against journalists who aren’t posing a threat, bar a journalist from entering or remaining in closed areas, assault or obstruct journalists, or arrest journalists in a closed area for violating curfew orders, obstructing law enforcement officers or not dispersing while “gathering, receiving or processing information.”

The contempt motion alleges LAPD officers violated that order during what they described as a “peaceful” immigration protest on Aug. 8.

The officers formed a line and started moving toward the protesters around 9 p.m., the complaint said.

“Then, with no warning and no dispersal order, the officers started shouting ‘move back’ as they quickly advanced, shoving the assembled group and striking them with batons,” it said.

There was subsequently no place for journalists to work “without being assaulted by the LAPD,” the groups argued in their new court filing. Those who insisted they had a right to be there were “ignored” or “told ... to wait,” the complaint said.

Sean Beckner-Carmitchel, a freelance journalist who was also injured while covering an immigration protest in June, asked to talk to a department supervisor or spokesperson and was told to move back. Upon repeating his request, “an LAPD officer shoved him and hit him in the ribs with a baton, causing bruising and pain,” according to the complaint.

Beckner-Carmitchel continued to ask, in line with directions in the court's order, to speak to a supervisor.

“The response was blank stares except for one officer who responded: ‘That’s not important right now,’” the complaint said.

After a dispersal order was issued, the department arrested the approximately 20 remaining protesters and journalists. Officers put the group in zip-ties and “held them against the wall for more than an hour,” the complaint said.

Photojournalist Nicholas Stern was also “struck in the face” and independent journalist Tina Berg was hit with a baton in an incident that “ripped open the distal phalanx" of her little finger, according to the complaint.

Most journalists were released at the scene, but two – Nate Gowdy and Carrie Shreck – were taken to a jail near downtown Los Angeles, the complaint said.

Among other requests, the complaint asks the judge to find the defendants to be in contempt of court and modify its previous orders to “expressly encompass use of batons and any other type of force.”

A group of press and civil liberties groups also sued the Department of Homeland Security and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in June over what they described as federal officers’ unconstitutional actions against journalists in Los Angeles.

A preliminary injunction hearing is scheduled for Aug. 25.

BrieAnna Frank is a First Amendment reporter at USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected].

USA TODAY's coverage of First Amendment issues is funded through a collaboration between the Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Press groups accuse LAPD of violating order, targeting journalists

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