Judge Eyes Block on ‘Unacceptable’ Police Force Against LA Press

Los Angeles police officers are using disproportionate force against journalists covering anti-ICE protests, a federal judge said Monday, citing a “mountain of evidence.”

However, the dozens of documented incidents may not be enough to qualify as a sustained practice, Judge Hernan D. Vera said during a hearing in the US District Court for the Central District of California, and questioned whether it could be blocked by a preliminary injunction.

Vera signaled he’d decline a separate request to find LAPD in contempt of a temporary restraining order he issued in July, despite declarations that said officers beat reporters who showed press badges with batons, surrounded and arrested them on Aug. 8 as they covered a protest at an immigration detention facility.

It seems the LAPD “did the absolute minimum” to abide by his order by posting its requirements online, Vera said.

To be clear, he said, strikes with batons are “absolutely unacceptable.”

Proposed Order

The LA Press Club is requesting an order that would specify police can’t beat press with batons in addition to requiring that the LAPD send media relations representatives to protests to help identify who is press.

LAPD should allow reporters to move behind police lines or out of the way, and the officers must take extra precautions to ensure journalists aren’t struck by crowd control devices, the Press Club argues.

Otherwise, the department is chilling reporters’ exercise of their First Amendment rights, said ACLU attorney Adrienna Wong. She said some reporters are questioning whether documenting protests is “worth the risk of getting shot in the head.”

At least one photographer was struck in the eye by officers’ less-lethal munitions, the reporters’ counsel said, adding it’s unclear how much vision he will regain.

Lawyers for the department deny claims that police are targeting reporters. They say reporters are positioned within crowds of disruptive protesters and incidentally happen to be hit.

“Everyone was mixed together,” said Gabriel Dermer, for the city.

Vera asked whether a potential preliminary injunction should distinguish between reporters who are interviewing people on the sidelines of a protest, versus those who are at the front of the skirmish line and moving forward.

He said he was troubled by reports that some journalists toward the front lines of protests weren’t moving back after police orders.

“Don’t you think that incites others?” he said.

Vera’s July temporary restraining order prohibited the LA Police Department from blocking journalists’ entry to closed areas at protests or intentionally interfering with their work. Reporters had sued over officers striking them with rubber bullets, charging them with horses, and detaining them as they reported on protests.

Vera is considering a preliminary injunction request both in the LAPD case, and a case filed by the same LA Press Club against the Department of Homeland Security for alleged retaliatory violence against reporters. He heard arguments for both cases jointly.

Judge Stephen V. Wilson denied a request for a TRO in the DHS case in June. The case was later transferred to Vera.

The cases are Los Angeles Press Club v. Noem, C.D. Cal., No. 2:25-cv-05563, 8/25/25 and Los Angeles Press Club v. City of Los Angeles, C.D. Cal., No. 2:25-cv-05423-HDV-E, 8/25/25.